Vladimir Sorokin is a Russian novelist and playwright considered to be one of the most influential figures in postmodern Russian literature. Sorokin is known particularly for his vivid experimental, and often controversial, works that parody the Socialist Realism of the Soviet Union. After

Vladimir Sorokin is a Russian novelist and playwright considered to be one of the most influential figures in postmodern Russian literature. Sorokin is known particularly for his vivid experimental, and often controversial, works that parody the Socialist Realism of the Soviet Union. After

Krasnodon, coal-mining city, eastern Ukraine. It lies on the Great (Bilsha) Kam’yanka River. Krasnodon was established in 1914 and incorporated in 1938. Historically, it has been important for the mining of bituminous coal. A local museum commemorates the defense of the city during World War II by

Krasnodon, coal-mining city, eastern Ukraine. It lies on the Great (Bilsha) Kam’yanka River. Krasnodon was established in 1914 and incorporated in 1938. Historically, it has been important for the mining of bituminous coal. A local museum commemorates the defense of the city during World War II by

Joaquín Sorolla was a Spanish painter whose style was a variant of Impressionism and whose best works, painted in the open air, vividly portray the sunny seacoast of Valencia. Sorolla was from a poor family and was orphaned at age two. He displayed an early talent and was admitted to the Academy of

Joaquín Sorolla was a Spanish painter whose style was a variant of Impressionism and whose best works, painted in the open air, vividly portray the sunny seacoast of Valencia. Sorolla was from a poor family and was orphaned at age two. He displayed an early talent and was admitted to the Academy of

Fernando Monteiro de Castro Soromenho was a white Angolan novelist writing in Portuguese who depicted African life in the interior of the country and condemned the Portuguese colonial administration there. He is known as the “father of the Angolan novel.” Soromenho was taken to Angola by his

Andes Mountains: Physiography of the Southern Andes: Mounts Darwin, Valdivieso, and Sorondo—are all less than 7,900 feet high. The physiography of this southernmost subdivision of the Andes system is complicated by the presence of the independent Sierra de la Costa.

polygyny: Sororal polygyny, in which the cowives are sisters, is often the preferred form because sisters are thought to be more mutually supportive and less argumentative than nonsiblings. A typical rule for sororal polygyny is that the eldest girl in a family marries first and that…

sororate, custom or law decreeing that a widower should, or in rare cases must, marry his deceased wife’s sister. The term comes from the Latin word soror, “sister,” and was introduced by the British anthropologist Sir James George Frazer. The “sister” may be a biological or adopted sibling of the

fraternity and sorority, in the United States, social, professional, or honorary societies, for males and females, respectively. Most such organizations draw their membership primarily from college or university students. With few exceptions, fraternities and sororities use combinations of letters

Alexander Soros is an American philanthropist and a son of financier and philanthropist George Soros. Alexander Soros was born in New York City in 1985 to George Soros and Susan Weber, then a decorative arts specialist. He was George’s fourth child but the first from his marriage to Weber. Soros

George Soros is a Hungarian-born American financier, author, philanthropist, and activist whose success as an investor made him one of the wealthiest men in the world. He is also known as a powerful and influential supporter of liberal social causes. Soros, who was born into a prosperous Jewish

sorosilicate, any member of a group of compounds with structures that have two silicate tetrahedrons (each consisting of a central silicon atom surrounded by four oxygen atoms at the corners of a tetrahedron) linked together. Because one oxygen atom is shared by two tetrahedrons, the chemical

Iran: Presidential term of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: reconstruction and liberalization: Inside Iran in the mid-1990s, Abdolkarim Soroush, a philosopher with both secular and religious training, attracted thousands of followers to his lectures. Soroush advocated a type of reformist Islam that went beyond most liberal Muslim thinkers of the 20th century and argued that the search for reconciliation of Islam and…

vacuum technology: Sorption pump: Typically, the size of these pumps is about 1,000 grams of sorbent material, which retains gas molecules on its surface. They are capable of pumping from atmosphere to 10-2 torr or can be used in series down to 10-5 torr. In most cases…

sourwood, (species Oxydendrum arboreum), deciduous ornamental tree, of the heath family (Ericaceae), native to southeastern North America. It grows to about 23 metres (75 feet) in height. The bitter-tasting leaves are alternate, stalked, rather oblong, and 12–20 cm (5–8 inches) long. In the autumn

sorrel, any of several hardy perennial herbs of the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) that are widely distributed in temperate regions and cultivated for their edible leaves. Sorrel leaves are typically pungent and sour and derive their flavour from oxalic acid. Mature leaves are used as a vegetable,

Hetty Sorrel, fictional character, a naive dairy maid who is seduced and abandoned in the novel Adam Bede (1859) by George

Gilbert Sorrentino was an American poet and experimental novelist, whose use of devices such as nonchronological structure illustrated his dictum that “form not only determines content but form invents content.” From 1956 to 1960 Sorrentino was editor and publisher of Neon, a magazine that featured

Sorrento, town and archiepiscopal see, Campania regione, southern Italy. It lies on a peninsula separating the Bay of Naples, which it faces, from the Gulf of Salerno, south-southeast of Naples. The backbone of the peninsula is formed by the Lattari Mountains, which culminate in Mount Sant’Angelo

Thomas Kingo: …(“Fare, World, Farewell”) and “Sorrig og Glæde de vandre til Hobe” (“Sorrow and Joy They Wander Together”). He is remembered today mainly for what is popularly known as Kingo’s hymnbook, a collection that appeared in 1699 and contained 86 of his own poems. The first half of Kingo’s original…

Winter’s Tales: …on a Danish folktale, “Sorrow Acre” is one of the author’s best-known works. A feudal lord offers to release the imprisoned son of a peasant woman if she mows a field of rye by herself in one day; she fulfills the bargain and falls dead. “The Young Man with…

Thomas Kingo: …(“Fare, World, Farewell”) and “Sorrig og Glæde de vandre til Hobe” (“Sorrow and Joy They Wander Together”). He is remembered today mainly for what is popularly known as Kingo’s hymnbook, a collection that appeared in 1699 and contained 86 of his own poems. The first half of Kingo’s original…

Peter Handke: A Sorrow Beyond Dreams), is also an effective work.

Belgian literature: After World War II: …Het verdriet van België (1983; The Sorrow of Belgium), paints an unflattering portrait of a Flemish collaborationist family in the years before, during, and after World War II, but it is also a Bildungsroman about a wayward adolescent who decides to become a writer.

Kosi River, river in Nepal and northern India. With its tributaries, the Kosi drains the eastern third of Nepal and part of Tibet, including the country around Mount Everest. Some of its headstreams rise beyond the Nepalese border in Tibet. About 30 miles (48 km) north of the Indian-Nepalese

Sidney Lanfield: Later films: …starred with Lucille Ball in Sorrowful Jones (1949), a loose remake of the Shirley Temple classic Little Miss Marker (1934), and he returned for The Lemon Drop Kid (1951), portraying a bookie who runs afoul of a gangster. Follow the Sun (1951) was a change of pace—a biopic of golf…

The Sorrows of Young Werther, novel by J.W. von Goethe, published in German as Die Leiden des jungen Werthers in 1774. It was the first novel of the Sturm und Drang movement. The novel is the story of a sensitive, artistic young man who demonstrates the fatal effects of a predilection for

Richard Ford: …Multitude of Sins (2001), and Sorry for Your Trouble (2020) are collections of short stories.

Tessa Thompson: …a telemarketer named Detroit in Sorry to Bother You, physicist Josie Radek in the sci-fi horror film Annihilation, and Ollie in Nia DaCosta’s Little Woods. She rejoined Thor costar Chris Hemsworth in the Men in Black reboot Men in Black: International (2019) and voiced the part of the cocker

Ken Loach: In Sorry We Missed You (2019), a family’s attempt to use the gig economy to get ahead leaves them increasingly far behind.

Sorry, Wrong Number, American film noir, released in 1948, that was based on Lucille Fletcher’s hit 1943 radio play of the same name. Barbara Stanwyck played Leona Stevenson, a spoiled, wealthy invalid and hypochondriac who is confined to her bed. While trying to reach her husband (played by Burt

Fernando Sor was a Catalan Romantic performer, composer, and teacher of guitar known for being among the first to play the guitar as a classical concert instrument and for writing one of the earliest books of guitar-playing methodology. He was a noted guitar virtuoso. When he was a young boy, Sor

Fernando Sor was a Catalan Romantic performer, composer, and teacher of guitar known for being among the first to play the guitar as a classical concert instrument and for writing one of the earliest books of guitar-playing methodology. He was a noted guitar virtuoso. When he was a young boy, Sor

macular degeneration: Other forms of macular degeneration: Sorsby fundus dystrophy, which is clinically similar to wet AMD, is caused by mutations in a gene known as TIMP3 (tissue-inhibitor of metalloproteinase 3). These forms of macular degeneration, with the exception of Stargardt macular dystrophy, are inherited as autosomal dominant traits; disease occurs when…

Saint Nil Sorsky ; feast day May 7) was the first Russian mystic to write about the contemplative life and to formulate a guide for spiritual self-perfection. After a trip to Constantinople and Mount Athos, he founded his own monastery beside the Sora River (whence the name Sorsky). At a council in

Sorsogon, city and port, southeastern Luzon, northern Philippines. It is located near the southernmost tip of the Bicol Peninsula on the northeastern shore of Sorsogon Bay. The adjacent hinterland consists of volcanic cones interspersed with broad, level farmlands that produce abaca, coconuts,

Imre Kertész: …most-acclaimed novel, Sorstalanság (Fatelessness, or Fateless), which he completed in the mid-1960s but was unable to publish for nearly a decade. When the novel finally appeared in 1975, it received little critical attention but established Kertész as a unique and provocative voice in the dissident subculture within contemporary Hungarian literature.…

arms control: Recent efforts: …the two countries signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which committed each side to reducing its store of strategic nuclear warheads. Russia subsequently announced that it would no longer be bound by the START II agreement, which its parliament had ratified in 2000.

augury: …(cartomancy), dice or lots (cleromancy), dots and other marks on paper (geomancy), fire and smoke (pyromancy), the shoulder blades of animals (scapulimancy), entrails of sacrificed animals (haruspicy), or their livers, which were considered to be the seat of life (hepatoscopy).

Michel del Castillo: … (1975; “The Silence of Stones”), Le Sortilege espagnol (1977; “Spanish Sorcery”), Les Cyprès meurent en Italie (1979; “The Cypresses Die in Italy”), La Nuit du décret (1981; “The Night of the Decree”), Une Femme en soi (1991; “A Woman Herself”), Le Crime des pères (1993; “The Fathers’ Crime”), Mon frère…

computer science: Algorithms and complexity: For example, sorting the list into alphabetical order permits a so-called binary search technique to be used, in which the remainder of the list to be searched at each step is cut in half. This search technique is similar to searching a telephone book for a particular…

rock: Porosity: …and on the degree of sorting. Typical cements are siliceous, calcareous or carbonate, or iron-bearing minerals.

postal system: Postal operations and management: The collection and sorting of individual items by the most economic method, concentrating together all items that are going to the same place or in the same direction, involves the use of local transport, usually operated by the postal services themselves, and sorting offices. The size of the…

sorting algorithm, in computer science, a procedure for ordering elements in a list by repeating a sequence of steps. Sorting algorithms allow a list of items to be sorted so that the list is more usable than it was, usually by placing the items in numerical order (from the least value to the

postal system: Segregating machines: So-called packet sorting machines are, in fact, essentially conveyor systems for distributing manually sorted mail.

sortition, election by lot, a method of choosing public officials in some ancient Greek city-states. It was used especially in the Athenian democracy, from which most information about the practice is derived. With few exceptions, all magistrates were chosen by lot, beginning with the archons in

Fernando Sor was a Catalan Romantic performer, composer, and teacher of guitar known for being among the first to play the guitar as a classical concert instrument and for writing one of the earliest books of guitar-playing methodology. He was a noted guitar virtuoso. When he was a young boy, Sor

Guns N’ Roses: ), Matt Sorum (b. November 19, 1960, Long Beach, California, U.S.), Dizzy Reed (original name Darren Reed; b. June 18, 1963, Hinsdale, Illinois, U.S.), and Gilby Clarke (b. August 17, 1962, Cleveland, Ohio).

sorus, in botany, brownish or yellowish cluster of spore-producing structures (sporangia) usually located on the lower surface of fern leaves. A sorus may be protected during development by a scale or flap of tissue called an indusium. In rust and smut fungi, a sorus is a spore mass produced on the

Mira Sorvino is an American actress who won an Academy Award for best supporting actress for her portrayal of a dim-witted but warmhearted prostitute in Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite (1995). Sorvino, the daughter of character actor Paul Sorvino, grew up in New Jersey. She excelled at school and

Mira Sorvino: …the daughter of character actor Paul Sorvino, grew up in New Jersey. She excelled at school and attended Harvard University, graduating in 1990 with a major in East Asian area studies after spending an academic year abroad in China, where she learned to speak Mandarin. She then moved to New…

SZA: Rise to musical fame: EPs, collaborations, Ctrl, and SOS: …highly anticipated second studio album, SOS, which included the highest-charting song of her musical career, “Kill Bill.” In 2024 she scored nine Grammy nominations, the most for any artist that year. SOS was named best progressive R&B album, and the album’s single “Snooze” won for best R&B song. SZA also…

distress signal: …such as the Morse group SOS, the international code signal NC, or the spoken word “Mayday” (pronounced like the French m’aider, “help me”), by radiotelephone. Distressed vessels may also actuate alarms of other vessels by a radio signal consisting of a series of 12 four-second dashes or by a radiotelephone…

Sammy Sosa is a Dominican professional baseball player who, with Mark McGwire, entertained fans with a series of home run races in the late 1990s that rewrote the record books. In 1999, Sosa became the first player to hit 60 homers in two seasons. As a child, Sosa worked at a number of jobs,

Alien Tort Claims Act: In Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the court held that the ATCA applies only to violations of international norms that are “specific, universal, and obligatory,” and it determined that general prohibitions against arbitrary arrest and detention did not meet that standard. And in 2013 the court ruled in…

Sammy Sosa is a Dominican professional baseball player who, with Mark McGwire, entertained fans with a series of home run races in the late 1990s that rewrote the record books. In 1999, Sosa became the first player to hit 60 homers in two seasons. As a child, Sosa worked at a number of jobs,

Japanese art: Wood-block prints: …other wood-block print trend was sōsaku hanga, or “creative print,” a movement modeled on European approaches to print production. The artist, instead of consigning his designs to the carvers and printers employed by the publisher, performed all aspects of production. This was a philosophy of total engagement with the work.…

Soest, city, North Rhine–Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. It lies on the fertile Soester Plain (Soester Börde) in the Hellweg region, which extends south from the Lippe River, east of Dortmund. Although excavations have shown there to have been a settlement on the site since Roman

Gaza: …Mozambique in the 1830s by Soshangane, the Ndwandwe general who fled from Zululand after his defeat at the hands of Shaka during the Zulu-Nguni wars known as the Mfecane. Soshangane extended his control over the area between the Komati (Incomati) and the Zambezi rivers, incorporating the local Tsonga and Shona…

Masamune: He founded the Sōshū school of swordmaking, in which blades were made entirely of steel and hardened throughout. It marked an important advance in metallurgical technique that was significantly ahead of the technical level in Europe or elsewhere in Asia.

Finland: Domestic affairs: …the main opposition parties—either the Social Democrats, who finished second with 42 seats, or the anti-immigrant, Euroskeptic True Finn Party, which proved to be the election’s biggest surprise as it vaulted from the five seats it won in the 2007 election to 39 seats and third place in 2011.

Sosigenes of Alexandria was a Greek astronomer and mathematician, probably from Alexandria, employed by Julius Caesar to devise the Julian calendar. He is sometimes confused with Sosigenes the Peripatetic (fl. 2nd century ce), the tutor of the Greek philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias. Toward the

Sosnowiec, city, Śląskie województwo (province), southern Poland. It lies along the Czarna Przemsza River, which is a tributary of the Vistula River. A rail junction in the Silesian Upland, Sosnowiec has numerous heavy-industrial plants and coal mines. It is also the home of Poland’s first mining

Susu, people living in the southern coastal regions of Guinea and the northwestern parts of Sierra Leone. They speak a dialect of Susu-Yalunka, a language belonging to the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo languages. In Sierra Leone, villages are grouped under a paramount chief into small chiefdoms

mosaic: Ancient Greek and Hellenistic mosaics: Roman historian Pliny the Younger, Sosos, one of the most renowned mosaic artists of antiquity, worked in this city. None of his works survives but, thanks to Roman copies, the intentions that underlay his art can be judged. Pliny listed as his most celebrated works a representation of drinking doves…

Bridge of Sighs, enclosed limestone bridge in Venice, Italy, spanning the narrow canal (Rio di Palazzo) between the Doge’s Palace and the prisons. Commissioned by the doge Marino Grimani, whose familial coat of arms is depicted in the centre of the facade, the Baroque-style bridge was built about

Seven Holy Founders: Benedict dell’Antella, Bartholomew Amidei, Gerard Sostegni, and Ricoverus Uguccione. Formally Ordo Fratrum Servorum Sanctae Mariae (“Order of Friar Servants of St. Mary”), the order is a Roman Catholic congregation of mendicant friars dedicated to apostolic work.

lighthouse of Alexandria: Built by Sostratus of Cnidus, perhaps for Ptolemy I Soter, it was finished during the reign of Soter’s son Ptolemy II of Egypt in about 280 bce. The lighthouse stood on the island of Pharos in the harbour of Alexandria and is said to have been more…

Goguryeo: With the promulgation by King Sosurim (reigned 371–384) of various laws and decrees aimed at centralizing royal authority, Goguryeo emerged as a full-fledged aristocratic state. Its territory was extended greatly during the reign of King Gwanggaeto (391–412) and further by Jangsu (reigned 413–491). The entire northern half of the Korean…

The Sot-Weed Factor, picaresque novel by John Barth, originally published in 1960 and revised in 1967. A parody of the historical novel, it is based on and takes its title from a satirical poem published in 1708 by Ebenezer Cooke, who is the protagonist of Barth’s work. The novel’s black humour is

Veijo Meri: …play, Sotamies Jokisen vihkiloma (1965; Private Jokinen’s Marriage Leave), is set in the war years of the 1940s. An autobiography, Kersantin poika (“The Son of a Sergeant”), was published in 1971.

arhat: , a convert (sotapanna)—achieved by overcoming false beliefs and doubts regarding the Buddha, the teaching (dhamma), and the order (sangha), (2) the “once-returner” (sakadagamin), who will be reborn only once in this realm, a state attained by diminishing lust, hatred, and illusion, (3) the “nonreturner” (anagamin), who, after…

ariya-puggala: …of holy person, called a sotapanna-puggala (“stream-winner”), is one who will attain nibbana (Sanskrit nirvana)—release (moksha) from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), the supreme goal of Buddhist practice—after no more than seven rebirths. Another type of holy person is termed a sakadagamin (“once-returner”), or one who is

Sōtatsu was a Japanese artist of the Tokugawa period (1603–1867) who combined the traditional themes of the indigenous school of Japanese narrative scroll painting, known as Yamato-e, with the bold, decorative designs of the great screen painters of the Azuchi-Momoyama period (1574–1600). He

Ogata Kōrin: …of the masters of the Sōtatsu-Kōetsu school of decorative painting. He is particularly famous for his screen paintings, lacquerwork, and textile designs.

Ogata Kōrin: …of the masters of the Sōtatsu-Kōetsu school of decorative painting. He is particularly famous for his screen paintings, lacquerwork, and textile designs.

Sotavento Islands, island group in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of western Africa and the southern of two island groups that constitute Cabo Verde. The archipelago consists of the islands of Brava, Fogo, Maio, and Santiago, as well as the islets of Grande, Luís Carneiro, and Cima, together

Sotavento Islands, island group in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of western Africa and the southern of two island groups that constitute Cabo Verde. The archipelago consists of the islands of Brava, Fogo, Maio, and Santiago, as well as the islets of Grande, Luís Carneiro, and Cima, together

Leeward Islands, an arc of West Indian islands that constitute the most westerly and northerly of the Lesser Antilles, at the northeastern end of the Caribbean Sea, between latitudes 16° and 19° N and longitudes 61° and 65° W. The history of British, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonialism in the

changsŭng: …spiritual significance, the somewhat taller sotdae, usually surmounted by a carved crane or duck, was often erected before a tomb or a house to commemorate the holder of a civil-service position during the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910).

St. Soter ; feast day April 22) was the pope from about 166 to about 175. Succeeding St. Anicetus as pope, Soter sent a letter and alms to the church of Corinth, whose bishop, St. Dionysius, replied in a letter that acknowledged Soter’s affection and theological advice. Soter continued Pope

Soteria, (from Greek: “deliverance”), in Hellenistic religions, any sacrifice or series of sacrifices performed either in commemoration or in expectation of deliverance from a crisis; in a specific sense the word was often used in reference to large-scale commemorative festivals held at planned

salvation: Nature and significance: The term soteriology denotes beliefs and doctrines concerning salvation in any specific religion, as well as the study of the subject. The idea of saving or delivering from some dire situation logically implies that humankind, as a whole or in part, is in such a situation. This…

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading auction firms, founded in London in 1744. It originally handled sales of important manuscripts and library collections, but, beginning in the mid-1950s, it increasingly focused on the sale of art. Headquartered in New York City since the 20th century, Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading auction firms, founded in London in 1744. It originally handled sales of important manuscripts and library collections, but, beginning in the mid-1950s, it increasingly focused on the sale of art. Headquartered in New York City since the 20th century, Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading auction firms, founded in London in 1744. It originally handled sales of important manuscripts and library collections, but, beginning in the mid-1950s, it increasingly focused on the sale of art. Headquartered in New York City since the 20th century, Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading auction firms, founded in London in 1744. It originally handled sales of important manuscripts and library collections, but, beginning in the mid-1950s, it increasingly focused on the sale of art. Headquartered in New York City since the 20th century, Sotheby’s

Edward Hugh Sothern was an American actor who was widely popular for his roles in romantic comedy and was noted as well for his performances in Shakespearean plays. The son of the English comedian Edward Askew Sothern, he made his first stage appearance with his father’s company in New York City in

Egyptian calendar: …years (referred to as a Sothic cycle). The months were named after those of the lunar calendar, and both systems of reckoning were maintained throughout the pharaonic period. In the 4th century bce a schematized 25-year lunar calendar was apparently devised on the pattern of the civil calendar, in order…

Sirius, brightest star in the night sky, with apparent visual magnitude −1.46. It is a binary star in the constellation Canis Major. The bright component of the binary is a blue-white star 25.4 times as luminous as the Sun. It has a radius 1.71 times that of the Sun and a surface temperature of

Sotho, linguistic and cultural group of peoples occupying the high grasslands of southern Africa. The main groups are customarily classified as the Transvaal, or northern, Sotho (Pedi, Lovedu, and others); the western Sotho, or Tswana (q.v.); and the southern Sotho (often called Basuto) of Lesotho

Benue-Congo languages: Bantoid: …of the population of Angola; Sotho, which has two dialects generally treated as separate languages, northern Sotho (3,800,000) and southern Sotho (4,000,000); and Kituba, a creole based mostly on Kongo, with some 4,000,000 first-language speakers and more than another 1,000,000 second-language speakers.

sotie, short satirical play popular in France in the 15th and early 16th centuries, in which a company of sots (“fools”) exchanged badinage on contemporary persons and events. The sots, wearing the traditional short jacket, tights, bells, and dunce cap of the fool, also introduced acrobatics and

José María de Pereda: …of the 19th century, was Sotileza (1884), an epic of the Santander fisherfolk, exemplified by the portrait of the haughty, enigmatic female fisher Sotileza, and a genuine novel of customs.

Cyprus: Earliest periods: …excavated north of Kourion at Sotira near the southern coast and also in the Kyrenia Mountains, and ornaments of picrolite (a variety of soapstone) and copper have also been found in those areas.

Isaac Bashevis Singer: …Der Sotn in Goray (Satan in Goray), was published in installments in Poland shortly before he immigrated to the United States in 1935.

Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games: …figure skating, where unheralded Russian Adelina Sotnikova upset defending Olympic champion Kim Yu-Na of South Korea, despite the latter having skated what many observers thought was a winning program. The Alpine skiing events featured two notable finishes by Americans of disparate ages, as Bode Miller became—at age 36—the oldest Alpine…

Western painting: Central Europe: In Karel Škréta Šotnovoský, Bohemia possessed a painter of European stature; his sombre portraits and religious scenes are filled with a deeply serious mystical fervour. The frescoes by Johann Michael Rottmayr in the castle of Vranov in Moravia (1695) and in Breslau (now Wrocław; 1704–06) constitute…