1920s

The 1920s (pronounced “nineteen-twenties”, commonly abbreviated as the "“Twenties”") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1920 and ended on December 31, 1929. In North America, it is frequently referred to as the “Roaring Twenties” or the “Jazz Age”, while in Europe the period is sometimes referred to as the “Golden Age Twenties” because of the economic boom following World War I. French speakers refer to the period as the “années folles” (“Crazy Years”), emphasizing the era’s social, artistic, and cultural dynamism.

The economic prosperity experienced by many countries during the 1920s (especially the United States) was similar in nature to that experienced in the 1950s and 1990s. Each period of prosperity was the result of a paradigm shift in global affairs. These shifts in the 1920s, 1950s, and 1990s, occurred as the result of the conclusion of World War I and Spanish flu, World War II, and the Cold War, respectively.

The 1920s saw foreign oil companies begin operations throughout South America. Venezuela became the world’s second largest oil producing nation.

Pluperfect

The pluperfect is a type of verb form, traditionally treated as one of the tenses of certain languages, used in referring to something that occurred earlier than the time being considered, when the time being considered is already in the past. The meaning of the pluperfect is equivalent to that of English verb forms such as "(we) had arrived" or "(they) had written".

The word derives from the Latin plus quam perfectum, "more than perfect" – the Latin perfect refers to something that occurred in the past, while the pluperfect refers to something that occurred "more" (further) in the past than the perfect.

In English grammar, the equivalent of the pluperfect (a form such as "had written") is now often called the past perfect, since it combines past tense with perfect aspect. (The same term is sometimes used in relation to the grammar of other languages.) English also has a past perfect progressive (or past perfect continuous) form: "had been writing".

Meaning of the pluperfect

The pluperfect is traditionally described as a tense; in modern linguistic terminology it may be said to combine tense with grammatical aspect; namely past tense (reference to past time) and perfect aspect (state of being completed). It is used to refer to an occurrence that was already in the past (completed) at a past time.

Sarah Jessica Parker

Sarah Jessica Parker (born March 25, 1965) is an American actress, producer, and designer. She is best known for her leading role as Carrie Bradshaw on the HBO television series Sex and the City (1998–2004). She was also an executive producer on the show, and won two Emmy Awards, for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001 and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2004.

Parker made her Broadway debut in 1976 aged 11, in the revival of The Innocents, before going on to star in the title role of the Broadway musical Annie in 1979. She then appeared in the 1984 films Footloose and Firstborn. She returned to Broadway in the 1989 play The Heidi Chronicles.

Her other film roles include L.A. Story (1991), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Ed Wood (1994), The First Wives Club (1996), The Family Stone (2005) and Failure to Launch (2006). In addition to her two Emmy wins, she also won four Golden Globe Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards for Sex and the City. She reprised her role of Carrie Bradshaw in the films Sex and the City: The Movie (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010).

Joyce Grenfell

Joyce Irene Grenfell, OBE (née Phipps; 10 February 1910 – 30 November 1979) was a British comedienne, actress and, in her time, one of the country's best loved entertainers, immortalised in roles such as the gym mistress Miss Gossage in The Happiest Days of Your Life and Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's films. She achieved success as a writer and performer of songs and monologues at a time when it was unusual for a woman of her social background to work.

Early life

Born in Montpelier Square in Knightsbridge, London, Joyce was the daughter of architect Paul Phipps (1880–1953), the grandson of Charles Paul Phipps and a second cousin of Ruth Draper. Her mother was an American socialite, Nora Langhorne (1889–1955), one of five daughters of Chiswell Langhorne, an American railway millionaire. Nancy Astor, née Nancy Langhorne, was one of her mother's sisters, and had also married in England. Grenfell often visited her at Astor's home of Cliveden and later lived on a cottage on the estate ('Parr's'), a mile from the main house, in the early years of her marriage.

Roaring Twenties

The Roaring Twenties is a term for the 1920s in the Western world. It was a period of sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, particularly in major cities such as New York, Montreal, Chicago, Detroit, Paris, Berlin, London, and Los Angeles. In France it was known as the "années folles" ("Crazy Years"), emphasizing the era's social, artistic and cultural dynamism. Normalcy returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional patriotism after World War I, jazz music blossomed, the flapper redefined modern womanhood and Art Deco peaked. The era saw the large-scale use of automobiles, telephones, motion pictures, radio, electricity, refrigeration, air conditioning; commercial, passenger, and freight aviation; unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, plus significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media focused on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars, as cities rooted for their home teams and filled the new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums. In most major countries women won the right to vote.