Lance Armstrong

Lance Edward Armstrong (born September 18, 1971) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He is the 1993 Elite Men's Road Race World Champion, and he had won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, but was stripped of his Tour de France victories in 2012 after a protracted doping scandal.

At age 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and was a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In 1992, Armstrong began his career as a professional cyclist with the Motorola team. He had notable success between 1993 and 1996, including the World Championship in 1993, Clásica de San Sebastián in 95, Tour DuPont in 95 and 96, and a handful of stage victories in Europe, including stage 18 of the 1995 Tour de France. In 1996, he was diagnosed with a potentially fatal metastatic testicular cancer. After his recovery, he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation (now the Livestrong Foundation) to assist other cancer survivors.

By January 1998, Armstrong had renewed serious cycling training, having signed a new racing contract with US Postal. He was a member of the US Postal/Discovery team between 1998 and 2005, in which he won his Tour de France titles, as well as a bronze medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. In July 2005, Armstrong retired from racing at the end of the 2005 Tour de France, but returned to competitive cycling with the Astana team in January 2009, finishing third in the 2009 Tour de France later that year. Between 2010 and 2011, he raced with the UCI ProTeam he helped found, Team Radio Shack. He retired for a second time in 2011.

Lance Armstrong (politician)

Lance John Edward Armstrong (born 17 February 1940) is a former Australian politician. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he was active in Tasmania and is now currently a minister with the Uniting Church in Albury.

Political career

In 1989, Armstrong was elected, together with Christine Milne, Di Hollister, Gerry Bates and Bob Brown, to the Tasmanian House of Assembly for Bass as a member of a group of independents under the leadership of Bob Brown, after a community backlash against a proposed paper pulp mill near Devonport. (Bob Brown and Gerry Bates were sitting members.) They together formed an alliance called The Green Independents, and held the balance of power in the government for three years, keeping Michael Field's minority Labor Party government in power in an arrangement called the Labor–Green Accord.

The state election of 1992 saw all five sitting Greens re-elected, but with a drop in their vote of around 25% and with a majority Liberal government in power. After the election, these independents were reconstituted as the Tasmanian Greens. However, they still operated akin to Independents, as the Tasmanian Greens had adopted the policy of allowing parliamentary members a "conscience vote" on all issues.

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live (abbreviated as SNL) is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest (who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast) and features performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.

In 1980, Michaels left the series to explore other opportunities. He was replaced by Jean Doumanian, who was replaced by Ebersol after a season of bad reviews. Ebersol ran the show until 1985, when Michaels returned; Michaels has remained since then. Many of SNL's cast found national stardom while appearing on the show, and achieved success in film and television, both in front of and behind the camera. Others associated with the show, such as writers, have gone on to successful careers creating, writing, or starring in TV and film.

Saturday Night Live (season 14)

The fourteenth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 8, 1988, and May 20, 1989.

Before the start of the season, no changes were made to the cast. Al Franken, having rejoined the show as a writer and occasional on-screen performer three years ago, was once again credited as a featured cast member. As the season progressed, Lorne Michaels would hire two new people to the cast: Mike Myers and Ben Stiller, who joined the show midseason as featured players. Stiller had actually appeared on the show before; his film made it onto the show in the episode hosted by Charlton Heston in 1987. This was the only season of the show for Stiller. After being on the show for five episodes, Stiller left due to creative differences with Michaels.

This season notably saw the second death of an original cast member, Gilda Radner, who died on the day of the season finale from ovarian cancer. In memory of Radner, Steve Martin showed a clip from the famous "Dancing in the Dark" sketch from the 1978 episode hosted by Martin in lieu of his planned monologue.

Saturday Night Live (season 12)

The twelfth season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between October 11, 1986, and May 23, 1987.

History

Many of season 11's cast members were fired, except for Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, featured player A. Whitney Brown, and Weekend Update anchor Dennis Miller. Al Franken was rehired as a writer. The rest were relative unknowns, led by Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon. Hartman helped write sketches in season 11's Thanksgiving episode hosted by Pee-wee Herman, and appeared in a sketch as a Pilgrim.

The first show of the 1986–87 season opened with Madonna, host of the previous season opener, reading a "statement" from NBC about season 11's mediocre writing and bad cast choices. According to the "statement", the entire 1985–86 season was "...all a dream. A horrible, horrible dream."

The season included "Masterbrain", a skit written by Jim Downey and Al Franken, in which Phil Hartman portrayed two sides of Ronald Reagan; 25 years later Todd Purdum called the skit "surely among the show’s Top 10 of all time."

Sheryl Crow

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Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Her music incorporates elements of pop, rock, folk, country and blues. She has released eight studio albums, two compilations, a live album and has contributed to a number of film soundtracks. She has sold more than 17 million albums in the U.S. and over 50 million albums worldwide. Crow has garnered nine Grammy Awards (out of 32 nominations) from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

In addition to her own work, Crow has performed with the Rolling Stones, Stevie Nicks, Michael Jackson, Steve Earle, Prince, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, Willie Nelson, Smokey Robinson, B.B. King, George Strait, Tony Bennett, Kid Rock and Sting, among others. She has also performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Belinda Carlisle and Bob Dylan.

As an actress, Crow has appeared on various television shows including 30 Rock, GCB, Cougar Town, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, as well as One Tree Hill.

Sheryl Crow (album)

Sheryl Crow is the second studio album by the American singer Sheryl Crow, released on September 24, 1996 in the by A&M Records. The album received very positive reviews from critics and was awarded Best Rock Album at the 39th Annual Grammy Awards.

Background and recording

Sheryl Crow is the follow-up to Sheryl Crow's 1993 album Tuesday Night Music Club, which was written by a group of musicians known as the "Tuesday Music Club". The group existed as a casual collective formed by Crow and musicians Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, Kevin Gilbert, Brian MacLeod, David Ricketts, and Dan Schwartz. The album was a commercial success and produced several hit singles, including "All I Wanna Do", "Strong Enough", and "Leaving Las Vegas". It was certified 7× Platinum in the United States and 2× Platinum in the United Kingdom. Crow was also awarded Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Record of the Year at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards.

Inevitably, tensions between Crow and the remaining members of the group began to arise, especially when Crow was asked on Late Show with David Letterman in March 1994 if the song "Leaving Las Vegas" was autobiographical, for which she offhandedly agreed even though it was actually written by Baerwald and based on the book by his friend John O'Brien. As a result, several members of the Tuesday Music Club group felt betrayed, and O'Brien himself committed suicide not long after. Nevertheless, O'Brien's parents insisted that Crow had nothing to do with the tragedy, noting that he "was just mad about it [...] But the problems that drove him toward the end were – you know, that's a long, long bloody trip."