Embroiled News

CENSORSHIP & BOOKS

2012-01-29T00:27:00.001-05:00

The Merchant Of Venice ~ One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovick ~ Mein Kampf ~ The Chocolate War ~ The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn ~ American Heritage Dictionary ~ Go Ask Alice ~ The Bible, ~ Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret ~ Catch-22 ~ Our Bodies ~ Ourselves ~ Tarzan ~ Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland ~ The Exorcist ~ Slaughterhouse-Five ~ Lord Of The Flies ~ Ordinary People ~ Soul On Ice ~ Raisin In The Sun ~ Oliver Twist ~ A Farewell To Arms ~ The Best Short Stories Of Negro Writers ~ Flowers For Algernon ~ Ulysses ~ To Kill A Mockingbird ~ Rosemary’s Baby ~ The Fixer ~ Grapes Of Wrath ~ Death Of A Salesman ~ Mother Goose ~ Catcher In The Rye...

Click here to send your titles to be added on this list.

T=2sF + 3sB

2012-01-27T15:20:00.000-05:00

Technology, equals two steps forward, plus three steps backward.

Sci-fy has been steadily advancing by leaps and bounds well beyond what we have seen on television. It has made so much progress that its no longer fiction but reality. Reminiscent of the classic Star Track television show we are now able to use our cellphone in similar ways as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. The “Real-Sci” of today, with its much-hyped Siri feature cellphone makes it possible to use voice commands and to have a quasi conversation as seen recently in the “Big Bang Theory” TV comedy show.
Siri, has been creeping in our daily routine for a while now. Siry is the robotic voce we hear after asking a G.P.S. tracking device directions, or if it will be a sonny day to go to the beach. These and many other applications are very impressive, when considering that only ten years ago, we were being weaned by the giant phone corporations to give up our cordless telephones.
The basic idea of electronic communication, is constantly on the move and there are lots of profits to be made with the newest and most sparkling innovations. The cellphone / mobile phone / telefonino / cellulare and other foreign descriptive terms, have become the names of the newest world wide toy. With thousands of new applications, sales of cellphones have been skyrocketing even among the less effluents, who have come to view their new toy as a status symbol of equality with the rest of the world.
“You’ve got to have it” promotional ads, are by now well implanted in our thinking process and the cellular industry will give you every gadget you want, for a price. However, applications like Siri’s data-hogging devices are causing problems not only for those who are willing to pay extra for their bandwidth inflated toys, but it affects the other basic cell and data networks users. Data networks are like any common resource, they have limits, and regardless who is using most shares, once they hit the determined limit, there’s no more to go around.
As networks become congested, everyone’s service deteriorates. Calls are dropped or never completed. More cell towers will not solve the problem, sooner or later we’ll bump up against the rigid limits of the electromagnetic spectrum – the invisible frequencies over which all electronic communications move.
Much of this difficulty began over the past 15 years when government officials decided to auction to high bidders or given away when radio and TV were the newest consumers’ technologies. By reshuffling the lineup, moving older users (say, over-the-air TV and radio stations and government agencies) to another part of the band in favor of the up-and-coming hot shots will perhaps help temporarily. Of course, this kind of change is disruptive, pitting the haves against the want-mores.
Of late, I have been thinking of investing in more reliable and renewable mode of communication. I have narrowed it down to three options: a flock of homing pigeons, a new telegraph key, and perhaps the oldest way to communicate among humans, the ever reliable, jungle drum.

Chef Giorgio Esca - ANCIENT ROMAN BREAD

2012-01-23T18:30:00.000-05:00

A brief History:

The ancient art of bread making began shortly after man learned how to cultivate the land and realized, that by collecting the seeds and processing them, the first loafs of bread became possible. Nations there after succeeded or failed based on the amount of bread their population was able to eat.

In our modernized industrial / western societies, wheat, corn and the many other raw ingredients for bread making is harvested in great quantities. Sadly, however, nations of the third world countries often find themself on the brink of starvation do to lack of water for cultivation, land disputes and political unrest – some things, never seem to change for the better.

During the last few weeks I’ve been contemplating in the kitchen about recreating the same type of bread once baked by the Ancient Roman bakeries. My research eventually lead me to Ancient Rome in 168 B.C.E. when a baker’s guild was formed and the baking industry started to grow on its own, with bakers achieving special status. White bread was frowned upon, and bakers used sea-water to save on salt in the baking of the bread. According to Athenaeus, the best bakers were from Phoenicia or Cappadocia, but like everything else in Italy, bread was and still remains, regional.

Bread may have been bought directly from the bakery, but it is likely that it was also sold from temporary stalls set up at different parts of the town as it is done today. I also found this great ancient proverb, “Chie hat pane, mai no morit” – Which translate, “those that have bread will never die.” I can’t guarantee that this bread will make you live forever, but you should give it a try since it’s easy to make and tastes good too!~!~

ANCIENT ROMAN BREAD - Recipe:
VERSION: 14 Oct 2011 - Using the Oster Regency Mixer with Dough Hooks ~ Makes 3 + ~ 1 Lbs. Bread Loafs
>>>----- YEAST PREPARATION ---------------
>Prepare the yeast first; let it rise while setting up work area
1. Place yeast amount needed inside bowl
2. Dissolve in separate bowl: ¼ Cup warm water + ¼ Tsp. Sugar
3. Add all at once ¼ Cup warm water + ¼ Tsp. Sugar into yeast bowl
4. Stir lightly
5. Let sit for about 10 Min. + until fully leavened
6. Add to dry ingredients before using electric mixer
>>>----- INGREDIENTS ---------------
1. YEAST: 4 Tsp. Dry Yeast + ¼ Tsp. Sugar + ¼ Cup Warm water
2. WATER - H2O : 2 Cups Warm water + 1 Tsp. Salt = Pre-mix   separate
3. FLOUR: 3 ½ Cups Unbleached Hard Wheat + 3 ½ Cups All Purpose = 7 Cups
4. OIL: 5 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil – Olive oil or Canola, Peanut etc.
>>>----- PLACE ALL INGREDIENTS IN MIXER BOWL-----
5. Mix ingredients until dough is elastic: 10 + Min. with electric dough mixer or hand knead for about 20 Min.
>>>----- LET IT RISE ---------------
6. Separate into individual loafs; place each loaf in well oiled bread pans or flat sheets with corn meal.
7. Let rise to at least twice the size – about 2 Hrs.
>>>----- BAKING ---------------
8.   For a great crust, place a metal pan with water on oven bottom shelf or heavily mist loafs before baking with water.
9.   Pre-Heat over to 400F.
10. Baking time 30 Min. > Place bread pans for 30 Min. at mid-level shelf; remove when crust browns or sounds hollow when tapped. When using a fast/hot oven, switch top loafs with lowers loafs at half time to avoid burning.~!~

Note: Understandably the Ancient Romans did not have the
modern conveniences as we do, thus I have fine-tuned the
amount of water, in relation to bread baking in our modern
appliances. Please adjust to your baking needs. ... Send your
results to, Chef Giorgio Esca - E. N. Culinary Department.~!~

Jazz & Java

2012-01-20T21:21:00.000-05:00

Jazz & Java
at the Valencia Palm

The Embroiled News has once again attended the annual “Jazz and Java” performance at the Valencia Palm, featuring Phil Silberman’s, “Avery Lane,” jazz at it’s finest.
It was a sell out, standing room only full house. The performance was par excellence reminiscent of the gone by era of the 30' 40' and 50’s jazz. The spellbound audience enjoyed old favorites and jazz standards from “Girl talk” to “Caravan” and romantic tunes like “Speak low” and “Without a Song.”
The electrifying jazz sounds seemed to charge everyone as the audience was brought back to a time when jazz was top. Jazz, American’s original sound, was well represented by the players and each note they played. Unlike the modern concert formats of today’s performances, jazz remains an intimate musical art form that is better appreciated when played near people or smaller audiences.
All those of us who love the great sound of jazz, must make a better effort to preserve this unique American musical art form for our enjoinment, but most importantly, we need to preserve it for our future generations.
The era of jazz clubs have been alarmingly disappearing and so is the great talent that once played there. The cool and sizzling jazz sounds that once played from Harlem to the smoke filled rooms clubs in lower Manhattan and across America have become few in numbers. It is up to us to make sure the American Jazz tradition continues.
The Embroiled News invites you to listen these brief highlights from the “Jazz and Java” performance recorded recently – Phil Silberman on drums, Judy Moskowitz on piano, and Mike Kagen on the alto saxophone.
Prof. Malatesta
Jazz & Java ~
Raw live video footage, recorded, January 20, 2012.

Copyrighted by © Embroiled News / Giovanni and/or their respective authors.

Reversing obesity?

2012-01-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

The Confederate States secret weapon, Submarine H.L. Hunley, recovered.

2012-01-14T16:41:00.000-05:00

The Hunley was the secret weapon of the Confederacy and the world's first submarine to sink an enemy ship (1863-1864) . It attacked and sank the Union warship, the USS Housatonic, on the night of Feb. 17, 1864, and then disappeared. The submarine was found 131 plus years later, and several miles off Charleston, S.C., in the 1990s and recovered in 2000.
The submarine H.L. Hunley, a small, hand-powered submarine, was privately built in Mobile, Alabama, in 1863, based on plans furnished by Horace Lawson Hunley, James R. McClintock and Baxter Watson.

After she received a series of failed tests and killed two sets of crews, she was ordered to only operate on the surface. She once again began a series of attempts to attack United States Navy ships on blockade duty off Charleston and on 17 February 1864, these efforts were successful. H.L. Hunley approached the steam sloop of war USS Housatonic and was able to detonate a spar torpedo against her side. The Federal ship sank rapidly, becoming the first warship to be lost to a submarine's attack.

However, H.L. Hunley did not return from this mission, and was presumed lost, with all hands on board, again. Her fate remained a mystery for more than 131 years, until May 1995, when a search led by author Clive Cussler located her wreck.
In the following collage of recent pictures a conservation crew member walks beside the Civil War submarine H.L. Hunley at Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston, S.C.

Read and see actual work drawings at the > DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD -- WASHINGTON D.C..

Orbis Historie Congregatio
Prof. Reginald R. Malarky

Louie At the Movies ~ The Porcelain Unicorn

2012-01-10T12:40:00.000-05:00

This past summer, Philips and the renowned director/producer, Ridley Scott, launched a global filmmaker competition dubbed the: " Tell It Your Way " Film Making Contest. The entrants were given total freedom of expression and could take up any theme they wanted. But there were two rules in the contest to qualify for the prize that were strictly enforced:

1) Only six lines of dialogue was allowed in the film. Thus challenging the film maker to show , rather than to tell the story. This insured that the film submissions would portray a story graphically, keeping the elements in the story visual.

2) The other rule concerned brevity and challenged the film maker with a time constraint for conveying the story. Any film submitted in the contest had to be no longer than a total of three minutes.

Finally after the judging ended, this was the prize-winning entry in the, "Tell It Your Way" contest. It is entitled, "The Porcelain Unicorn."

Please click here to see our featured video

>> Thank you Judy for sharing!

Commercial whaling off the cost of Japan resumes

2012-01-10T04:22:00.000-05:00

Some well meaning landlubbers are not familiar, nor do they perhaps know, that whale hunting is still thriving in many parts of our modernized world. Unlike whale hunting for subsistence living by the native tribes in Canada and Alaska, the Japan Times for instant, reported recently that whaling off Hokkaido began as usual when three boats left the port of Kushiro, Hokkaido, for what the government calls, whaling research missions.
Usually, the hunt is conducted off Ayukawa port in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, but it has been switched to Kushiro, due to the base port having been recently damaged by the earthquake and tsunami.
The crew, including around 30 members from Ayukawa, will catch up to 60 minke whales to study their ecology.
Ryoetsu Okumi, a 69-year-old whaler who has been in the business for more than 50 years, said, "I'm happy to be able to work this time as I grew up in a whaling town," expressing hope that the hunt will contribute to reconstructing the livelihoods of the Ayukawa people.
Critics call Japan's whaling research a cover for commercial whaling.
Japan's factory whaling ships -- Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) -- the Nisshin Maru was "welcomed" into Tokyo, by Junichi and a team from Greenpeace Japan, along with the word "failed" to accompany the ubiquitous and Orwellian "RESEARCH" painted on its hull.
During its five months at sea, the Nisshin Maru was responsible for taking 551 minke whales from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary - far less than the 1035 whales planned, but more than a hundred than were killed three years ago. Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, shutdown Japan's entire whaling operation for 15 days, during a 4300-mile chase of the Nisshin Maru across the Southern Ocean. The whalers are blaming the protesters for missing their target.
Nisshin Maru has arrives in Tokyo after failed "research" in the Southern Ocean.
For those who have never seen or let alone experienced, what happens during a commercial whale hunt, these next sets of pictures should suffice to give reason to stop this archaic practice . . . The pictures are self explanatory.

READY FOR ANOTHER KILL!

Featured Video / Slides

2012-01-09T19:28:00.001-05:00

These are a few pictures taken at our local Occupy Wall Street rally. Note: We have begun experimenting with this presentation -- Video / Slides. Your input will help us decide the best preferences. Larger than this size will take much longer to load on your computer, for example. ... Let us know if it's working for you.

The Hawk

2012-01-09T16:30:00.000-05:00

2012-01-08T17:40:00.000-05:00

A collage of posters from the Occupy movement

The art of Occupy has multiple targets.The protesters have more than a few graphic designers in their ranks, and their homemade signs don’t reflect a single agenda.

More Occupy posters will be added soon.

2012-01-07T23:11:00.001-05:00

Creating caricatures from events in the news

Not too long ago I was experimenting in creating caricatures by using personalities or events in the news. I also wanted to add a diolog quoted from the individual's own statements. To simplify the process of making layout sketches for each of the main subjects, I used what I knew as an artist and some very basic computer programs to make several experimental vignettes by first chousing a politically charged photograph and then manipulate it digitally.
The intent of the exercise was to create a quick depiction, of known personalities within related current events, in caricature, yet easily identifiable by the contemporary public.

    The result is seen in the above sample and its fair to say that many of you can do the same in one form or another. Like everything else, we as innovative humans, should be able to accomplish these similar results with the proper tools after perhaps, a few false starts. For the most part, the programs I have used are also available as free downloads to use until you decide which one will work best for your needs. Not being able to draw is no longer a factor because a phonograph, will be the basis of your caricature which is later finalized with a digital sketching program or plug-in. All you will need is the inspiration to begin and then give it a try.
Contrary to popular belief, artists do not make mistakes; they simply start anew in order to improve his or her creation.
    Create caricatures from your original photographs by depicting any person in which distinguishing characteristics are exaggerated for comic or grotesque effect. Have fun while doing it . . . Now that’s magic!
    Here’s a few more samples:

2012-01-07T13:33:00.002-05:00

Confucius say...
Wise man never play leapfrog with unicorn

2012-01-07T09:05:00.001-05:00

MAYA 2012 ~ A New Beginning

DZUL DANCE upcoming performance: January 26 through the 29, 2012

The Embroiled News has been endorsing Dzul Dance since early two thousand after we attended one of their extraordinary dance performances. Homed in New York City, founder and artistic director Javier Dzul and Robin Taylor Dzul, have for many years guided their dance company through acclaimed spectacular performances and have been recognized as a major impact throughout the world of modern dance. From the very first we were spell bound by the beauty and strength as they fuse dance with aerial arts and acrobatic performances. There’s just nothing like it!
Please visit the Dzul Dance web site, see their video presentation, and you too will be amazed how creative and magnificently they perform.
If you are one of our devoted readers who lives or is planning to visit the Big Apple, here’s a few dates, phone number and contact links to the Dzul Dance company's performance and reservation office:
DZUL DANCE will be performing on the 26 through the 29 of January 2012 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center,
55 Lexington Avenue @ 25th street, New York City
Thursday, January 26 @ 8pm
Friday, January 27 @ 8pm
Saturday, January 28 @ 8pm
Sunday, January 29 @ 3pm

Tickets: $30 general admission, $25 student/senior
Purchase tickets online at www.baruch.cuny.edu/bpac
or call 646-312-5073

Photo & video by Rojelio Rodriguez. See his current Maya 2012 video promo here >> http://vimeo.com/30350908

Visit DZUL DANCE web site, www.dzuldance.com and see highlights from their recent performances.

HUMOR

2012-01-07T08:26:00.000-05:00

Nature is Falling

2012-01-05T17:36:00.001-05:00

2012-01-05T15:39:00.000-05:00

Five myths about the American flag
- By Marc Leepson

Americans love our flag. We display it at concerts and stadiums to celebrate, and at times of national tragedy to show our resolve. We have our schoolchildren pledge allegiance to it; we have consecrated it in our national anthem; we have a holiday to honor it, in fact. Yet the iconography and history of the American flag, especially its early history, are infused with myth and misrepresentation. Here are five of the most prevalent myths.

1. Betsy Ross made the first American flag.
The Betsy Ross story is the most tenacious piece of fiction involving the flag. There simply is no credible historical evidence — letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, bills of sale — that Ross (then known as Elizabeth Claypoole) either made or had a hand in designing the American flag before it made its debut in 1777.
The story cropped up in 1870, almost 100 years after the first flag was supposedly sewn, when William Canby, Ross’s grandson, told the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that his grandmother made the flag at George Washington’s behest. Canby’s sole evidence: affidavits from family members. The iconic 1893 painting of Ross sitting in her Philadelphia parlor with the sun beaming down on the flag in her lap is a scene invented by Charles H. Weisgerber, the artist and entrepreneur who profited from the Betsy Ross legend.
While Ross did make flags in Philadelphia in the late 1770s, it is all but certain that the story about her creating the American flag is a myth.
As President Woodrow Wilson, who presided over the first official national Flag Day on June 14, 1916, is said to have replied when asked his thoughts on the story: “Would that it were true.”

2. The red, white and blue colors symbolize American sacrifice.
No federal law, resolution or executive order exists providing an official reason for the flag’s colors — or their meaning. The closest thing to an explanation are the words of Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress, who was instrumental in the design of the Great Seal of the United States. Thomson’s report to Congress on June 20, 1782, the day the seal was approved, contained a description of the colors, the same as those in the flag: “White signifies purity and innocence. Red hardiness and valour and Blue . . . signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.”
Various official documents and proclamations — including one by President Ronald Reagan marking 1986 as the “Year of the Flag” — have echoed that reasoning.
But the colors do not have, nor have they ever had, any official imprimatur. Historians believe that the use of red, white and blue in the Stars and Stripes has to do with the simple fact that they were the colors of the first flag of the American colonies, the Continental Colors. And there is little doubt where the red, white and blue of the Continental Colors came from: the Union Jack of England.

3. The Pledge of Allegiance has long been recited in Congress and other governmental bodies.
The pledge was written by magazine editor Francis Bellamy in 1892 for a nationwide public school celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s landing. In 1898, during the Spanish American War, New York became the first state to mandate that public school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of each school day. Many states followed suit, and the pledge remained a staple of the daily routine in many schools until 1988, when it became an issue in the presidential campaign.
Vice President George H.W. Bush criticized his opponent, Democrat Michael Dukakis, for vetoing a bill as governor of Massachusetts that would have required the pledge to be recited in public schools. Dukakis said he did so after being advised that the law was unconstitutional.
At the height of the campaign, on Sept. 13, 1988, the pledge was recited on the floor of the House of Representatives for the first time. Republican members of the House, who were in the minority, offered a resolution to that effect, and it was accepted by Speaker Jim Wright, a Democrat. Wright ruled that from then on, the pledge would be recited at the start of business each day that the House was in session.
The Senate did not begin daily recital of the pledge until June 24, 1999. Since then, the pledge has become part of the opening rituals of nearly all state and local governmental.

4. It is illegal to burn the American flag.
It was illegal until 1989, when the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in Texas v. Johnson that burning the flag is a form of symbolic speech protected by the First Amendment. The case involved Gregory Lee Johnson, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade, who had burned the flag during a protest at the 1984 Republican National Convention. He was convicted of violating Texas’s flag-desecration law, fined $2,000 and sentenced to a year in jail. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction, ruling that Johnson was exercising his First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
The Supreme Court’s decision invalidated a 1968 national flag-desecration law, as well as similar laws in 48 states (all except Wyoming and Alaska). In response, Congress passed the Flag Protection Act, but that law was also challenged and wound up in the Supreme Court. The court in 1990 essentially affirmed its earlier ruling, stating that any law banning flag burning violated free speech.
Those decisions led to a national movement to amend the Constitution to make flag desecration illegal. The leading voice in that effort has been the Citizens Flag Alliance, which was founded in 1994by the American Legion. Proposed amendments have come up regularly in the House and Senate since then but have yet to receive sufficient support.

5. It’s okay to wear a Stars and Stripes T-shirt.
The U.S. Flag Code frowns on the use of the flag “for advertising purposes.” It goes on to warn against the sale or display of any “article of merchandise . . . upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of” the flag to “advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed.”
In other words, when you wear a flag T-shirt or hat while reclining on an American flag beach towel near your American flag camping chair, you are violating the Flag Code. The code, which was drawn up at the first National Flag Conference in Washington in 1923, is part of the law of the land. But it is not enforced, nor is it enforceable. It is merely a set of guidelines, letting Americans know what to do — and what not to do — with our red, white and blue national emblem.

There is no Flag Police. You will not be arrested for wearing a flag-embossed T-shirt on Flag Day — or any other day of the year.
marcleepson@aol.com
Marc Leepson is the author of “Flag: An American Biography” and, most recently, “Lafayette: Lessons in Leadership From the Idealist General.”

2012-01-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

A whale of a photo!

This photo was taken at the entrance to Katlian Bay at the endof the road in Sitka, Alaska.
The whale is coming up to scoop up a mouthful of herring(the small fish seen at the surface around the kayak).
The kayaker is a local Sitka Dentist. He apparently didn’t sustain any injuries from the terrifying experience. The whale was just around the corner from the ferry terminal, and all the kayaker could think at the time was: "Paddle really fast!"
He is in the whale’s MOUTH! ... What a great photo!

2012-01-05T14:52:00.000-05:00

Bank of America’s founder must be tossing in his grave

Recently, Bank of America got pummeled by investors and its customers after announcing that it would charge many debit card users a $5 monthly fee when they shop. The troubled bank, already besieged by multibillion-dollar lawsuits and massive financial losses, saw its stock fall more than 2 percent. These actions have prompted me to do some extensive research in the abyss of the Embroiled News Central Office Archive. There I was able to find lots of information and compare it with how the American banking industry behaved during the turn of the last century. I chose one main profile that epitomized past banking practices with those of the present.

The one name that seemed most prominent was Amadeo Pietro Giannini, also known as Amadeo Peter Giannini or A.P. Giannini (May 6, 1870 – June 3, 1949), born in San Jose, California, who was the American founder of Bank of America.

Giannini's parents were Italian immigrants to the United States, originally from Favale di Malvaro near Genoa, Liguria. He attended Heald College, in San Francisco, California. He started in business as a produce broker, commission merchant and produce dealer for farms in the Santa Clara Valley. He was extremely successful in that business, and sold his interest to his employees and retired at the age of 31 to administer his father-in-law's estate. He later became a director of the Columbus Savings & Loan in which his father-in-law owned an interest. At the time, banks were run for the benefit of the wealthy and the well-connected. Giannini observed a real opportunity to service the increasing immigrant population that were without a bank. At loggerheads with the other directors who did not share his sentiment, he quit the board in frustration and decided to start his own bank.

Giannini founded the Bank of Italy in San Francisco on October 17, 1904. The bank was housed in a converted saloon directly across the street from the Columbus Savings & Loan as an institution for the "little fellow". It was a new bank for the hardworking immigrants other banks would not serve. He offered those ignored customers savings accounts and loans, judging them not by how much money they already had, but by their character.

Deposits on that first day totaled $8,780.[2] Within a year, deposits soared above $700,000 ($13.5 million in 2002 dollars). The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fires leveled much of the city. In the face of widespread devastation, Giannini set up a temporary bank, collecting deposits, making loans, and proclaiming that San Francisco would rise from the ashes.

Immediately after the earthquake, he moved the vault's money to his home outside the fire zone in then-rural San Mateo, 18-miles by horse and wagon. The wagon used to transport the money was actually a garbage wagon, owned by Hayward resident Giobatta Cepollina, also a native of the Genoa area in Italy (Loano). The cargo was disguised beneath garbage to protect against theft. The fires severely heated the vaults of other big banks. Opening them immediately would ruin the money, so they were kept closed for weeks. Because of this, Giannini was one of the few who was able to provide loans. Giannini was forced to run his bank from a plank across two barrels in the street. Giannini made loans on a handshake to those interested in rebuilding. Years later, he would recount with pride that every single loan was repaid. As further testament to the trust Giannini garnered in the local community, as a reward to the local garbage man for helping to transport the bank's reserves, Giannini agreed to give the man's son his first job with the bank when he came of age. Giannini kept his promise, hiring young Frank Joseph Cepollina at age 14. Cepollina later retired from the bank at age 41.

By 1916, Giannini had expanded and opened several other branches. Giannini believed in branch banking as a way to stabilize banks during difficult times as well as expand the capital base. He bought banks throughout California and eventually had more than five hundred branches throughout the state.

In 1928, Giannini approached Orra E. Monnette, president and chairman of the Bank of America, Los Angeles, about a merger of the two financial institutions. Upon finalizing the merger, Giannini and Monnette concurred that the Bank of America name idealized the broader mission of the new bank. The new institution continued under Giannini's chairmanship until his retirement in 1945; Monnette retained his Board seat and Officer's position. Prior to Monnette's creation of the Bank of America Los Angeles network, most banks were limited to a single city or region. Monnette was the first to create a system of centralized processing, bookkeeping and cash delivery. By diversifying the scope of community that the Bank of America served following its merger, the institution was better prepared to ride out minor, local economic issues.

Giannini is credited as the inventor of many modern banking practices. Most notably, Giannini was one of the first bankers to offer banking services to middle-class Americans, rather than the upper class. He also pioneered the holding company structure and established one of the first modern trans-national institutions.

Giannini helped nurture the motion picture and wine industries in California. He loaned Walt Disney the funds to produce Snow White, the first full-length, animated motion picture to be made in the US. During the Great Depression, he bought the bonds that financed the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. During World War II, he bankrolled industrialist Henry Kaiser and his enterprises which supported the war effort. After the War, he visited Italy and arranged for loans to help rebuild the war-torn Fiat factories. Giannini also gave capital to William Hewlett and David Packard to help form HP or Hewlett-Packard. At this time, HP made oscilloscopes.

Giannini founded another company, Transamerica Corporation, as a holding company for his various interests, including Occidental Life Insurance Company. At one time, Transamerica was the controlling shareholder in Bank of America. They were separated by legislation enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1956, when Congress passed the Bank Holding Company Act, which did not allow bank holding companies to involve themselves in industrial activities.

Upon Giannini's death in 1949, his son Mario Giannini, afflicted with polio in his youth, assumed leadership of the bank;,and Giannini's daughter, Claire Giannini Hoffman (1905–1997), took her father's seat on the Bank's Board of Directors, where she remained until the 1980s. Giannini is buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, in Colma, CA.
Legacy
The large plaza of the Bank of America Building, at California Street and Kearny, in downtown San Francisco, is named for Giannini. A.P. Giannini Middle School, which opened in the Sunset District of San Francisco, in 1954, is named after him, also. Other places and groups named after Giannini include The Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics and the building that houses the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, at the University of California, Berkeley.

The U.S. Postal Service honored Giannini's contributions to American banking by issuing a 21¢ postage stamp bearing his portrait, in 1973. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held near his former home, in San Mateo.

TIME magazine named A.P. Giannini one of the "builders and titans" of the 20th century. He was the only banker named to the Time 100, a list of the most important people of that century, as assembled by the magazine.

Walter Huston's bank president in Frank Capra's 1932 film, American Madness, was based largely on A.P. Giannini.

The Italian-American banker played by Edward G. Robinson in House of Strangers (1949), was also loosely based on Giannini.

American Banker magazine recognized him as one of the five most influential bankers of the 20th Century.

In 2004, the Italian government honored Giannini with an exhibition and ceremony in its Parliament, to mark the centennial of his founding of the Bank of Italy. The exhibition was the result of the collaboration of the Ministry of Finance, the Smithsonian Institution, Italian Professor Guido Crapanzano and Peter F. De Nicola, an American collector of "Giannini" memorabilia.

In 2010, Giannini was inducted into the California Museum Hall of Fame.
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References
>> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/giannini_hi.html
James, Marquis & Bessie R. (1954). Biography of a Bank - The Story of Bank of America N.T. & S.A.. Harper & Brothers. p. 16.

>> "Banker + gangster = bankster". BBC News. January 30, 2009.

>> "History." A.P. Giannini Middle School. Retrieved on January 28, 2009.