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John Houghtaling
John Joseph Houghtaling (pronounced HUFF-tay-ling; November 14, 1916 – June 17, 2009) was an American entrepreneur and inventor who in 1958 invented the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed, a common feature in mid-priced hotels and motels from the 1960s to the early 1980s. Early life Houghtaling was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 14, 1916. His father worked for a telegraph company as a lineman, which led Houghtaling and his two sisters to move around the Midwestern United States with their family several times. He served as a gunnery instructor in the United States Army and was sent to England in April 1942 during World War II, where he flew 20 missions on Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers with the 452d Bombardment Squadron of the United States Army Air Forces.Pries, Allison"Magic Fingers inventor, 92" ''The Record (North Jersey), The Record'', June 20, 2009. Accessed March 23, 2025, via Newspapers.com. "The former Glen Rock resident and inventor of the coin-operated be ...
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Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entrepreneur () is an individual who creates and/or invests in one or more businesses, bearing most of the risks and enjoying most of the rewards. The process of setting up a business is known as "entrepreneurship". The entrepreneur is commonly seen as an innovator, a source of new ideas, goods, services, and business/or procedures. More narrow definitions have described entrepreneurship as the process of designing, launching and running a new business, often similar to a small business, or (per ''Business Dictionary'') as the "capacity and willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks to make a profit". The people who create these businesses are often referred to as "entrepreneurs". In the field of ...
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200 Motels (soundtrack)
''200 Motels'', the soundtrack album to Frank Zappa's film of the same name, was released by United Artists Records in 1971. The original vinyl release was a two-record set, largely containing alternating tracks of rock music performed by the Mothers of Invention and symphonic music performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Elgar Howarth, all composed and orchestrated by Zappa. The album peaked at No. 59 on the ''Billboard'' 200, though reviewers deemed it a peripheral part of Zappa's catalog. Like the film, the album involves the theme of a rock band on tour and a loose satirical storyline about The Mothers of Invention going crazy in the small town of Centerville and bassist Jeff quitting the group, as did his real life counterpart, Jeff Simmons, who left the group before the film began shooting and was replaced by actor Martin Lickert for the film. Music and lyrics The rock and comedy songs "Mystery Roach", "Lonesome Cowboy Burt", "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy" ...
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The X-Files
''The X-Files'' is an American science fiction on television, science fiction drama (film and television), drama television series created by Chris Carter (screenwriter), Chris Carter. The original series aired from September 10, 1993, to May 19, 2002, on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox, spanning List of The X-Files episodes, nine seasons, with 202 episodes. A The X-Files season 10, tenth season of six episodes ran from January to February 2016. Following the ratings success of this revival, ''The X-Files'' returned for an The X-Files season 11, eleventh season of ten episodes, which ran from January to March 2018. In addition to the television series, two feature films have been released: the 1998 film ''The X-Files (film), The X-Files'' and the stand-alone film ''The X-Files: I Want to Believe'', released in 2008, six years after the original television run ended. The series revolves around Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agent, Special Agents Fox Mulder (David ...
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National Lampoon's Vacation
''National Lampoon's Vacation'', sometimes referred to as simply ''Vacation'', is a 1983 American black comedy road film directed by Harold Ramis and starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Imogene Coca, Randy Quaid, John Candy, and Christie Brinkley in her acting debut with special appearances by Eddie Bracken, Brian Doyle-Murray, Miriam Flynn, James Keach, Eugene Levy, and Frank McRae. It tells the fictitious story of the Griswold family on a cross-country trip to an amusement park and various locations as accidents occur along the way. The screenplay was written by John Hughes on the basis of his short story "Vacation '58", which appeared in '' National Lampoon''. The film was a box-office hit, earning more than $60 million in the U.S. alone with an estimated budget of $15 million. As a result of its success, five sequels have been produced: '' European Vacation'' (1985), '' Christmas Vacation'' (1989), '' Vegas Vacation'' (1997), '' Christmas Vacation 2'' (2003), ...
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Crime Scene Investigation (season 4)
Crime scene investigation may refer to: * Crime scene investigation, a part of forensic science * ''CSI'' (franchise), an American television franchise ** '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', an American television series *** ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (video game), a 2003 video game based on the television series See also * CSI (other) CSI may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media CSI franchise * CSI (franchise), ''CSI'' (franchise) ** ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', the original ''CSI'' television series, set in Las Vegas ** ''CSI: Miami'', the first spin-off series s ...
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Assume Nothing
The fourth season of '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' premiered on CBS on September 25, 2003, and ended May 20, 2004. The series stars William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger. Plot Nick accidentally leaks information to a news reporter ("Assume Nothing"), and Catherine tries to discover how a body ended up in a bathtub ("All for Our Country") during the fourth season of ''CSI''. Supervised by Grissom and Willows, the Las Vegas CSIs are tasked with investigating the bizarre, the unlikely, and the unprecedented, including a disappearing gun ("Homebodies"), the death of a baby during a heatwave ("Feeling the Heat"), a case of raccoon versus big rig ("Fur and Loathing"), a car-bombing ("Grissom Versus the Volcano"), and the derailment of a roller-coaster ("Turn of the Screws"). Meanwhile, Catherine usurps a case from Nick and Sara ("After the Show"), the team have to re-investigate a rape-murder ("Invisible Evidence"), Grissom heads to Jackpot, Nevada ("Jackpot"), and team take par ...
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Crime Scene Investigation
Crime scene investigation may refer to: * Crime scene investigation, a part of forensic science * ''CSI'' (franchise), an American television franchise ** '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', an American television series *** ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' (video game), a 2003 video game based on the television series See also * CSI (other) CSI may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media CSI franchise * CSI (franchise), ''CSI'' (franchise) ** ''CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'', the original ''CSI'' television series, set in Las Vegas ** ''CSI: Miami'', the first spin-off series s ...
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Clay Pigeons
''Clay Pigeons'' is a 1998 black comedy film written by Matt Healy and directed by David Dobkin, and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Vince Vaughn and Janeane Garofalo. It is the second on-screen collaboration between Vaughn and Phoenix, the first film being '' Return to Paradise'', released in the same year. Plot In a field in Montana Clay Bidwell's best friend Earl commits suicide by gunshot after confronting Clay over the ongoing affair he had been having with Earl's wife Amanda. Having just found out, he was distraught and wanted to make it look like Clay had murdered him. Rushing back to town, Clay seeks help from Amanda to cover it up but she refuses to help as she doesn't want everyone knowing about the affair. With difficulty, he manages to get the body into his pickup and get it to seem like Earl drove it down the incline, where it crashed and burned. A short time after the funeral, Clay arrives home to find an unapologetic, half-naked Amanda pressing him to continue wit ...
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Lolita (1997 Film)
''Lolita'' is a 1997 romantic erotic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by Stephen Schiff. It is the second screen adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel of the same name and stars Jeremy Irons as Humbert Humbert and Dominique Swain as Dolores "Lolita" Haze, with supporting roles by Melanie Griffith as Charlotte Haze and Frank Langella as Clare Quilty. The film is about a middle-aged professor who is sexually attracted to adolescent girls he calls "nymphets". He rents a room in the house of a young widow to get closer to her 14-year-old daughter Lo, whom he calls "Lolita". Obsessed with the girl, he eventually gains control over her after he takes her cross-country with him. Compared to Stanley Kubrick's 1962 version, Lyne's film is more overt with many of the novel's darker elements; Kubrick chose to use suggestion and innuendo for comic purposes. Although praised by some critics for its faithfulness to Nabokov's narrative and the performances of Irons an ...
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Billy Pilgrim
''Slaughterhouse-Five, or, The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death'' is a 1969 semi-autobiographic science fiction-infused anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows the life experiences of Billy Pilgrim, from his early years, to his time as an American soldier and chaplain's assistant during World War II, to the post-war years. Throughout the novel, Billy frequently travels back and forth through time. The protagonist deals with a temporal crisis as a result of his post-war psychological trauma. The text centers on Billy's capture by the German Army and his survival of the Allied firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war, an experience that Vonnegut endured as an American serviceman. The work has been called an example of "unmatched moral clarity"Powers, Kevin"The Moral Clarity of ‘Slaughterhouse-Five’ at 50" The New York Times, March 23, 2019, ''Sunday Book Review'', p. 13. and "one of the most enduring anti-war novels of all time". Plot The novel's first chap ...
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Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut ( ; November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American author known for his Satire, satirical and darkly humorous novels. His published work includes fourteen novels, three short-story collections, five plays, and five nonfiction works over fifty-plus years; further works have been published since his death. Born and raised in Indianapolis, Vonnegut attended Cornell University, but withdrew in January 1943 and enlisted in the United States Army, U.S. Army. As part of his training, he studied mechanical engineering at the Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institute of Technology and the University of Tennessee. He was then deployed to Europe to fight in World War II and was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. He was prisoner of war, interned in Dresden, where he survived the Bombing of Dresden in World War II, Allied bombing of the city in a meat locker of the slaughterhouse where he was imprisoned. After the war, he married Jane Marie Cox ...
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