PizzaExpress is a restaurant group with over 400 restaurants across the United Kingdom and 40 overseas in Europe, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East. It was founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot. In July 2014 the group was sold to the China-based private equity firm Hony Capital in a deal worth £900 million ($1.54 billion).
Founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, PizzaExpress opened its first restaurant in London's Wardour Street. Inspired by a trip to Italy, Boizot brought back to London a pizza oven from Naples and a chef from Sicily.
In 1969 jazz performances began at its Dean Street restaurant, London.
In 1995, PizzaExpress expanded into Ireland and currently operates 14 restaurants there under the brand name Milano. The company also owns the brand name Marzano. Originally Marzano was used in countries where the brand name Pizza Express was not available, as with the use of the name Milano in Ireland, but it also exists in some territories, such as Cyprus, to differentiate between the restaurants selling primarily pizza and those offering a wider range of non-pizza meals inspired by Italy. It is also used for a cafe-bar run as an adjunct to the branch of Pizza Express in The Forum in Norwich, "Cafe Bar Marzano".
Milano cookies are a trademarked dessert manufactured by Pepperidge Farm as part of their series of "European" cookies. Each cookie consists of a thin layer of chocolate sandwiched between two biscuit cookies.
The Milano was created as a result of Pepperidge Farm's original cookie concept, the Naples, which was a single vanilla wafer cookie with dark chocolate filling topping it. The problem this posed was that Naples cookies would end up stuck together when shipped to and sold in warmer climates. The company resolved the problem by sandwiching Naples cookies together, creating the new Milano variety.
The original variety used a filling of dark chocolate. Many additional varieties have since been marketed, such as milk chocolate and double chocolate; other flavors include a layer of mint or sweet orange paste in addition to some form of chocolate.
Milano cookies have primarily been marketed towards adults, as an indulgence food, rather than children. Aside from being a processed food and using processed sugar, Milano cookies are made using partially hydrogenated oils of varying kinds.
Milano Due (Milan 2, also known as Milano 2) is a residential centre in the Italian town of Segrate (Province of Milan). It was built as a new town by Edilnord, a company associated with the Fininvest group of Silvio Berlusconi.
The main peculiarity of Milano Due is a system of walkways and bridges that connects the whole neighborhood, so that it is possible to walk around without ever intersecting traffic. It was marketed as a residential neighborhood for families of the upper middle class with children.
The works started in 1970, and were completed in 1979. Distinctive landmarks are the sporting facilities, a small artificial lake (il laghetto) and a children's playground.
Milano Due also hosted the headquarters of the first Italian private television channel, TeleMilano, a small cable network who started broadcasting in the area in 1974. It later evolved into Canale 5, the first national private TV station.
Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others. Prior to the 14th century it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant futility. The related term vainglory is now often seen as an archaic synonym for vanity, but originally meant boasting in vain, i.e. unjustified boasting; although glory is now seen as having an exclusively positive meaning, the Latin term gloria (from which it derives) roughly means boasting, and was often used as a negative criticism.
In many religions, vanity, in its modern sense, is considered a form of self-idolatry, in which one likens their self to the greatness of God for the sake of their own image, and thereby becomes separated and perhaps in time divorced from the Divine grace of God. In Christian teachings vanity is considered an example of pride, one of the seven deadly sins.
Philosophically speaking, vanity may refer to a broader sense of egoism and pride. Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that "vanity is the fear of appearing original: it is thus a lack of pride, but not necessarily a lack of originality." One of Mason Cooley's aphorisms is "Vanity well fed is benevolent. Vanity hungry is spiteful."
Aztek is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Universe. Based out of the fictional Vanity City, Aztek is the champion of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl. The character first appeared in Aztek, The Ultimate Man #1 in August 1996, created by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar. Following the short run series, Aztek appeared in several issues of JLA also written by Morrison.
Uno is raised from childhood by a secret organization named the Q Society to be the champion of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl to battle their enemy, the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. He is given a magical suit of armor that bestows many abilities, complementing Uno's peak human mental and physical abilities. After his training is completed, he enters the United States and assumes the identity of recently deceased physician Curt Falconer.
Aztek later joins the Justice League, but resigns when it is revealed that one of the mysterious benefactors of the Q Society is supervillain Lex Luthor. He is later blinded helping the League save the Earth in a battle against the planet-destroying machine Mageddon (apparently the Tezcatlipoca that the cult was referring to all along). Aztek ultimately sacrifices himself to allow Superman the chance to destroy Mageddon/Tezcatlipoca, during the World War III story arc.
Vanity, also known as Vanity Shops, is an American specialty chain of fashion retailers that sells apparel and accessories targeted to fashion-conscious young females, online and in-stores. The company is headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. The fashion retailer’s clothing items range in size from zero to 17 with pants inseam lengths of up to 37 inches (940 mm).
Emery and Ann Jahnke purchased the Vanity name in 1957 from a Dickinson, ND, dress shop where Ann worked. Vanity was incorporated in 1966 and the first Vanity junior fashion store opened in 1969 in Fargo, North Dakota. The first store was located in Dickinson and occupied 900 square feet (84 m2).
In 1960, the store moved to a 2,000-square-foot (190 m2) location and opened a children’s clothing store in the original location. In 1964, the Jahnkes opened a Vanity store in Grand Forks, ND with one-third of the 3000 square footage dedicated to junior women’s merchandise. The Grand Forks store was so successful, the Jahnkes sold their Dickinson locations and opened Vanity 2 in Grand Forks with 4,000 square feet (370 m2) of space. It was the only junior women’s store in the state at the time.