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Blue-plate Special
A blue-plate special is a discount-priced meal that usually changes daily: a term used in the United States and Canada by restaurants, especially diners and cafes. The term was very common from the 1920s through the 1950s. , there are still a few restaurants and diners that offer blue-plate specials under that name, sometimes on blue plates, but it is a vanishing tradition. However, the phrase is still a common American colloquialism. A Web collection of 1930s prose gives this definition: "A Blue Plate Special is a low-priced daily diner special — a main course with all the fixins, a daily combo, a square for two bits." History The origin and explanation of the phrase are unclear. Michael Quinion cites a dictionary entry indicating that the blue plates were, more specifically, inexpensive divided plates that were decorated with a "blue willow" or similar blue pattern, such as those popularized by Spode and Wedgwood. One of his correspondents says that the first known ...
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Blue Plate Special Sign
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Most blues contain a slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering. An optical effect called Tyndall effect explains blue eyes. Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective. Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance, to make the pigment ultramarine, the most expensive of all pigments. In the eigh ...
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Diner Blue Plate
A diner is a small, inexpensive restaurant found across the United States, as well as in Canada and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, a casual atmosphere, and, characteristically, a combination of booths served by a waitstaff and a long sit-down counter with direct service, in the smallest simply by a cook. Many diners have extended hours, and some along highways and areas with significant shift work stay open for 24 hours. Considered quintessentially American, many diners share an archetypal exterior form. Some of the earliest were converted rail cars, retaining their streamlined structure and interior fittings. From the 1920s to the 1940s, diners, by then commonly known as "lunch cars", were usually prefabricated in factories, like modern mobile homes, and delivered on site with only the utilities needing to be connected. As a result, many early diners were typically small and narrow to fit onto a rail car or truck. Th ...
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Abigail Padgett
Mary Abigail Padgett (born May 13, 1942, in Vincennes, Indiana) is an American author of mystery novels who features in ''Great Women Mystery Writers'' (2007)page 196-198, ''Great Women Mystery Writers'', 2nd Ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, publ. Greenwood Press, Biography Padgett graduated in 1964 from Indiana University, Bloomington with a degree in education then earned a master's in counselling from the University of Missouri in 1969; between the two she taught high school English in St. Louis. She then had several different jobs before becoming a court investigator for Child Protective Services in San Diego, a post she left in 1988 to concentrate on writing and advocacy for children and the mentally ill. Writing Padgett's first series concerns Barbara "Bo" Bradley, a child protection advocate investigator in San Diego who suffers from bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of de ...
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Blondie (comic Strip)
''Blondie'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running '' Blondie'' film series (1938–1950) and the popular '' Blondie'' radio program (1939–1950). Chic Young wrote and drew ''Blondie'' until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young. A number of artists have assisted on drawing the strip over the years, including Alex Raymond, Jim Raymond, Paul Fung Jr., Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, Jeff Parker, and (since 2005) John Marshall. Despite these changes, ''Blondie'' has remained popular, appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers in 47 countries and translated into 35 languages. From 2006 to 2013, ''Blondie'' had also been available via email through King Features' DailyINK servic ...
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The Devil All The Time (film)
''The Devil All the Time'' is a 2020 American psychological thriller crime drama film directed by Antonio Campos, from a screenplay co-written with his brother Paulo Campos, based on the novel of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock. The film follows several characters whose stories weave together in two Southern Ohio towns during the period from the end of World War II to the 1960s. It features an ensemble cast that includes Tom Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Riley Keough, Jason Clarke, Sebastian Stan, Haley Bennett, Eliza Scanlen, Mia Wasikowska, and Robert Pattinson. ''The Devil All the Time'' was released in select theaters on September 11, 2020, and on Netflix on September 16, 2020. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances (particularly Holland and Pattinson) but were critical of the film's length and dark tone. Plot During World War II, while serving in the Solomon Islands, U.S. Marine Willard Russell finds Gunnery Sergeant Miller Jon ...
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Double Dare (franchise)
''Double Dare'' is an American television game show in which two teams compete to win cash and prizes by answering trivia questions and completing messy stunts known as physical challenges. It originally ran from 1986 to 1993. A revival ran in 2000, and the most recent revival ran from 2018 to 2019. Hosted by Marc Summers, the program originally premiered on Nickelodeon on October 6, 1986, as its first game show. The series saw many adjustments in scheduling and titling throughout its run. Almost immediately after its debut, ''Double Dare'' had more than tripled viewership for Nickelodeon's afternoon lineup, becoming the most-watched original daily program on cable television. The program was a major success for Nickelodeon, helping to establish the network as a major player in cable television and to revitalize the genre of game shows for children. ''Double Dare'' remains Nickelodeon's longest-running game show. In January 2001, ''TV Guide'' ranked the show number 29 on its lis ...
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Good Will Hunting
''Good Will Hunting'' is a 1997 American psychological drama film directed by Gus Van Sant, and written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. It stars Robin Williams, Damon, Affleck, Stellan Skarsgård and Minnie Driver. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $225 million during its theatrical run against a $10 million budget. At the 70th Academy Awards, it received nominations in nine categories, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won in two: Best Supporting Actor for Williams and Best Original Screenplay for Affleck and Damon. In 2014, it was ranked at number 53 in ''The Hollywood Reporter''s "100 Favorite Films" list. Plot Twenty-year-old Will Hunting of South Boston is a natural genius who is self-taught and been recently paroled from jail. He works as a janitor at MIT and spends his free time drinking with his step-brother Chuckie and his friends Billy and Morgan. When Professor Gerald Lambeau posts a difficult combinatorial mathem ...
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Greasy Spoon
A greasy spoon is a small, cheap restaurant – either an American diner or coffee shop, or a British or Irish cafe – typically specializing in fried foods or home-cooked meals. The term ''greasy spoon'' has been used in the United States since at least the 1920s and is used throughout the United Kingdom. According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', the term ''greasy spoon'' originated in the United States and is now used in various English-speaking countries. The earliest appearance of the term in print (MacMillan's Magazine, 1906), refers to events of an earlier time: a restaurant in Paris was visited daily by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1874. "...the Cremerie in the Rue Delambre, - an eating-house much frequented by artists, and familiarly known as The Greasy Spoon..." Nicknaming cheap fried food restaurants after an unwashed spoon dates back at least to 1848: "The Gabbione n Rome.. has withal an appearance so murky and so very far removed from cleanliness, that the Germ ...
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The Front Page (1974 Film)
''The Front Page'' is a 1974 American black comedy-drama film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is based on Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's 1928 play of the same name, which inspired several other films and televised movies and series episodes. Note: several items on the IMDb listing appear to feature plots with no relevance to the topic of this article; for those items, only the titles are the same. Plot '' Chicago Examiner'' reporter Hildebrand "Hildy" Johnson (Jack Lemmon) has just quit his job in order to marry Peggy Grant (Susan Sarandon) and start a new career, when convict Earl Williams ( Austin Pendleton) escapes from death row just prior to his execution. Earl is an impoverished, bumbling leftist whose offense was stuffing fortune cookies with messages demanding the release from death row of the equally overblown murder convictees Sacco and Vanzetti. The Yellow press has painted Earl as ...
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The Sting
''The Sting'' is a 1973 American caper film set in September 1936, involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) to con a mob boss ( Robert Shaw).''Variety'' film review; December 12, 1973, page 16. The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who had directed Newman and Redford in the western ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid''. Created by screenwriter David S. Ward, the story was inspired by real-life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and documented by David Maurer in his 1940 book ''The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man''. The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money. If a con is successful, the mark does not realize he has been cheated until the con men are long gone, if at all. The film is played out in distinct sections with old-fashioned title cards drawn by artist Jaroslav "Jerry" Gebr, the lettering and illustrations rendered in a style ...
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Blue Plate Special (Mullan, Idaho)
Blue Plate Special may refer to: * Blue-plate special, a low-priced restaurant meal * ''Damon Runyon's Blue Plate Special'', 1934 short story collection by Damon Runyon Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer. He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To ... * '' Blue Plate Special: An Autobiography of My Appetites'', a 2013 memoir by Kate Christensen * '' Blue Plate Specials Live'', a 1999 ska album by the Specials * ''Blue Plate Special'' (Prairie Oyster album), 1996 * ''Blue Plate Special'' (Will Bernard album), 2008 {{Disambiguation ...
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Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquired a reputation early in his lifetime as a major writer, both of serious Catholic novels, and of thrillers (or "entertainments" as he termed them). He was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times. Through 67 years of writing, which included over 25 novels, he explored the conflicting moral and political issues of the modern world. He was awarded the 1968 Shakespeare Prize and the 1981 Jerusalem Prize. He converted to Catholicism in 1926 after meeting his future wife, Vivien Dayrell-Browning. Later in life he took to calling himself a "Catholic agnostic". He died in 1991, at age 86, of leukemia, and was buried in Corseaux cemetery. Early years (1904–1922) Henry Graham Greene was born in 1904 in St John's House, a ...
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