Quotes from Sir John Falstaff, a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V.
“the better part of valor is discretion.” [Br. Lit.: I Henry IV]
misuses “the King’s press damnably.” [Br. Lit.: II Henry IV]
fancies himself a lady-killer. [Br. Lit.: Merry Wives of Windsor]
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Falstaff,+Sir+John
The first quote is usually said as “Discretion is the better part of valor.”

The first Toledo Public Library was erected on the southeast corner of Madison and Ontario in 1890. It was replaced in 1940 by a building on the site of the old Central High School on Michigan between Madison and Adams.

The Charleston Museum, America's first museum, was founded in 1773. Its mission is to preserve and interpret the cultural and natural history of Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Museum and its two National Historic Landmark houses are all located downtown. http://www.charlestonmuseum.org/topic.asp?id=1

More American Adults Read Literature According to New NEA Study
News release: "For the first time in more than 25 years, American adults are reading more literature, according to a new study by the National Endowment for the Arts. Reading on the Rise documents a definitive increase in rates and numbers of American adults who read literature, with the biggest increases among young adults, ages 18-24. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends cited previously in NEA reports such as Reading at Risk and To Read or Not To Read."
“Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” is based on data from “The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2008. Among its chief findings is that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/12/books/12reading.html?_r=1

Treasury Releases Sixth in a Series of Social Security Papers
Treasury has released the sixth and final in a series of papers on Social Security. Issue Brief No. 6 is entitled Social Security Reform: Work Incentives. "This issue brief on Social Security reform discusses Social Security’s effect on work incentives and the implications for reform. Social Security discourages work effort in much the same way as does an ordinary tax on labor income. As was demonstrated in Treasury’s first three issue briefs, an individual’s lifetime contribution to Social Security has two components: the difference between the value of lifetime taxes and lifetime benefits—lifetime net taxes—and the difference between gross taxes and net taxes—effectively “forced saving” that determines benefit levels. For current and future workers, lifetime net taxes finance the excess of benefits over taxes that have been paid or are promised to earlier generations, an amount estimated to exceed $13.6 trillion; and benefits are financed entirely by forced saving. The net tax component of Social Security contributions discourages work effort in the same way as an ordinary tax—workers pay more in taxes than they expect to receive in lifetime Social Security benefits, and this effectively reduces the return to work. The forced saving component of Social Security contributions would be expected to have little effect on work effort provided that workers understand that this part of Social Security taxes will be returned as future benefits, and provided there is a mechanism in place to ensure that the forced savings are truly set aside to help pay future benefits (as opposed to giving rise to increased current non-Social Security government spending or lower non-Social Security taxes than would be the case without Social Security).

Earthquakes are a common occurrence in the Yellowstone National Park area, an active volcanic-tectonic area averaging 1,000 to 2,000 earthquakes a year. Yellowstone's 10,000 geysers and hot springs are the result of this geologic activity. A summary of the Yellowstone's volcanic history is available on the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory web site. http://www.usnews.com/blogs/capital-commerce/2008/12/31/earthquakes-swarm-yellowstone-supervolcano.html http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/yvo/

Bedbugs are biting
Dozens of fire stations in Cincinnati have had to dump furniture or have their living quarters exterminated because firefighters unknowingly brought the eggs in on their boots or pant legs. Assisted-living complexes have spent tens of thousands of dollars on pest-control companies because, the thinking goes, visitors may have carried in the bugs on their purses or bags. Problems are reported in Florida, Texas, California, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Minnesota as well as Ohio.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bedbugs4-2009jan04,0,1108531.story

pneuma (NOO-muh, NYOO-) noun: spirit, soul.
From Greek pneuma (breath, wind, spirit) Ultimately from the Indo-European root pneu- (to breathe) that is also the source of pneumatic, pneumonia, apnea, sneer, sneeze, snort, snore and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. A.Word.A.Day