greyhound or gray hound Fastest dog, one of the oldest breeds (dating from about 3000 bc in Egypt), and long symbolic of the aristocracy. It has a narrow head; long neck; deep chest; long, muscu¬ lar hindquarters; a long, slim tail; and a short, smooth coat, of various colors. It stands 25-27 in. (64-69 cm) high and weighs 60-70 lbs (27-32 kg). Streamlined and slender, it can reach a speed of about 45 mph (72 kph). Greyhounds hunt by sight and may be used to hunt hares, deer, foxes, and small game. They are fre¬ quently raced for sport.
Greyhound Lines, Inc. U.S. corporation that has provided the major intercity bus transportation in the U.S. and Canada. It was founded in 1926 as Motor Transit Manage¬ ment. Backed by the railroads, the company soon had a network of lines spreading across the country. It adopted its current name in 1930. By 1933 Greyhound’s routes covered 40,000 mi (65,000 km). In the early 1980s deregulation of the bus-transit industry led Greyhound to drop many local bus lines. In 1987 Greyhound Corp. sold its bus operations, and Grey¬ hound Lines, Inc., became an independent corporation devoted to inter¬ city bus transportation. It was purchased in 1999 by Canada’s Laidlaw Inc., a waste-management company.
greylag Most common Eurasian representative ( Anser anser ) of the so-called gray goose, and ancestor of all Occidental domestic geese. It nests in temperate regions and winters from Britain to North Africa, India, and China. It is pale gray with pink legs; the bill is pink in the eastern race and orange in the western race.
Grieg \'grig\, Edvard (Hagerup) (b. June 15, 1843, Bergen, Nor.—d. Sept. 4, 1907, Bergen) Norwegian composer. His parents were persuaded by violinist Ole Bull to send Grieg to Leipzig for music study, and he later studied with Niels Gade and others in Copenhagen, where he became inspired with the ideal of a Norwegian national music. He fre¬ quently performed as a pianist and often accompanied his wife in recitals of his songs. His incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt (1875) became, with his piano concerto (1868), perhaps his best-known work. Highly popular in his time, he is still regarded as Norway’s greatest com¬ poser. His other works include Symphonic Dances (1897), Lyric Suite (1904), more than 150 songs, and many works for piano, including 66 Lyric Pieces (1867-1901) and From Holberg’s Time (1884).
Grien, Hans Baldung See Hans Baldung
Grierson Vgrir-S3n\, Sir George Abraham (b. Jan. 7,1851, County Dublin, Ire.—d. March 9,1941, Camberley, Surrey, Eng.) Anglo-Irish civil servant and linguist. While holding a succession of British government posts in Bengal (1873-98), Grierson carried out pioneering research on South Asian, particularly Indo-Aryan, languages. In 1898 he began work on the 19-volume Linguistic Survey of India and spent the next 30 years publishing data on hundreds of languages and dialects. His work was of enormous value; nevertheless, his hypothetical linguistic constructs such as “Rajasthani,” “Bihari,” and “Lahnda” misled most nonspecialists.
Griffes Vgrif-3s\, Charles T(omlinson) (b. Sept. 17, 1884, Elmira, N.Y., U.S.—d. April 8, 1920, New York City) U.S. composer. He studied music in Berlin with Engelbert Humperdinck and others, then returned and taught at a boys’ school in Tarry town, N.Y., for the rest of his short life.
His early works reflect German Romanticism, but his mature style com¬ bined Impressionism and orientalism. His principal works are for piano, though some were later orchestrated: The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan (1912), a piano sonata (c. 1912), and Roman Sketches (including “The White Peacock”) (1915).
Griffey, Ken orig. George Kenneth Griffey, Jr. (b. Nov. 21, 1969, Donora, Pa., U.S.) U.S. baseball player. Griffey began his profes¬ sional career in 1987. As a left-handed centre fielder for the Seattle Mari¬ ners from 1989, he averaged .300 or better in hitting in seven of his first nine seasons and hit 40 or more home runs in four of those seasons, reaching 56 in 1997 and 1998. His father, Ken Griffey, Sr. (b. April 10, 1950, Donora), was also an outstanding professional baseball player.
Griffin, Merv (Edward) (b. July 6, 1925, San Mateo, Calif., U.S.) U.S. television producer and entrepreneur. He hosted a radio show (1945- 48) and sang with Freddy Martin’s Orchestra (1948-52) before creating and hosting the popular Merv Griffin Show on television (1962-63, 1965- 86). He also created the successful game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. He later owned hotels, resorts, and casinos.
Griffith Joyner, (Delorez) Florence orig. Delorez Florence Griffith (b. Dec. 21, 1959, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.—d. Sept. 21, 1998, Mission Viejo, Calif.) U.S. sprinter. At the 1984 Olympics she won a sil¬ ver medal in the 200-m race and became a celebrity with her long, deco¬ rated fingernails and eye-catching racing suits. At the 1988 Olympic trials, she set a world record in the 100-m sprint (10.49 sec); at the games them¬ selves, “FloJo” captured three gold medals (in the 100 m, 200 m, and 4 x 100-m relay) and one silver (4 x 400-m relay). Her world-record time in the 200 m (21.34 sec) and her earlier 100-m record still stood at the time of her death, which was attributed to a brain seizure.
Griffith, Andy orig. Andrew Samuel Griffith (b. June 1, 1926, Mount Airy, N.C., U.S.) U.S. actor. He made his Broadway debut in No Time for Sergeants (1955). He also starred in its screen version (1958) after making a strong film debut in A Face in the Crowd (1957). He starred in many television shows, using his native Blue Ridge drawl to portray homespun characters such as the sheriff in the popular comedy series The Andy Griffith Show (1960-68). He later starred in the dramatic series Matlock (1986-91).
Griffith, Arthur (b. March 31, 1871, Dublin, Ire.—d. Aug. 12, 1922, Dublin) Irish journalist and nationalist, principal founder of Sinn Fein. As a young man, he edited political newspapers and urged passive resistance to British rule. He lost influence with the extreme nationalists when he did not participate in the Easter Rising (1916) but regained it when the British jailed him with other Sinn Fein members. In 1918 the Irish members of the House of Commons declared a republic and chose Eamon de Valera as president and Griffith as vice president. In 1921 Griffith led the Irish delegation to the self-government treaty conference and was the first Irish delegate to accept partition, embodied in the Anglo-Irish Treaty (1921). When the Dail nar¬ rowly approved it in 1922, de Valera resigned and Griffith was elected president. Exhausted from overwork, he died soon after.
Griffith, D(avid) W(ark) (b. Jan. 22, 1875, Floydsfork, Ky„ U.S.—d. July 23, 1948, Hollywood, Calif.) U.S. film director. After acting in tour¬ ing stage companies, he sold film scenarios to the Biograph Co., which hired him as a director (1908-13). In over 400 films for Biograph he developed filmmaking as an art form with techniques such as the close- up, the scenic long shot, and crosscutting, and he collaborated with cin¬ ematographer Billy Bitzer to create fade-out, fade-in, and soft-focus shots. He nurtured the careers of future stars such as Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Mack Sennett, and Lionel Barrymore. His epic dramas The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Intolerance (1916) greatly influenced later filmmak¬ ers. After cofounding United Artists Corp. in 1919, he directed Broken Blossoms (1919), Way Down East (1920), and Orphans of the Storm (1921). His last films were Abraham Lincoln (1930) and The Struggle (1931). He is regarded as one of the seminal figures in the history of motion pictures.
Griffith, Emile (Alphonse) (b. Feb. 3, 1938, U.S. Virgin Islands) U.S. boxer. Griffith began his professional career in 1958. He won three world championships as a welterweight (1961, 1962, 1963) and two as a middleweight (1966, 1967), an achievement surpassed only by Sugar Ray Robinson’s total of six. He retired in 1977 with a record of 85-24-2.