shunpike (SHUN-pyke) noun
a side road used to avoid the toll on or the speed and traffic of a superhighway
America's love affair with the automobile and the development of a national system of superhighways (along with the occasional desire to seek out paths less-traveled) is a story belonging to the 20th century. So the word "shunpike," too, must be a 20th-century phenomenon, right? Nope. Toll roads have actually existed for centuries (the word "turnpike" has meant "tollgate" since at least 1678). In fact, toll roads were quite common in 19th-century America, and "shunpike" has been describing side roads since the middle of that century, almost half a century before the first Model T rolled out of the factory. M-W Word of the Day

New on LLRX.com: A Compilation of Legal Problem-Solving Models
The Art of Written Persuasion: From IRAC to FAILSAFE - A Compilation of Legal Problem-Solving Models - Troy Simpson's third column focuses on "a process model of problem-solving that provides a useful framework, because it offers a systematic, non-random way of tackling problems."

Seeds of a Perfect Storm: Genetically Modified Crops and the Global Food Security Crisis
Seeds of a Perfect Storm: Genetically Modified Crops and the Global Food Security Crisis, Nina Fedoroff, Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State and to the Administrator of USAID Inaugural Lecture in the Jefferson Fellows Distinguished Lecture Series, Washington, DC, October 17, 2008
"The population has more than doubled again since the middle of the 20th century and the population experts are expecting another roughly 3 billion people to be added to the planet’s population by midcentury. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 billion people.”

palinode (PAL-uh-noad)
noun: A poem in which the author retracts something said in an earlier poem
From Greek palinoidia, from palin (again) + oide (song) It's the same palin that shows up in the word palindrome. A.Word.A.Day

Famous authors
Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 19070-May 8, 1988) was one of the most influential and controversial authors in science fiction. He was the first science-fiction writer to break into mainstream general magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s with unvarnished science fiction, and he was among the first authors of bestselling novel-length science fiction in the 1960s. For many years Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the Big Three of science fiction. He won seven Hugo Awards for his novels and films, and the first Grand Master Award given by the Science Fiction Writers of America for lifetime achievement. http://www.shortopedia.com/N/E/Nebula_Grand_Masters

On October 24, 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act went into effect, which established the 40-hour work week and a minimum wage. The first minimum wage was 25 cents per hour.
On October 24, 1901 Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to survive going over the Niagara Falls. She was 63 years old and had no money. She hoped that the stunt of going over the falls in a barrel would bring her fame and fortune. She got the idea while reading a newspaper article about the upcoming Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, so she knew there would be a big audience. She had a custom barrel made to order by a Michigan company that normally made barrels for kegs of beer. It was pushed into the river at 4:05 p.m. and it headed toward the Canadian side. Shortly after, Annie and the barrel plunged over the falls. It took about 35 minutes from the time Annie pushed off shore to when she was pulled out of the water by rescuers. She got out of the barrel unharmed, except for a few bruises and a small gash on her forehead. Her first words after she emerged were, "Nobody ought ever to do that again."
She had planned a big lecture tour following the stunt, but it wasn't very successful. She tried to earn money by posing in photographs with her barrel, but that didn't work either, and neither did trying to write a novel. However, several poems were written about her. John Joseph O'Regan wrote:
"All hail to the Queen of the Mist,
Brave Anna Edson Taylor;
She has beaten all former records,
By her courage, grit and valor."
And P. M. Reynolds wrote:
"Since earth's creation down the stormy way,
All human feats have been surpassed today.
Mrs. Edson Taylor, in her barrel sound,
Through the wild rapids did in safety bound." The Writer’s Almanac