Durante, Jimmy

As a boy, Durante wanted to become a saloon pianist. His father, a barber, bought him a piano and provided intermittent lessons. Although Durante left school in seventh grade for a miscellany of jobs, he kept up his piano

China

Chinese culture is remarkable for its duration and diversity. Skeletal remains and stone implements date to the Paleolithic stage of cultural development, from the 29th to the 17th millennium BC. Decorated artifacts, primarily marked pottery vessels, have been found in dozens of Incipient Neolithic and Neolithic sites, dating from

Cornelius, Peter

German composer and author, known for his comic opera Der Barbier von Bagdad (The Barber of Bagdad). The son of an actor and an actress, he acted at Mainz and at Wiesbaden in his youth. In 1845 he studied composition and was later music critic for two Berlin journals. From 1853 to 1858 he lived at Weimar in the circle of Liszt and the Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein

Guzmania

Guzmania leaves are stiff, often stemless or short-stemmed,

Puerto Vallarta

Formerly  Las Peñas,   city, western Jalisco estado (“state”), west-central Mexico. It lies on Banderas Bay, on the Pacific coastal lowland, 6 miles (10 km) south of the mouth of the Ameca River. It is the major port of Jalisco state and exports bananas, coconut oil, hides, and fine woods. Beans and bananas are grown in the hinterland, which is also used for raising pigs, horses, and bees. Puerto Vallarta's population

Hyaluronidase

Any of a group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis (chemical decomposition involving the elements of water) of certain complex carbohydrates such as hyaluronic acid and chondroitin sulfates. The enzymes have been found in insects, leeches, snake venom, mammalian tissues (testis being the richest mammalian source), and in bacteria.

Aswan High Dam

Arabic  As-Sadd al-'Ali,   rock-fill dam across the Nile River, at Aswan, Egypt, completed in 1970 (and formally inaugurated in January 1971) at a cost of about $1 billion. The dam, 364 feet (111 m) high, with a crest length of 12,562 feet (3,830 m) and a volume of 57,940,000 cubic yards (44,300,000 cubic m), impounds a reservoir, Lake Nasser, that has a gross capacity of 5.97 trillion cubic feet (169 billion cubic m). Of the Nile's total annual discharge, some 2.6 trillion cubic feet

Flora

In Roman religion, the goddess of the flowering of plants. Titus Tatius (according to tradition, the Sabine king who ruled with Romulus) is said to have introduced her cult to Rome; her temple stood near the Circus Maximus. Her festival, called the Floralia, was instituted in 238 BC. A representation of Flora's head, distinguished only by a floral crown, appeared on coins of the