Picardy (French: Picardie, French pronunciation: [pikaʁdi]) is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.

The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department. The province of Artois (Arras area) separated Picardy from French Flanders.

In the 5th century the area was occupied by the Franks, and in the feudal period it encompassed the six countships of Boulogne, Montreuil, Ponthieu, Amiénois, Vermandois, and Laonnois.

The name "Picardy" (which may have referred to a Frankish tribe of picards or pike-bearers) was not used until the 12th or 13th century. During this time, the name applied to all lands where the Picard language was spoken, which included all the territories from Paris to the Netherlands. In the Latin Quarter of Paris, people identified a "Picard Nation" (Nation Picarde) of students at Sorbonne University, most of whom actually came from Flanders.

Lambert Murphy (1885–1954) was an American tenor, born in Springfield, Massachusetts. While pursuing an academic course at Harvard University, he studied singing under T. L. Cushman in Boston from 1904 to 1908. He graduated from Harvard in 1908 with his younger brother, Ray D. Murphy (1887–1964) (future chairman of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States 19xx-1952), where they were both in the Harvard Glee Club, Harvard Quartet and the Pi Eta Society.

Having filled positions in several important churches in Boston, Brookline, and Fairhaven, he went to New York in 1910 as soloist of St. Bartholomew's. After further study under Isidore Luckstone, he was engaged (1911) as a member of the Metropolitan Opera. Murphy made his reputation chiefly as a concert singer, appearing at many of the great festivals.

He was a recording artist for the Victor Talking Machine Company. One well-known recorded hit was "Smiles" from The Passing Show of 1918 and was popular during World War I. Lambert performed and recorded many duets with baritone Reinald Werrenrath. Mr. Murphy premiered in the tenor solo role in the quartets in Verdi's Requiem in Boston (year?). After retiring from active concert work, he gave private voice instruction. During WWII he was a product inspector for the Western Electric Company.

Robert Mandell is an American animated series and film writer, director and producer. He is a five-time NY Golden Apple Award winner in graphics arts and design.

Robert Mandell is best known as the creator, producer and co-writer of the 1986-1987 animated series The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers. (The "Collection1" edition of Galaxy Rangers features a 14-minute video interview with Mandell about his career as well as an audio commentary track; the "Collection 2" edition includes a "refreshingly candid" interview on the making of the series.) Later he created the 1995-1996 animated series Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders and wrote or co-wrote and directed its episodes. He was also a writer and executive producer for the American version of Thunderbirds 2086 (in association with Barry Gray) and an executive producer for The King and I and the Ace Ventura, Pet Detective animated TV series, among other credits.

As of 2010, Mandell is the Chief Creative Officer and CEO of the company Red Sky Entertainment (a subsidiary of Blue Wave Entertainment), whose properties include Galaxy Rangers, Heavy Metal Pulp (a series of illustrated novels published by Tor in cooperation with Heavy Metal magazine) and the Avalon: Web of Magic novel series, loosely based on his cartoon series Jewel Riders and produced by him. Current projects include producing a feature film based on Larry Niven's novel Ringworld,^{[citation needed]} a feature film based on the Avalon book series^{[citation needed]} and a new TV series based on the Galaxy Rangers.