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  • Parker, Charlie (American musician)
    American alto saxophonist, composer, and bandleader, a lyric artist generally considered the greatest jazz saxophonist. Parker was the principal stimulus of the modern jazz idiom known as bebop, and—together with Louis Armstrong and Ornette Coleman—he was one of the three great revolutionary geniuses in jazz. (Click here for a ...
  • Parker, Claire (French animator)
    Russian-born French filmmaker who invented the pinscreen method of animation with his collaborator (later his wife), the animator Claire Parker (1910–81)....
  • Parker, Colonel Tom (American promoter)
    Dutch-born American show business promoter who was best known for managing the career of Elvis Presley (b. June 26, 1909--d. Jan. 21, 1997)....
  • Parker Dam (dam, Arizona-California, United States)
    Shortly after the completion of Hoover Dam, planning and construction began downstream on the Parker Dam. From Lake Havasu, the reservoir impounded by the dam, water is transported some 250 miles across California to supply a portion of the water needs for Los Angeles and most of the water supply for San Diego. Davis, Imperial, Laguna, and Morelos dams further regulate flow and diversion in the......
  • Parker, Dorothy (American author)
    American short-story writer and poet, known for her witty remarks....
  • Parker, Eddie (American billiards player)
    American billiards player (b. June 2, 1931, Springfield, Mo.—d. Feb. 2, 2001, Brownsville, Texas), was a legendary pool player whose exploits reportedly inspired the critically acclaimed 1961 film The Hustler. Parker played the game from the age of nine and, after a stint in the U.S. Navy in the early 1950s, toured extensively as a money player. In 1959 Walter Tevis, a young pool hal...
  • Parker, Ely S. (United States government official)
    ...4, 1869, politically inexperienced and, at age 46, the youngest man theretofore elected president. His appointments to office were uneven in quality but sometimes refreshing. Notably, Grant named Ely S. Parker, a Seneca Indian who had served with him as a staff officer, commissioner of Indian affairs, and Grant’s wife persuaded him to appoint Hamilton Fish secretary of state. Strong-will...
  • Parker, Eugene (American astrophysicist)
    In 1958 the American astrophysicist Eugene Parker showed that the equations describing the flow of plasma in the Sun’s gravitational field had one solution that allowed the gas to become supersonic and to escape the Sun’s pull. The solution was much like the description of a rocket nozzle in which the constriction in the flow is analogous to the effect of gravity. Parker predicted th...
  • Parker, Francis (American educator)
    a founder of progressive elementary education in the United States and organizer of the first parent-teacher group at Chicago....
  • Parker, Frank (American athlete)
    American tennis player who in the 1940s was U.S. singles champion twice, Wimbledon doubles champion--with Pancho Gonzales--once, and French singles champion twice; he spent 17 years in the top-10 ranks (b. Feb. 13, 1916--d. July 24, 1997)....
  • Parker, George (English writer)
    ...ballot box of the Saddlers Company. Information on the lacquer process seems first to have been published by the Italian Jesuit Martin Martinius (Novus Atlas Sinensis, 1655). John Stalker and George Parker’s Treatise of Japanning and Varnishing (London, 1688) was the first text with pattern illustrations. The English term japanning was inspired by the superiority of Japanes...
  • Parker, Horatio William (American composer)
    composer, conductor, and teacher, prominent member of the turn-of-the-century Boston school of American composers....
  • Parker, Isaac C. (American jurist)
    ...in the 1870s. The U.S. Federal District Court for Western Arkansas was located in Fort Smith and had jurisdiction over the Indian Territory, which also had become a refuge for outlaws. Judge Isaac C. Parker, known as a “hanging judge,” successfully carried out the difficult task of enforcing federal law in the area from 1875 to 1896. Fort Smith National Historic Site......
  • Parker, James Stewart (Irish playwright)
    Irish playwright whose innovative plays captured the human dimension of the religious conflict in Northern Ireland....
  • Parker, James Thomas (American athlete)
    American football player (b. April 3, 1934, Macon, Ga.—d. July 18, 2005, Columbia, Md.), became in 1973 the first full-time offensive lineman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Parker played under legendary coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State University, where he earned All-America honours and won the 1956 Outland Trophy as the nation’s top lineman. He played 11 seasons (1957...
  • Parker, Jim (American athlete)
    American football player (b. April 3, 1934, Macon, Ga.—d. July 18, 2005, Columbia, Md.), became in 1973 the first full-time offensive lineman inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Parker played under legendary coach Woody Hayes at Ohio State University, where he earned All-America honours and won the 1956 Outland Trophy as the nation’s top lineman. He played 11 seasons (1957...
  • Parker, John (American businessman and seaman)
    ...(royal taboo) on the killing of the cattle, and within two decades thousands of wild cattle roamed vast swaths of the area, destroying much of the local agriculture. In 1812 John Parker, a sailor, was granted a license by Kamehameha to hunt the cattle, and he subsequently domesticated them and helped establish ranching as a major industry on the island. Waimea is the......
  • Parker, John J. (American jurist)
    ...on discrimination in voting rights, White in 1930 almost single-handedly succeeded in influencing the U.S. Senate to reject by a 41–39 vote President Herbert Hoover’s nomination of Judge John J. Parker of North Carolina for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Parker was on record as being opposed to black suffrage.) At the outbreak of World War II, White assisted labour leader...
  • Parker, Louis Napoleon (British dramatist)
    The early 20th century saw a revival of a “pure” form of pageant (one that is first and foremost historical drama), most notably in the works of Louis N. Parker. Parker’s insistence on accurate retellings of history, use of natural settings with little or no artificial scenery, and reliance on amateur actors served to repopularize the pageant as historical drama. Max Reinhardt...
  • Parker, Matthew (archbishop of Canterbury)
    Anglican archbishop of Canterbury (1559–75) who presided over the Elizabethan religious settlement in which the Church of England maintained a distinct identity apart from Roman Catholicism and Protestantism....
  • Parker, Maynard Michael (American editor)
    American editor of Newsweek from 1982 who increased the magazine’s readership by broadening the scope of its coverage from foreign events and politics to also include such topics as science and technology, social issues, medicine, and religion (b. July 28, 1940, Los Angeles, Calif.--d. Oct. 16, 1998, New York, N.Y.)....
  • Parker, Mount (mountain, Hong Kong, China)
    ...abrupt drop to about 650 feet at Devil’s Peak. Victoria (Hong Kong) Harbour is well protected by mountains on Hong Kong Island that include Victoria Peak in the west, which rises to 1,810 feet, and Mount Parker in the east, which reaches a height of about 1,742 feet....
  • Parker, Patricia (American critic and scholar)
    The implications of deconstruction for Shakespeare criticism have to do with language and its protean flexibility of meanings. Patricia Parker’s Shakespeare from the Margins: Language, Culture, Context (1996), for example, offers many brilliant demonstrations of this, one of which is her study of the word preposterous, a word she finds throughout the pl...
  • Parker, Quanah (Native American leader)
    aggressive Comanche leader who mounted an unsuccessful war against white invaders in northwest Texas (1874–75); he later became the main spokesman and peacetime leader of the Indians in the region, a role he performed for 30 years....
  • Parker Ranch (ranch, Hawaii, United States)
    ...was granted a license by Kamehameha to hunt the cattle, and he subsequently domesticated them and helped establish ranching as a major industry on the island. Waimea is the headquarters for the Parker Ranch (established about 1815), one of the largest Hereford cattle ranches in the United States and famous for its Hawaiian paniolos, who trace their......
  • Parker, Robert L. (British geologist)
    Working independently but along very similar lines, Dan P. McKenzie and Robert L. Parker of Britain and W. Jason Morgan of the United States resolved these issues. McKenzie and Parker showed with a geometric analysis that, if the moving slabs of crust were thick enough to be regarded as rigid and thus to remain undeformed, their motions on a sphere would lead precisely to those divergent,......
  • Parker, Robert LeRoy (American outlaw)
    American outlaw and foremost member of the Wild Bunch, a collection of bank and train robbers who ranged through the western United States in the 1880s and ’90s....
  • Parker, Sarah Jessica (American actress)
    Although Sarah Jessica Parker struggled to define the rules of dating as Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City, the American actress knew the secrets to a successful relationship with television viewers: sex, friends, and fashion. In 2001 Parker returned for the highly anticipated fourth season of Sex and the City, and millions tuned in for the candid look at four friends—Bradsh...
  • Parker, Sir Gilbert, Baronet (British author)
    British novelist of popular adventure and historical romances whose most widely known work was The Seats of the Mighty (1896), a novel of the 17th-century conquest of Quebec....
  • Parker, Sir Horatio Gilbert, Baronet (British author)
    British novelist of popular adventure and historical romances whose most widely known work was The Seats of the Mighty (1896), a novel of the 17th-century conquest of Quebec....
  • Parker, Sir Hyde (British admiral)
    ...nation’s hero, and his progress to London was triumphal. Nelson was promoted to vice admiral in January 1801. Emma was pregnant by him when he was appointed second in command to the elderly admiral Sir Hyde Parker, who was to command an expedition to the Baltic. Shortly before sailing, Nelson heard that Emma had borne him a daughter named Horatia....
  • Parker, Sir Peter (British businessman)
    ...Mirror faced union resistance to its plans to modernize production. In 1984 the paper was sold to Robert Maxwell, who held it until his death in 1991. In 1992 the paper was bought by Sir Peter Parker, a former British Railways chairman. Acquired in 1999 by Trinity Mirror PLC, The Mirror continues to be one of the leading mass-circulation papers in......
  • Parker, Stewart (Irish playwright)
    Irish playwright whose innovative plays captured the human dimension of the religious conflict in Northern Ireland....
  • Parker, Suzy (American model)
    American model and actress (b. Oct. 28, 1933, Long Island City, N.Y.—d. May 3, 2003, Montecito, Calif.), had a beauty and sophistication that led to her paving the way for future supermodels by becoming the first model to make more than $100 an hour and $100,000 a year. She later had a short career as an actress in movies and on television....
  • Parker, Theodore (American theologian)
    American Unitarian theologian, pastor, scholar, and social reformer who was active in the antislavery movement. Theologically, he repudiated much traditional Christian dogma, putting in its place an intuitive knowledge of God derived from man’s experience of nature and insight into his own mind. Parker resembled Ralph Waldo Emerson and other New England Transcend...
  • Parker v. Davis (law case)
    ...justices to the Senate for confirmation. Justices Bradley and Strong were confirmed, and at the next session the court agreed to reconsider the greenback issue. In Knox v. Lee and Parker v. Davis (May 1, 1871), the Court reversed its Hepburn v. Griswold decision by a five-to-four majority, asserting that the Legal Tender Act of 1862 represented a......
  • Parkersburg (West Virginia, United States)
    city, seat (1800) of Wood county, western West Virginia, U.S. It lies at the confluence of the Ohio (there bridged to Belpre, Ohio) and Little Kanawha rivers. Settled about 1785 as Neal’s Station on a land tract originally purchased by Alexander Parker of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was first chartered by Virginia in 1820 and rechartered by West Virgin...
  • Parkes (New South Wales, Australia)
    town, east-central New South Wales, Australia, in the Lachlan River valley. Originally known as Bushman’s, it was founded in 1862 as a reef- and alluvial-gold centre. It was renamed for Sir Henry Parkes, a state premier, in 1873, and was proclaimed a municipality in 1883. Parkes is a commercial centre for a sheep-, grain-, fruit-, pig-, and poultry-farming area of the Wes...
  • Parkes, Alexander (British chemist)
    British chemist and inventor noted for his development of various industrial processes and materials....
  • Parkes, Francis Ernest Kobina (Ghanaian author)
    journalist, broadcaster, and widely anthologized poet whose style and great confidence in the future of Africa owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop....
  • Parkes, Frank Kobina (Ghanaian author)
    journalist, broadcaster, and widely anthologized poet whose style and great confidence in the future of Africa owe much to the Senegalese poet David Diop....
  • Parkes, Harry (British consul)
    ...police seized the Arrow, a Chinese-owned but British-registered ship flying a British flag, and charged its Chinese crew with piracy and smuggling. The British consul Harry Parkes sent a fleet to fight its way up to Guangzhou. French forces joined the venture on the plea that a French missionary had been officially executed in Guangxi. The British government sent....
  • Parkes process (chemistry)
    ...amounts of phosphorus into metal alloys to enhance their strength. One of his most significant inventions was a method of extracting silver from lead ore (1850). This procedure, commonly called the Parkes process, involves adding zinc to lead and melting the two together. When stirred, the molten zinc reacts and forms compounds with any silver and gold present in the lead. These zinc compounds....
  • Parkes Radio Telescope (telescope, Parkes, New South Wales, Australia)
    ...Radioastronomie 100-metre- (330-foot-) diameter antenna near Effelsberg, Ger.; the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) 64-metre (210-foot) dish near Parkes; and the 76-metre (250-foot) Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank in England. These filled-aperture radio telescopes are used for atomic and molecular spectroscopy over a wide range of frequency......
  • Parkes, Sir Henry (Australian politician)
    a dominant political figure in Australia during the second half of the 19th century, often called the father of Australian federation. He served five terms as premier of New South Wales between 1872 and 1891....
  • Parkes zinc-desilvering process (chemistry)
    ...amounts of phosphorus into metal alloys to enhance their strength. One of his most significant inventions was a method of extracting silver from lead ore (1850). This procedure, commonly called the Parkes process, involves adding zinc to lead and melting the two together. When stirred, the molten zinc reacts and forms compounds with any silver and gold present in the lead. These zinc compounds....
  • Parkesine (material)
    ...materials employed in these crafts as to new substances produced by chemical reactions and molded or pressed to take a permanent rigid shape. The first such material to be manufactured was Parkesine, developed by the British inventor Alexander Parkes. Parkesine, made from a mixture of chloroform and castor oil, was “a substance hard as horn, but as flexible as leather, capable of......
  • Parkhurst, Helen (American educator)
    American educator, author, and lecturer who devised the Dalton Laboratory Plan and founded the Dalton School....
  • parking
    Car-parking facilities are a major consideration in shopping-centre design. The size and scope of the centre, the type of tenant, and the economics of the area partially determine parking needs, but it has been found that a ratio of 5.5 parking spaces per 1,000 square feet of leasable space is usually adequate. Access to the lots must be broad and easy enough to avoid traffic jams. On hilly......
  • parking brake (mechanics)
    Parking brakes usually are of the mechanical type, applying force only to the rear brake shoes by means of a flexible cable connected to a hand lever or pedal. On cars with automatic transmissions, an additional lock is usually provided in the form of a pawl that can be engaged, by placing the shift lever in the “park” position, to prevent the drive shaft and rear wheels from......
  • Parkinson, C. Northcote (British historian and author)
    British historian, author, and formulator of “Parkinson’s Law,” the satiric dictum that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” A relatively obscure academic prior to the enunciation of his “law,” which first appeared in an essay in the London Economist in 1955, Parkinson later devised a second law, “Expenditure r...
  • Parkinson, Cyril Northcote (British historian and author)
    British historian, author, and formulator of “Parkinson’s Law,” the satiric dictum that “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” A relatively obscure academic prior to the enunciation of his “law,” which first appeared in an essay in the London Economist in 1955, Parkinson later devised a second law, “Expenditure r...
  • Parkinson disease (pathology)
    ...by the British physician James Parkinson in his Essay on the Shaking Palsy. Various types of the disorder are now recognized, but the disease described by Parkinson, called Parkinson disease, is the most common form. Parkinson disease is also called primary parkinsonism, paralysis agitans, or idiopathic parkinsonism. The onset of Parkinson disease typically occurs at.....
  • Parkinson, James (British physician)
    Parkinsonism was first described in 1817 by the British physician James Parkinson in his Essay on the Shaking Palsy. Various types of the disorder are now recognized, but the disease described by Parkinson, called Parkinson disease, is the most common form. Parkinson disease is also called primary parkinsonism, paralysis agitans, or idiopathic parkinsonism. The onset......
  • parkinson-plus disease (pathology)
    ...people of the Pacific Mariana Islands, is also thought to result from an unidentified environmental agent. In some individuals a genetic defect is thought to incur susceptibility to the disease. Parkinsonism-plus disease, or multiple-system degenerations, includes diseases in which the main features of parkinsonism are accompanied by other symptoms. Parkinsonism may appear in patients with......
  • parkinsonism (pathology)
    a chronic neurologic disorder characterized by a progressive loss of motor function resulting from the degeneration of neurons in the area of the brain that controls voluntary movement....
  • Parkinson’s law (dictum)
    a chronic neurologic disorder characterized by a progressive loss of motor function resulting from the degeneration of neurons in the area of the brain that controls voluntary movement.......
  • Parkinson’s Law, or The Pursuit of Progress (work by Parkinson)
    ...to expand their own ranks indefinitely, so long as taxes could be raised. Written in a deadpan but mercilessly funny style, Parkinson’s Economist essays were issued in book form in Parkinson’s Law, or The Pursuit of Progress (1958). Apart from the books that made him famous, Parkinson wrote numerous historical works, including the critically acclaimed The Evolutio...
  • Parklands (zone, Canada)
    ...(primarily Ponderosa pine) dominate the mountain islands, such as the Black Hills. Between Edmonton, Alta., and Winnipeg, Man., a transition zone trending northwest-southeast and known as the “Parklands” is found, where the grasslands gradually give way to forest; and north of 54° N latitude coniferous forests dominate the vegetation....
  • Parkman, Francis (American historian)
    American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763....
  • Parks Canada of the Department of the Environment (Canadian government department)
    American historian noted for his classic seven-volume history of France and England in North America, covering the colonial period from the beginnings to 1763.......
  • Parks, Gordon (American author, photographer, and film director)
    American author, photographer, and film director, who documented African American life....
  • Parks, Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan (American author, photographer, and film director)
    American author, photographer, and film director, who documented African American life....
  • Parks, Rosa (American civil-rights activist)
    African American civil rights activist whose refusal to relinquish her seat on a public bus to a white man precipitated the 1955–56 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, which is recognized as the spark that ignited the U.S. civil rights movement....
  • Parks, Susan-Lori (American playwright)
    American playwright who in 2002 became the first black woman playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize (for Topdog/Underdog, 2001)....
  • Parks, Suzan-Lori (American playwright)
    American playwright who in 2002 became the first black woman playwright to win a Pulitzer Prize (for Topdog/Underdog, 2001)....
  • Parks, Wally (American businessman)
    Drag racing as an organized sport began in the 1930s on dry lake beds in southern California, and it gained greater respectability after Wally Parks helped organize the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) in 1938. World War II brought a temporary hiatus to activities but gave California “hot rodders” the opportunity to proselytize fellow servicemen, and these new converts.....
  • parkway (road)
    major arterial divided highway that features two or more traffic lanes in each direction, with opposing traffic separated by a median strip; elimination of grade crossings; controlled entries and exits; and advanced designs eliminating steep grades, sharp curves, and other hazards and inconveniences to driving. Frequently expressways have been constructed over completely new routes, passing near b...
  • Parlá, Alicia (American dancer)
    Cuban-born American dancer who in the early 1930s reigned as queen of the rumba, becoming an American and European sensation with her sensual dancing and attracting the attention of several members of European royalty (b. 1914, Havana, Cuba--d. Oct. 6, 1998, Miami, Fla.)....
  • parlando (music)
    ...in the “mask,” that is, the cavities of the head, though this resonation did not affect the radiative power of the voice but only its volume. These singers, and also the still-later parlando singers, who effected a union of speech and singing, made a conscious use of resonation in this way and differed from the bel canto singers in that they exercised less control over physical......
  • parlando-rubato (singing style)
    ...European folk music, the Hungarian composer and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók identified two primary singing styles in European folk music, which he named parlando-rubato and tempo giusto. Parlando-rubato, stressing the words, departs frequently from strict......
  • Parlement (historical supreme court, France)
    the supreme court under the ancien régime in France. It developed out of the Curia Regis (King’s Court), in which the early kings of the Capetian dynasty (987–1328) periodically convened their principal vassals and prelates to deliberate with them on feudal and political matters. It ...
  • Parlement, Fronde of the (French history)
    The refusal of the Parlement of Paris to approve the government’s revenue measures in the spring of 1648 set off the first phase, the Fronde of the Parlement. The Parlement sought to put a constitutional limit on the monarchy by establishing its power to discuss and modify royal decrees. From June 30 to July 12 an assembly of courts made a list of 27 articles for reform, including abolition...
  • Parlement of Foules (work by Chaucer)
    ...tense political scene. Indeed, one is tempted to speculate that during this period Chaucer turned to his reading and writing as escape from the difficulties of his public life. The Parlement of Foules, a poem of 699 lines, is a dream-vision for St. Valentine’s Day, making use of the myth that each year on that day the birds gathered before the goddess Nature ...
  • Parlement of Paris (court, France)
    The position originated in the ecclesiastical courts in the Middle Ages and was adopted by the Parlement of Paris in the late 13th century. Originally rapporteurs were not members of the court, but by 1336 they were given full rights to participate in the decision-making process as judges....
  • parlementaire (French class)
    ...had not met since 1614, the parlements now claimed to represent the Estates when those were not in session. In 1752 a Jansenist parlementaire, Louis-Adrien Le Paige, developed the idea that the various parlements should be thought of as the “classes” or parts of a.....
  • Parléř, Petr (German mason)
    best-known member of a famous German family of masons. His works exemplify the tendency toward profuse ornamentation and technical ostentation that are characteristic of late Gothic architecture....
  • Parley, Peter (American writer)
    American publisher and author of children’s books under the pseudonym of Peter Parley....
  • Parliament (United Kingdom government)
    the original legislative assembly of England, Scotland, or Ireland and successively of Great Britain and the United Kingdom; legislatures in some countries that were once British colonies are also known as parliaments. The British Parliament, often referred to as the “Mother of Parliaments,” consists of the sovereign, the House of Lords, and the ...
  • parliament (government)
    Federal legislative authority is vested in the Parliament of Canada, which consists of the sovereign (governor-general), the House of Commons, and the Senate. Both the House of Commons, which has 308 directly elected members, and the Senate, which normally consists of 105 appointed members, must pass all legislative bills before they can receive royal assent and become law. Both bodies may......
  • Parliament Act of 1911 (British history)
    act passed Aug. 10, 1911, in the British Parliament which deprived the House of Lords of its absolute power of veto on legislation. The act was proposed by a Liberal majority in the House of Commons....
  • Parliament Act of 1949 (British history)
    ...of Commons as money bills (involving taxation or expenditures) become law one month after being sent for consideration to the House of Lords, with or without the consent of that house. Under the 1949 act, all other public bills (except bills to extend the maximum duration of Parliament) not receiving the approval of the House of Lords become law provided that they are passed by two......
  • Parliament, Admonition to (Puritan manifesto, 1572)
    Puritan manifesto, published in 1572 and written by the London clergymen John Field and Thomas Wilcox, that demanded that Queen Elizabeth I restore the “purity” of New Testament worship in the Church of England and eliminate the remaining Roman Catholic elements and practices from the Church of England. Reflecting wide Presbyterian influence among Puritans, the admonition advocated g...
  • Parliament Buildings (government building, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada)
    ...of Victoria (1963; formerly Victoria College, established in 1902), Royal Roads University (1995), the Royal British Columbia Museum (1886), and an astrophysical observatory. The Victorian-style Parliament Buildings (seat of the provincial legislative assembly) overlook the Inner Harbour and yacht basin. Included in Victoria’s metropolitan area are the communities of Esquimalt, Oak Bay, ...
  • Parliament House (building, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom)
    Behind St. Giles, in Parliament Square, is Parliament House, built by the town council between 1632 and 1639. Parliament Square lies over the site of the medieval graveyard where John Knox, the most celebrated figure of the Scottish Reformation, was buried; thus, Knox has no marked grave or tombstone, save for a small plaque above one of the designated parking spaces between the church and......
  • Parliament, Houses of (buildings, London, United Kingdom)
    in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the seat of the bicameral Parliament, including the House of Commons and the House of Lords. It is located on the left bank of the River Thames in the borough of Westminster, London....
  • Parliament of Bees, The (work by Day)
    Elizabethan dramatist whose verse allegory The Parliament of Bees shows unusual ingenuity and delicacy of imagination....
  • Parliament of Canada (government, Canada)
    Elizabethan dramatist whose verse allegory The Parliament of Bees shows unusual ingenuity and delicacy of imagination.......
  • Parliament-Funkadelic (American music group)
    massive group of performers that greatly influenced black music in the 1970s. The original members were George Clinton (b. July 22, 1941Kannapolis, N.C., U.S.), Raymond Davis (b. March 29, 1940Sumter, S.C....
  • Parliamentary Assembly (European organization)
    ...ministers of all council members. It decides the council’s budget and its program of activities based on recommendations made to it by the Parliamentary Assembly and various expert committees. The Parliamentary Assembly, which meets four times a year, is a deliberative body consisting of representatives from national parliaments. The Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe i...
  • parliamentary commissioner (government overseer)
    legislative commissioner for investigating citizens’ complaints of bureaucratic abuse. The office originated in Sweden in 1809–10 and has been copied in various forms in Scandinavia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Israel and in certain states in the United States and Australia and in provinces in Canada....
  • parliamentary democracy
    ...
  • parliamentary diplomacy
    ...of the peace negotiations was the creation of the League of Nations as the first permanent major international organization, with a secretariat of international civil servants. The League introduced parliamentary diplomacy in a two-chamber body, acknowledging the equality of states in its lower house and the supremacy of great powers in its upper one. As neither chamber had much power, however,...
  • Parliamentary Labour Party (political party, United Kingdom)
    ...responsible for recruiting and organizing members in each of the country’s parliamentary constituencies; affiliated trade unions, which traditionally have had an important role in party affairs; the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comprising Labour members of Parliament; and a variety of small socialist groups such as the Fabian Society. Delegates from these organizations meet in an an...
  • parliamentary procedure
    the generally accepted rules, precedents, and practices commonly employed in the governance of deliberative assemblies. Such rules are intended to maintain decorum, to ascertain the will of the majority, to preserve the rights of the minority, and to facilitate the orderly transaction of the business of an assembly....
  • Parliamentary Register, The
    ...of Sandwich, of selling an office of trust cost the Post’s printer a £2,000 fine. Almon himself was once imprisoned for libel and once forced to flee the country. In 1774 he began The Parliamentary Register, a monthly record of proceedings (continued until 1813). His printed attacks on William Pitt in the 1780s finally brought his imprisonment for 14 months......
  • parlour palm (plant genus)
    ...procumbent, or trailing, at or below the surface of the soil and producing the crown at ground level, while others are high-climbing vines. Rare instances of regular branching (in Allagoptera, Chamaedorea, Hyphaene, Nannorrhops, Nypa, Vonitra) appear to involve equal or subequal division at the apex that results in a forking habit. The two newly formed branches may continue equally, or.....
  • Parma (Italy)
    city, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, on the Parma River, northwest of Bologna. Founded by the Romans along the Via Aemilia in 183 bc, Parma was important as a road junction; its trade flourished, and it obtained Roman citizenship. It became an episcopal see in the 4th century and was later destroyed by the Ostrogoth king Theodoric. The city was reb...
  • Parma (Ohio, United States)
    city, Cuyahoga county, northeastern Ohio, U.S., a southern suburb of Cleveland. Settled by New Englanders in 1816, it was known as Greenbriar until 1826, when it became the township of Parma, named for the Italian city. A small section seceded to form Parma Heights in 1911, and in 1924 the remainder of the township became the village of Parma. After a 1931 proposal for annexatio...
  • Parma and Piacenza, Alessandro Farnese, duke of (regent of The Netherlands)
    regent of the Netherlands (1578–92) for Philip II, the Habsburg king of Spain. He was primarily responsible for maintaining Spanish control there and for perpetuating Roman Catholicism in the southern provinces (now Belgium). In 1586 he succeeded his father as duke of Parma and Piacenza, but he never returned to Italy to rule....
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