Scratch One

Scratch One is Michael Crichton's second novel to be published. It was released in 1967 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a short 192-page paperback novel. Hard Case Crime republished the novel under Crichton's name on October 29, 2013.

Plot summary

Roger Carr has a lot going for him. He's a handsome, charming and privileged man who practices law—more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Thanks to his father, who is a powerful politician, Carr has many connections. For this reason, his law associates tolerate him and keep him around.

Carr is sent to Nice, France on a job by one of his wealthy political connections to find and secure the purchase of a Villa. Little does he know that this cushy assignment is going to put him in the middle of an arms deal investigation involving the CIA and a gang called the Associates.

Both sides mistake him for someone else—an American assassin—and neither side can understand why Carr is ignoring them. The CIA take it as a sign of defiance, the Associates perceive him as a cool and collected professional, who knows exactly what he's doing and is difficult to predict.

United States Navy

The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, with the highest combined battle fleet tonnage. The U.S. Navy has the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 328,194 personnel on active duty and 101,199 in the Navy Reserve. It has 272 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 aircraft in active service as of February 2016.

The U.S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was essentially disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a major role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy and seizing control of its rivers. It played the central role in the World War II defeat of Japan. The 21st century U.S. Navy maintains a sizable global presence, deploying in such areas as East Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. It is a blue-water navy with the ability to project force onto the littoral regions of the world, engage in forward areas during peacetime, and rapidly respond to regional crises, making it an active player in U.S. foreign and defense policy.

Navy blue

Navy blue is a very dark shade of the color blue.

Navy blue got its name from the dark blue (contrasted with white) worn by officers in the British Royal Navy since 1748 and subsequently adopted by other navies around the world. When this color name, taken from the usual color of the uniforms of sailors, originally came into use in the early 19th century, it was initially called marine blue, but the name of the color soon changed to navy blue.

An early use of navy blue as a color name in English was in 1840 though the Oxford English Dictionary has a citation from 1813.

In practice, actual blue uniforms of the United States Navy and other navies have become outright black in color, in order to combat fading.

Variations of navy blue

Bright navy blue

At right is displayed the color bright navy blue. This is the bright tone called "navy blue" by Crayola.

This tone of navy blue was formulated as a Crayola color in 1958.

Indigo dye

Indigo dye is the color that is called Añil (the Spanish word for "indigo dye") in the Guía de coloraciones (Guide to colorations) by Rosa Gallego and Juan Carlos Sanz, a color dictionary published in 2005 that is widely popular in the Hispanophone realm.

Royal Canadian Navy

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) (French: Marine royale canadienne), is the naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the unified Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2015 Canada's navy operates 1 destroyer, 12 frigates, 4 patrol submarines, 12 coastal defence vessels and 8 unarmed patrol/training vessels, as well as several auxiliary vessels. The Royal Canadian Navy consists of 8,500 Regular Force and 5,100 Primary Reserve sailors, supported by 5,300 civilians. Vice-Admiral Mark Norman is the current Commander of the Royal Canadian Navy and Chief of the Naval Staff.

Founded in 1910 as the Naval Service of Canada and given Royal Sanction on 29 August 1911, the Royal Canadian Navy was amalgamated with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Army to form the unified Canadian Armed Forces in 1968, after which it was known as "Maritime Command" until 2011 when the title of RCN was restored. Over the course of its history, the RCN served in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, the Persian Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and numerous United Nations peacekeeping missions and NATO operations.

Hearse

A hearse is a funeral vehicle used to carry a coffin from a church or funeral home to a cemetery. In the funeral trade, hearses are often called funeral coaches.

History

Originally considered public transportation, an elaborate framework would be erected over a coffin or tomb to which memorial verses or epitaphs were attached. It was then put on the top of horse-drawn carriages, looking much like a luggage rack. Today, the original hearse remains acknowledged by the bit of scroll work or stretched-out "S" on the side of a funeral coach, called Landau bars.

Hearses were originally horse-drawn, but silent electric motorised carts were introduced as horses began to be phased out as transportation. Examples that were used in Paris were reported in the pages of Scientific American May 1907 and petrol-driven hearses began to be produced from 1909 in the United States. Motorised hearses became more widely accepted in the 1920s. The vast majority of hearses since then have been based on larger, more powerful car chassis, generally retaining the front end up to and possibly including the front doors but with custom bodywork to the rear to contain the coffin. Some early hearses also served as ambulances, owing to the large cargo capacity in the rear of the vehicle. A few cities experimented with funeral trolley cars and/or subway cars to carry both the casket and mourners to cemeteries, but these were not popular. The only exception was Chicago, IL which operated 3 different funeral trolley cars over the elevated tracks in downtown Chicago to outlying cemeteries in the western suburbs. A special funeral bureau handled the funeral trains which sometimes operated 3-4 funeral trains a week over the 'L'.

Hearse (band)

Hearse is a Swedish melodic death metal band, founded by vocalist Johan Liiva (ex-Arch Enemy) and drummer Max Thornell in 2001. The band have released five albums to date.

History

Following Johan Liiva's departure from NonExist, he decided to team up with one time Furbowl bandmate Max Thornell to form a new project. The duo soon recruited guitarist Mattias Ljung, who had not actually played any metal for several years, and recorded a demo in 2001. The band's first recording was sent to select metal press and labels, and attracted interest from Hammerheart Records. After signing a contract, the first single Torch was released in 2002, and the debut album Dominion Reptilian followed in March 2003. In the summer of 2003 Hearse started recording their second album titled Armageddon, Mon Amour. It was finally released in April 2004 on Karmageddon Media (formerly Hammerheart Records). Their third album, The Last Ordeal, was released in 2005, and their fourth release, In These Veins, was released in 2006 on Cold Records. In 2009, Hearse released their fifth album, Single Ticket To Paradise. A music video for the song "Sundown" was produced.

Scratch (horse)

Scratch, also known as Scratch II (foaled 1947) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and sire best known for winning the Prix du Jockey Club and the classic St Leger Stakes in 1950. Scratch won the Solario Stakes in England as a two-year-old and emerged as one of the best of a very strong generation of French-trained colts in the following year. He won the Prix de Guiche and Prix Greffulhe in the early part of the year and then defeated the year's outstanding three-year-old colt Tantieme in the Prix du Jockey Club. In the autumn of 1950 he won the St Leger by defeating Vieux Manoir, who had beaten him in the Grand Prix de Paris. He won the Prix Jean Prat as a four-year-old before being retired to stud where he had an unremarkable record as a sire of winners in Europe and South America.

Background

Scratch was a chestnut horse with a white star and a white sock on his right hind leg bred by his owner Marcel Boussac. He was sired by Pharis, the undefeated winner of the 1939 Grand Prix de Paris. Scratch's dam Orlamonde was an unsuccessful racehorse but produced several other winners including Damno, who won the Prix d'Arenberg. Orlamonde's dam Naic was a half sister of the Prix du Jockey Club winner Ramus and also produced the Grand Prix de Deauville winner Jock. Scratch was sent into training with Charles Semblat at Chantilly.