Dixie

Dixie is a historical nickname for the Southern United States.

"Dixie" as a region

As a definite geographic location within the United States, "Dixie" is usually defined as the eleven Southern states that seceded in late 1860 and early 1861 to form the new confederation named the Confederate States of America. They are (in order of secession): South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

However, the location and boundaries of "Dixie" have become, over time, more limited, vernacular and mercurial. Today, it is most often associated with those parts of the Southern United States where traditions and legacies of the Confederate era and the antebellum South live most strongly.

Many businesses in the South contain "Dixie" in their name as an identifier, such as supermarket chain "Winn-Dixie".

Origin of the name

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origins of this nickname remain obscure. According to A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951), by Mitford M. Mathews, three theories most commonly attempt to explain the term:

Ghost

In folklore, mythology, and modern media such as literary fiction, a ghost (sometimes known as a spectre [British English] or specter [American English], phantom, apparition, spirit, spook, or haunt) is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, ghost ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.

Game Grumps

Game Grumps is a Let's Play webseries starring animator Arin Hanson and musician Leigh Daniel Avidan, also known as "Danny Sexbang," from the musical comedy duo Ninja Sex Party. The show was created on July 10, 2012 by Hanson and comedic video game critic Jon "JonTron" Jafari. Jafari left the show in June 2013 to focus on his primary YouTube channel JonTron, and was subsequently replaced by Avidan. The channel also expanded to include new hosts in spin-offs: animator Ross O'Donovan, series editor Barry Kramer, and Suzy "Mortemer" Berhow, the group's manager and Hanson's wife. Additionally appearing in some, but few, episodes is the new primary editor of the show, Kevin Abernathy, as well as their newest member Brian "Ninja Brian" Wecht, the other half of Ninja Sex Party. Game Grumps was a part of Polaris, a network owned by Maker Studios, a subsidiary of Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media division of The Walt Disney Company. They left the network in January of 2016.

Strawberry Roan

Strawberry Roan is a 1945 British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring William Hartnell - later to become famous as television's first Doctor on the British Sci-Fi series Doctor Who - and Carol Raye. The screenplay was developed from the 1932 novel of the same name by Wiltshire author A. G. Street, at the time a very popular, well-known and widely admired work.

Plot

Farmer Chris Lowe (Hartnell) meets and falls in love with Molly (Raye), a chorus-girl. Despite the fact that she is a city girl through and through, she accepts his proposal of marriage and after the wedding goes to live on the farm. Chris realises that the transition for Molly will be difficult, and in an attempt to ease her into farm life, buys her a strawberry roan calf to look after. Unfortunately Molly finds the adjustment to rural life extremely difficult and does not settle down. She fails to integrate into the local community and starts to feel she has made a big mistake. She tries to quell her unhappiness by spending her husband's money, but goes to excess and eventually leaves Chris facing financial ruin. In despair she takes off on her horse and suffers a fatal fall, leaving Chris destitute and overcome with guilt.

Dick Foran

John Nicholas "Dick" Foran (June 18, 1910 – August 10, 1979) was an American actor, known for his performances in western musicals and for playing supporting roles in dramatic pictures.

Life and career

Foran was born in Flemington, New Jersey, the first of five sons to Arthur F. and Elizabeth Foran. His father Arthur F. Foran was a Republican member of the New Jersey Senate, as was Dick Foran's younger brother, Walter E. Foran. After graduation he attended the Hun School, a college preparatory school in nearby Princeton, and then enrolled at Princeton University, pursuing a degree in geology. He played on the football team while taking courses in the arts, where he developed an interest in the theater.

Foran studied music at the Leibling Studio in New York before singing on radio. After becoming a lead singer in a band and later forming his own orchestra, Foran, who stood 6-foot-2 and had red hair, was hired by Warner Bros. as a supporting actor. He would also croon when called upon in films such as Change of Heart (1934) with Janet Gaynor, made for Fox Film Corporation. His handsome appearance and good-natured personality made him a natural choice for the supporting cast. He first appeared as a singing cowboy in his first starring role, in Moonlight on the Prairie (1935). Other singing cowboy features included Song of the Saddle (1936), Guns of the Pecos (1937), Empty Holsters (1937) and Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938).