Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic kingdom, and empire, of the Ancient Near East, existing as an independent state for a period of approximately nineteen centuries from c. 2500 BC to 605 BC, spanning the Early Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age. For a further thirteen centuries, from the end of the 7th century BC to the mid-7th century AD, it survived as a geo-political entity, for the most part ruled by foreign powers, although a number of small Neo-Assyrian states such as Assur, Adiabene, ..
Eleanor of Aquitaine (Aliénor, Éléonore, Alienora; 1122 – 1 April 1204) was a member of the Ramnulfid dynasty of rulers in southwestern France, and one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. She inherited the Duchy of Aquitaine from her father, William X, in 1137, and by successive marriages became queen of France (1137–1152) and then England (1154–1189). She was the patron of literary figures such as Wace, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, and Bernart..
Jeffrey L. "Jeff" Smith (January 22, 1939 – July 7, 2004) was the author of several best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show which began in Tacoma, Washington in 1973 as Cooking Fish Creatively and later moved to WTTW in Chicago, and Natan Katzman's A La Carte Communications, where it aired nationally on PBS from 1983 to 1997.
