A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.  Named after Italian con artist Charles Ponzi, this type of scheme misleads investors by either falsely suggesting that profits are derived from legitimate business activities (whereas the business activities are non-existent), or by exaggerating the extent and profitability of the legitimate business activities, leveraging new investments to fabricate or supplement these profits.  A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as investors continue to contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment or lose faith in the non-existent assets they are purported to own.  Some of the first recorded incidents to meet the modern definition of the Ponzi scheme were carried out from 1869 to 1872 by Adele Spitzeder in Germany and by Sarah Howe in the United States in the 1880s through the "Ladies' Deposit".  Howe offered a solely female clientele an 8% monthly interest rate and then stole the money that the women had invested. She was eventually discovered and served three years in prison.  The Ponzi scheme was also previously described in novels; Charles Dickens's 1844 novel Martin Chuzzlewit and his 1857 novel Little Dorrit both feature such a scheme.   In the 1920s, Charles Ponzi carried out this scheme and became well known throughout the United States because of the huge amount of money that he took in.  His original scheme was purportedly based on the legitimate arbitrage of international reply coupons for postage stamps, but it proved infeasible, and he soon began diverting new investors' money to make payments to earlier investors and to himself.  Unlike earlier similar schemes, Ponzi's gained considerable press coverage both within the United States and internationally both while it was being perpetrated and after it collapsed--this notoriety eventually led to the type of scheme being named after him.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzi_scheme    

The Furry Dance is a celebration of the passing of winter and the arrival of spring, and one of the oldest British customs still practised today.  Traditionally held on 8 May, it is held in Helston, Cornwall, where dancers wear lily of the valley, the town's symbolic flower.  The name probably derives from Cornish fer meaning "fair, feast".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furry_Dance    

Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American author Daniel Handler (born 1970) and a fictional character of his creation.  Handler has published various children's books under the name, including A Series of Unfortunate Events, which has sold over 60 million copies and spawned a 2004 film and Netflix TV series from 2017 to 2019 of the same name.  Lemony Snicket also serves as the in-universe author who investigates and re-tells the story of the Baudelaire orphans in A Series of Unfortunate Events.  Snicket is also the subject of a fictional autobiography titled Lemony Snicket:  The Unauthorized Autobiography.  Further telling of Snicket's adventures can be found in the four-part children's series All the Wrong Questions, as well as a pamphlet titled 13 Shocking Secrets You'll Wish You Never Knew About Lemony Snicket (released in promotion of The End).  Other works by Snicket include The Baby in the Manger, The Composer Is Dead, Horseradish:  Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid, The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming, The Lump of Coal, and 13 Words.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemony_Snicket   Villanelle    A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.  These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.  See “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,”  and Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The House on the Hill.”  Browse more villanelles at  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/villanelle    

Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  It was founded in 1909 to educate teachers.  Originally founded as a women's college, male students were admitted beginning in 2005.  The Lesley School (also known as Lesley Normal School) was founded by Edith Lesley in 1909 at her home at 29 Everett Street, Cambridge.  The school began as a private women's institution that trained kindergarten teachers.  It espoused the work of Friedrich Froebel, who invented the concept of kindergarten as a complement to the care given to children by their mothers.  Teacher and writer Elizabeth Peabody opened Boston's first Froebel-inspired kindergarten in 1860; more kindergartens followed.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_University    

November 4, 2025

Maraschino cherries are used in many alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and cocktails, including the Old Fashioned, tequila sunrise, the Queen Mary and the Shirley Temple, giving them the nickname cocktail cherries.  (This term is also used to refer to other varieties, including Amarena, Balaton, and Bing, when used for the same purpose, typically soaked in alcohol or sugar.)  Sometimes the cherries, along with some of the maraschino syrup, are put into a glass of cola to make an old-fashioned or homemade cherry cola.  As a garnish, they can be used to decorate frozen yogurt, baked ham, cakes, pastry, parfaits, milkshakes and ice cream sodas.  They are an integral part of an American ice cream sundae, giving rise to the term "cherry on top" in more general usage.  They are frequently included in canned fruit cocktail.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraschino_cherry   

"The Wild Swans at Coole" is a lyric poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats (1865–1939).  Written between 1916 and early 1917, the poem was first published in the June 1917 issue of the Little Review, and became the title poem in the Yeats's 1917 and 1919 collections The Wild Swans at Coole.   It was written during a period when Yeats was staying with his friend Lady Gregory at her home at Coole Park, and the assembled collection was dedicated to her son, Major Robert Gregory (1881–1918), a British airman killed during a friendly fire incident in the First World War.  Literary scholar Daniel Tobin writes that Yeats was melancholy and unhappy, reflecting on his advancing age, romantic rejections by both Maud Gonne and her daughter Iseult Gonne, and the ongoing Irish rebellion against the British.

Poem:

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

See the rest of the poem at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Swans_at_Coole_(poem)

Thank you, reader.   

Bistre (or bister) is a pigment made from soot.  Historically, beechwood was burned to produce the soot, which was boiled and diluted with water.  Many Old Masters used bistre as the ink for their wash paintings.  Bistre's appearance is generally of a dark grayish brown, with a yellowish cast.  Bistre has also been used to name colors resembling the pigment, typically shades of brown.  The first recorded use of bistre as a color name in English was in 1727; another name for the color bistre is soot brown.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistre  Thank you, reader.    

cochineal, red dyestuff consisting of the dried, pulverized bodies of certain female scale insects, Dactylopius coccus, of the Coccidae family, cactus-eating insects native to tropical and subtropical America.  Cochineal is used to produce scarlet, crimson, orange, and other tints and to prepare pigments such as lake and carmine. The dye was introduced into Europe from Mexico, where it had been used long before the coming of the Spaniards.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bistre  Thank you, reader.    

October 29 is National Cat Day in the USA, which was established on this day 20 years ago in 2005 by the American animal welfare advocate Colleen Paige with the support of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to encourage people to celebrate the companionship provided by cats, and to be aware of the need to rescue and adopt them.    

Stanford Medicine researchers compared how three different time policies — permanent standard time, permanent daylight saving time and biannual shifting — could affect people’s circadian rhythms, and, in turn, their health throughout the country.  Circadian rhythm is the body’s innate, roughly 24-hour clock, which regulates many physiological processes.  The team found that, from a circadian perspective, we’ve made the worst choice.  Either permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time would be healthier than our seasonal waffling, with permanent standard time benefitting the most people.  https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/09/daylight-saving-time.html    

kigurumi (plural kigurumi or kigurumis)  noun 

A full-body costume of a cartoon character (typically a mascot of cartoonish proportions) originating in Japan.   Synonyms: kig, kigu

(anime) A full-body cosplay of a human cartoon character with realistic proportions paired with an anime-style mask, originating in Japan; also (metonymic), the anime-style mask used in such a cosplay.  Synonyms: animegao, kig, kigu

(fashion) A themed onesie, typically in the style of a cartoon animal.  Synonyms: kig, kigu  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kigurumi#English

November 3, 2025

Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, Frank Sinatra made an indelible mark on the entertainment industry.  He began his musical journey as a band singer in the 1930s and his melodious voice and charismatic personality made him a legendary figure in the history of music.  Throughout his career, Sinatra was known for his rich baritone voice and his impeccable showmanship.  He released numerous albums, produced countless hits, and his awards included nine Grammys.  He was also a successful actor, and many of his films became classics in the industry.  In addition to his successful entertainment career, Sinatra was also a painter, and his work Fourth of July Fireworks (oil on canvas) sold at auction for $223,500.  He died on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82.  See some of his works at Frank Sinatra | Artnet  Thank you, reader.   

To understand the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery, start by taking a look at the definitions of each term.  A graveyard is an area of land, often next to a church, where people are buried.  During the Middle Ages, wealthy or otherwise influential Christians were generally interred inside a church after they died, often in a crypt beneath the floor.  Less wealthy congregants were buried outside in the churchyard, and that section came to be known as the graveyard.  This practice continued for many centuries.  The compound word graveyard stems from the proto-Germanic “graban,” which means “to dig,” and “gardan,” which refers to an enclosed area of land.  Like a graveyard, a cemetery is also defined as a place where the dead are buried, but it’s a relatively newer concept.  By the early 19th century, population growth was rapid.  Church graveyards filled up, and there was a need for new burial grounds.  Thus, independent sites called “cemeteries” became more common as designated final resting places.  Cemeteries are typically not affiliated with a specific church, so you don’t have to be a congregant to be buried there.  They’re also often located away from a town or city center to allow for more space.  As for the etymology, the word “cemetery” stems from the Greek “koimeterion,” which means “dormitory” or “resting place.” Early Christians came to use the term to refer to a person’s final resting place (rather than in the literal sleep context).  To be clear, using graveyard and cemetery interchangeably is acceptable by today’s standards, but graveyard still primarily refers to the area of a churchyard used for burial.  Here's The Difference Between A Cemetery And A Graveyard | HuffPost Life  Thank you, reader.    

sarsaparilla (countable and uncountable, plural sarsaparillas)  noun  The first r in the word is silent.  Any of various tropical (Central and South) American vines of the genus Smilax, such as Smilax aspera, which have fragrant roots.  Dried roots of these plants, or a flavoring material extracted from these roots.  A beverage (soft drink) flavored with this root, such as root beer.   Any of several North American plants, of the genus Aralia, having umbels and small white flowers.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarsaparilla    

Books by Richard Bach about barnstorming

Illusions:  The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah:  This novel is about a barnstorming pilot named Richard who meets a mysterious fellow pilot, Donald Shimoda, who claims to be a messiah.  It explores the idea that our world is illusory and teaches how to manipulate it.  Nothing by Chance:  This book chronicles one summer Bach spent flying an antique biplane as a barnstormer, sleeping under the wing and giving joyrides to passengers.  It captures the adventure and insight of the experience.

Biplane: This is another of Bach's early books that celebrated his experiences as a barnstormer. 

As for the first of those books, In Richard Bach's book *Illusions:  The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah*, the "mystical hills east of Fort Wayne" are where the character Donald Shimoda, the reluctant messiah, was said to be raised.

Key details from the book:  

   - A "holy land of Indiana":  The book includes a passage that states,    "There was a Master come unto the earth, born in the holy land of Indiana,    raised in the mystical hills east of Fort Wayne . . .  and he smiled upon the    multitudes and said pleasantly unto them, 'I quit'". 

   - The character's origin:  This passage establishes the mythical, midwestern origin story of the character Shimoda, the former mechanic turned messiah whom the narrator encounters.

   - A metaphor for inner truth:  While Fort Wayne and the surrounding landscape are real, the book uses this setting to ground its philosophical and spiritual themes in a familiar, down-to-earth backdrop.  The setting serves as a literary device to show that profound truths can be found in ordinary places.  Thank you, reader.   

October 28, 2025