Queen Elizabeth is decidedly displeased, angry even, that she was not invited to join President Obama and France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, next week at commemorations of the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, according to reports published in Britain’s mass-circulation tabloid newspapers on Wednesday. Pointedly, Buckingham Palace did not deny the reports. The queen, who is 83, is the only living head of state who served in uniform during World War II. As Elizabeth Windsor, service number 230873, she volunteered as a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, training as a driver and a mechanic. Eventually, she drove military trucks in support roles in England. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/europe/28queen.html?ref=europe

NIST: Working Definition of Cloud Computing Released
"NIST announces that its working definition of cloud computing is available. Researchers worked in collaboration with industry and government to draft the definition that serves as a foundation for its research and future publication on the topic. Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Researchers are studying cloud architectures, economics, security and deployment strategies for the federal government."

atone (uh-TOHN, rhymes with phone) verb tr., intr.: to make amends for
from the contraction of the phrase "at one" meaning "to be in harmony"
A.Word.A.Day

Samuel Johnson has a well-deserved reputation for his magnum opus "A Dictionary of the English Language". He violated one of the dictums of lexicography--do not define a word using harder words than the one being defined--when he used decussate and two other uncommon words in defining the word network:
Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.
And what is "reticulated"? Again, according to Johnson:
Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities. A.Word.A.Day

Recipes that save money
Vegetable loaf
1/2 cup cooked green peas
1/2 cup cooked green beans
1/2 cup cooked carrots
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
Cut beans into small pieces, then combine all vegetables. Add milk and slightly beaten egg, crumbs and seasoning. Turn into greased baking dish and bake in moderate oven (375F) until firm, about 30 minutes. Adapted from: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/food-health/vegetable-loaf-depression-style.html?campaign=daylife-article

Peanut butter cutlets
1 1/2 cups peanut butter
1 1/2 cups hot milk
1 tsp salt
6 half inch slices of bread
small amount of vegetable oil
Mix first three ingredients, dip in bread and fry like French toast. Adapted from: http://www.magtheweekly.com/55/parenting.php

Quotes about time
They say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
Andy Warhol
Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. Jorge Luis Borges http://www.selfhelpdaily.com/SelfHelpQuotes/time.html

Judge Sonia Sotomayor's Roman Catholic upbringing--including her graduating from a competitive Catholic high school--might have shaped her views, especially when she could be the sixth member of the now very Catholic U.S. Supreme Court (in a country where just a quarter of the population professes to be Catholic). For thoughts on this--from someone who is both a cheerleader of President Obama and the Catholic faith--we spoke with Douglas Kmiec, a Pepperdine University law professor. Click on following: Doug Kmiec on a Court Packed with Catholics WSJ Law Blog May 27, 2009

Toys “R” Us Inc., the largest U.S. toy-store chain, acquired FAO Schwarz to take over the retailer’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York and increase its market share. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aijAoDFBRLQE&refer=home

Flags of the American Revolution
http://www.foundingfathers.info/American-flag/Revolution.html

By 1775, a snake symbol was printed in newspapers and appearing all over the colonies ... on uniform buttons ... on paper money ... and of course, on banners and flags. The snake symbol morphed quite a bit during its rapid, widespread adoption. It wasn't cut up into pieces anymore. And it was usually shown as an American timber rattlesnake, not a generic serpent. We don't know for certain where, when, or by whom the familiar coiled rattlesnake was first used with the warning "Don't Tread on Me."
http://www.foundingfathers.info/stories/gadsden.html

Flags of the fifty states Click on particular state flag for its history at:
http://www.netstate.com/state_flags.htm

Hannah’s Socks—warm feet, warm hearts--is a non-profit serving shelters in Ohio.
On a chilly Thanksgiving Day in 2004, 4-year-old Hannah Turner was helping serve dinner to the needy at Toledo’s Cherry Street Mission. In the middle of the hustle and bustle of doing her part to fill plates, she tugged on her mother Doris’ sweater. “Mommy, won’t his feet be cold?” Hannah had focused on a man in line wearing shoes that had split open to reveal he had no socks on, and her small face reflected concern.
“Mommy, he can have my socks,” she said. That next day, Doris took Hannah to purchase and distribute socks to local shelters. They were able to collect and donate over 100 pairs around Toledo. http://www.hannahssocks.org/hannahs-story
Last night, I had the privilege of meeting Doris and Vic Turner, Hannah’s parents, and heard the story first-hand.

Cheerfulness is not the same as happiness. Peacefulness is not the same as happiness. You have to choose happiness.
paraphrased from quotes in “…And Ladies of the Club” and “Forever Odd.”

Quote: I’m a great believer in low self esteem . . . if you have low self esteem and you always assume you’re the dumbest person in the room, you’ll work harder. Jay Leno
http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/television/general/view.bg?articleid=1174620

He wrote his thesis at Harvard on Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner and in 1983 and ’84 he was elected president of The Harvard Lampoon for a rare two consecutive terms. After graduation in 1985, he moved to Los Angeles where he was a writer. While he was writing for television, he began performing with the Groundlings, a comedy troupe in Los Angeles that jump-started the careers of, among others, Pee-wee Herman and Will Ferrell. In 1988, he moved East to write for “Saturday Night Live,” and in 1991, he moved West again to work on “The Simpsons.” Who is he? Conan O’Brien. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24Conan-t.html?ref=television

May 28 is the birthday of Irish novelist Maeve Binchy, (books by this author) born in Dalkey, Ireland (1940). She's the author of 15 novels, nearly all of which have been best sellers. In 2000, Brits ranked Binchy as their sixth-favorite writer of all time, putting her ahead of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and William Shakespeare. When an interviewer told her about this, Binchy replied: "A lot of my sales are at airports. You are not likely to buy King Lear for a pleasant read on a 2 1/2-hour journey." The Writer’s Almanac

Obama's pick excelled at Yale Law School and was named to the federal bench by George H.W. Bush. Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's choice for the U.S. Supreme Court, started her path toward the highest court in the land in a South Bronx housing project. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents who came to New York City during World War II, Sotomayor worked her way through Princeton University, Yale Law School, the Manhattan district attorney's office, a corporate law firm, and the federal bench.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-sotomayor27-2009may27,0,5788009.story

The Judge Speaks: A Sotomayor Sampler
Duke speech: Click here for the YouTube video. The controversial quote: “Court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know this is on tape and I shouldn't say that because we don't make law . . . I know. . . I'm not promoting it, I'm not advocating it . . . ”
In Ricci v. DeStefano, a group of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., challenged the city's decision not to use an employment test for use in promotions when the use of the test results would have had a disproportionate benefit to white applicants over minority applicants. Sotomayor was part of a three-judge panel that upheld the city's determination, calling it “thorough, thoughtful and well-reasoned.”
In Pappas v. Giuliani (click here for the opinion), involved whether an NYPD employee was properly terminated from his job after mailing bigoted and racist material and comments in response to requests for charitable contributions. On appeal, two judges on the three- judge panel ruled that Pappas could be rightfully terminated. In dissent, Judge Sotomayor found fault with the majority's decision to award summary judgment to the police department.
In Maloney v. Cuomo: A New York attorney challenged a state law prohibiting the possession of a so-called chuka stick, a weapon used in martial arts, claiming the ruling violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms. The district court denied the attorney's claim, ruling that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states. On appeal, the three-judge panel, which included Judge Sotomayor, agreed with the lower court, ruling that an 1886 Supreme Court ruling called Presser v. Illinois dictated the outcome. It is “settled law . . . that the Second Amendment applies only to limitations the federal government seeks to impose” on one's right to bear arms.
In Riverkeeper v. EPA, she argued that the EPA can't weigh costs and benefits in deciding what the "best technology" is for protecting fish that get sucked into power plants. In a nutshell, she ruled, there's no point in tallying up the marginal costs of extra environmental protections when Congress has already decided they're worth it.
Click for her 2007 decision. WSJ Law Blog May 26, 2009

Feedback from A.Word.A.Day
From: Mary Zelle (zelle4 comcast.net)
Subject: cotton
Def: 1. to become fond of; to get on well together 2. to come to understand
There is also the idiom "in tall cotton", meaning things are going very well at the moment. It relates to the cotton plants thriving, and being high (tall) enough that the pickers don't have to bend over to pick the fiber bolls. I've heard that phrase all my life.
From: Janette Emmerson (janettea tpg.com.au)
Subject: flannel
Anyone who loves plants may be interested to know that there is a beautiful Australian Native flower whose common name is the "flannel" flower--a most appropriate name because its texture and colour is that of cream flannel (in the style of cricket creams). There are 15 species altogether, 14 native to Australia and one to New Zealand. My favourite is the Sydney Flannel flower (Actinotus helianthi) each pointed petal is tipped with soft green.
From: Rudy Rosenberg Sr (rrosenbergsr accuratesurgical.com)
Subject: flannel
Def: nonsense; evasive talk; flattery
In some parts of Flemish Belgium, and particularly in Brussels, someone who is clumsy and drops everything he handles is called: Flanellen Puten (flannel paws). This refers to the limp nature of the flannel. It is called out the moment the object you drop hits the floor.
From: Janet Rizvi (janetrizvi gmail.com)
Subject: fabric words
But fabric is not, by definition, only cloth; it's anything 'framed by art and labour' (Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary), and is derived from Latin faber, 'a worker in hard materials' (ibid.). Suppose you'd called your theme 'textile words'? Now there's a reminder of how words and metaphors relating to textiles pervade our language. Textile is derived from Latin texere, to weave, also the origin of text--words woven into a fabric. Then think how we lose the thread of an argument; spin a yarn; give credence (or not) to a tissue of lies; spout homespun philosophy; and travel from one airport terminal to another on a shuttle bus. Nor must we forget the Greek and Roman Fates, spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of each of our lives. And finally, a literary warning: 'Oh what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practise to deceive.' (Walter Scott, Marmion).

Maria Connelly, granddaughter of a Toledo muse reader, is on Broadway. Click on the May 22 Ballet Girls, Part 2 episode at: http://www.wearebillyelliot.com/

Sometime in the 1940s or 1950s, a recipe for "Mrs. Orr's Chocolate Cake" appeared in the Christian Science Monitor. An Indiana muse reader read the story, and made the recipe. Then she made it again. Then she made it a third time and delivered it to my house. Thanks, Marlene!

Buildings and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Lucas County
http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/OH/Lucas/state2.html
I found the Web site when researching:
Wheeler Block 402 Monroe St., Toledo
At the bottom of the Web page you see links to other Ohio counties and other states.
The Wheeler Block was built in 1896 on the site of the former Wheeler Opera House, which stood on the corner of Monroe and St. Clair from 1872 to 1893, and transferred to Toledo-Lucas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, Inc. in 1983. http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/oh/oh0000/oh0093/data/oh0093.pdf
The Wheeler Block, Secor Hotel, part of the St. Clair historic district, and Fort
Industry Square were within the vicinity of the SeaGate Civic/Convention Center project site, all listed on the National Register. This designation supposedly gave these structures certain protection from demolition if federal funds were involved. The SeaGate Civic Center project made use of UDAG funds from the Department of Housing and Development, but the property owners of Wheeler Block and the eastern side of the St. Clair historic district allowed the project developers to raze these properties to make way for the civic center. The Wheeler Block was razed in 1984 and the Convention Center was built in 1987. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/send-pdf.cgi?toledo1102625546
(See pages 113, 116, 117, 128, 131, 137 and 246.)
You can research commercial buildings in Toledo at: http://www.toledosattic.org/details_item.asp?key=317&did=65

Approximately 25 towns have been linked to the origin of Memorial Day, including Macon, Ga.; Richmond, Va.; and Boalsburg, Pa. In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., as the birthplace of the holiday. Congress established Memorial Day as a national holiday in 1971 and set it for the last Monday in May. The observance was originally called Decoration Day, a name still used by some. http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1243240355284420.xml&coll=2

Memorial Day was a response to the unprecedented carnage of the Civil War, in which some 620,000 soldiers on both sides died. The loss of life and its effect on communities throughout the North and South led to spontaneous commemorations of the dead. Calling Memorial Day a "national holiday" is a bit of a misnomer. While there are 11 "federal holidays" created by Congress--including Memorial Day--they apply only to Federal employees and the District of Columbia. Federal Memorial Day, established in 1888, allowed Civil War veterans, many of whom were drawing a government paycheck, to honor their fallen comrades with out being docked a day's pay. For the rest of us, our holidays were enacted state by state. New York was the first state to designate Memorial Day a legal holiday, in 1873. Most Northern states had followed suit by the 1890s. The South didn't adopt the May 30 Memorial Day until after World War I, by which time its purpose had been broadened to include those who died in all the country's wars.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/05/25/mf.holiday.memorial.day/

Sculptor Richard Serra, writer John McPhee, priest and creator of liberation theology Gustavo Gutierrez, composer Sofia Gubaidulina, scientist Leroy Hood, Nobel Prize winner Thomas Schelling, choreographer Bill T. Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received honorary degrees at Yale University's 308th graduation ceremony on May 25. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/05/26/cheers_and_honors_for_clinton_at_yale/

Some of the artifacts that come to life in "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" are very familiar (Oscar the Grouch, the giant squid), while other landmarks and props (Rodin's "The Thinker," which technically resides in Paris and doesn't speak with the voice of Hank Azaria) are entirely Hollywood fantasy. The movie marks the first time a commercial studio has been allowed to film inside the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall or any of the Smithsonian's museums. The PG-rated action comedy stars Ben Stiller, Azaria, Amy Adams, Owen Wilson and Robin Williams and follows a former security guard trying to rescue his museum "friends" after a transfer from New York to Washington. In the deal with 20th Century Fox, the Smithsonian received $550,000 for the use of its name, and $200,000 for the four days of filming. After the movie's release, the Smithsonian will receive flat payments when the movie reaches certain benchmarks at the box office. It will get $250,000 when the box-office take reaches $150 million; $125,000 when it reaches $200 million and $250 million, respectively, the Smithsonian confirmed. The Smithsonian is also earning 7.5% from the movie merchandise sold in its stores. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-smithsonian23-2009may23,0,1385648.story

Espresso: A one-ounce shot of intense, rich black coffee made and served at once. A pump-driven machine forces hot water through fine grounds at around nine atmospheres of pressure. Comes from the Latin word Expresere which means "to press out". See coffee dictionary at: http://www.realcoffee.co.uk/Article.asp?Cat=Trivia&Page=4

The maître d' (short for maître d'hôtel, in the original French, literally "master of the hotel") in a suitably staffed restaurant or hotel is the person in charge of assigning customers to tables in the establishment and dividing the dining area into areas of responsibility for the various servers on duty. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma%C3%AEtre_d'

Saint Patrick's Old Cathedral, or Old St. Patrick's, is located at 260-264 Mulberry Street between Prince and Houston Streets in Manhattan. It was the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York until the current Saint Patrick's Cathedral opened in 1879. Construction on Old Saint Patrick's began in 1809, the cornerstone being laid on June 8 of that year. It was finished to a design by architect Joseph-Francois Mangin, who had also designed New York's City Hall, in just under six years, being dedicated May 14, 1815. The church measures 120 by 80 feet and the inner vault is 85 feet high. In 1866 the structure was gutted by fire, but though the new St. Patrick's was already under construction, it was restored under the direction of architect Henry Engelbert and reopened in 1868. See pictures and learn of movies filmed there at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Old_Cathedral,_New_York

May 23 is the birthday of essayist and conservationist Paul Gruchow, (books by this author) born in Montevideo, Minnesota (1947), who wrote books of essays about the farm where he grew up and the landscape of Minnesota, including The Necessity of Empty Places (1988) and Grass Roots: the Universe of Home (1995).
May 23 is the birthday of novelist Ursula Hegi, (books by this author) born in Düsseldorf, Germany (1946). She started writing her own stories when she was six, sitting along the Rhine River that ran by her house. And she read everything—classics by Dostoevsky and Thomas Mann, mysteries, religious texts, and the romance novels her housekeeper kept hidden under the ironing board. She immigrated to the United States when she was 18, wrote two novels that were rejected, but finally got one published, and she went on to write her most famous novel, Stones from the River (1994). It got good reviews, sold pretty well, and then in 1997 it was chosen as an Oprah Book Club novel and became a big best seller.
May 23 is the birthday of Mitch Albom, (books by this author) born in Passaic, New Jersey (1958) . He was the lead sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press, and soon he became one of the most popular sports columnists in the nation. He wrote a couple of books about sports, both New York Times best sellers. Then he was watching ABC News and he saw one of his old professors, Morrie Schwartz, being interviewed about his experience with ALS, which is also called Lou Gehrig's disease. Mitch Albom had promised to keep in touch with Schwartz, but he hadn't So he contacted his old professor, and for the last 14 weeks of Schwartz's life, Albom visited him every Tuesday, and Morrie would give Mitch advice on how to lead a good and peaceful life. Morrie Schwartz said things like, "The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." And, "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live." So Mitch Albom wrote a book based on these conversations, Tuesdays with Morrie (1997), which became a huge best seller, the best-selling nonfiction book of 1998, and remained on the New York Times best seller list for 205 weeks. It has sold more than 14 million copies.
May 24 is the birthday of Bob Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota (1941). After he heard Little Richard on the radio, he wanted to play rock and roll, so his dad bought him an electric guitar and he formed a rock band at his high school, The Golden Chords. T hen he went to the University of Minnesota, and as soon as he got to Minneapolis and heard a record by the folk singer Odetta, he went and traded in his electric guitar for an acoustic one. He said, "A person is a success if they get up in the morning and gets to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do."
May 24 is the birthday of novelist Michael Chabon, (books by this author) who was born in Washington, D.C. (1963), and grew up with his mom in Columbia, Maryland, a planned suburban community with utopian ideals. He was in his mid-20s, a graduate student in creative writing at the University of California Irvine, when he submitted his master's thesis, a novel about a young man coming to terms with his sexuality. His professor was so impressed that he sent the manuscript off to an agent as soon as he finished reading it, and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) was published to rave reviews. The Writer’s Almanac

U-M first to sign new digitization agreement with Google
Follow up to previous articles on Google Book Search: "The University of Michigan today announced that it has expanded its historic agreement with Google Inc. to create digital copies of millions of U-M library books and journals. The amended agreement, which strengthens library preservation efforts and increases the public's access to books, is possible because of Google's pending settlement with a broad class of authors and publishers. The U-M library is the first in the nation to expand its partnership with Google."

Report: How Philadelphia and Other Cities are Balancing Budgets in a Time of Recession
"A new study from the Pew Philadelphia Research Initiative looks at how 13 major cities are coping with the recession and finds that most are facing significant budget gaps and are cutting services and personnel in response. Philadelphia is one of four cities studied that is planning at least one major tax hike—a five-year, one percentage point increase in the sales tax. Tough Decisions and Limited Options: How Philadelphia and Other Cities are Balancing Budgets in a Time of Recession examines the budget decisions that have been proposed or enacted in Philadelphia, placing its challenges in the context of 12 other cities: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Columbus (OH), Detroit, Kansas City (MO), Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle."

Annual Report for the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Developmentt
"The Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IIC) is an autonomous non-profit institution established by Guyana and the Commonwealth. Through the dedication of 371,000 hectares (about one million acres) of intact tropical rainforest by the Government and People of Guyana to the International Community, the IIC aims to show how tropical forests can be conserved and sustainably used for ecological, social and economic benefits to local, national and international communities." Iwokrama Annual Report 2008

H1N1 Flu & International Education Information & Resources
Follow up to previous postings on swine flu and A/H1N1: from the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC) - "The information in this site is intended to support internationally oriented higher education administrators, study abroad representatives, faculty and students by helping inform their decisions and actions affecting international academic activities stemming from concerns over the H1N1 strain of influenza...We are regularly updating basic statistics about the virus outbreak in the North American region. The information is provided by the appropriate government agencies of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada."
Click here to download a MS Excel file that is updated on a daily basis which includes 10 data sets, charts, and information at state/provincial levels.

EPA Announces Start of Hudson River Dredging
News release: "The dredging and related work will be conducted by GE under the terms of a November 2006 consent decree. EPA will oversee all aspects of the work; dredging will continue through October 2009, weather permitting. At the conclusion of this first phase of the project, an independent panel of experts will review the results of the dredging and potentially make recommendations for changes that may be incorporated throughout the remainder of the dredging, which is targeted for completion in 2015. This first phase of the dredging project will be conducted 24 hours a day, six days a week and targets the removal of 265,000 cubic yards of sediment and 20,300 kilograms of PCBs from a six-mile stretch of the river between Roger’s Island and Thompson Island. Sediment removed from the river will be carried by barge to a dewatering facility located on the Champlain Canal in Fort Edward. At this facility, water will be squeezed from the sediment and treated to drinking water standards before being returned to the canal. The remaining PCB-laden dirt will be loaded onto railcars for ultimate disposal at a permitted landfill facility in Andrews, Texas. The entire project will remove an estimated 1.8 million cubic yards of sediment and 113,000 kg of PCBs."
EPA's Hudson River Dredging Data website
General Electric’s website for the Dredging Project

“Human history and rivers are inextricably intertwined. Of all the geologic wonders of nature, none has played a more central and continuous role in the history of civilization than rivers. Fanning out across every major landmass except the Antarctic, all great rivers wove an arterial network that played a pivotal role in the inception of early civilizations and in the evolution of today’s modern nation-states.” Stuart A. Kallen

Mockingbirds can distinguish between individual humans, according to a new study by University of Florida biologists. "Our results show that these birds are much more perceptive of their human environment than we thought was possible," said Doug Levey, a UF professor of biology. For the study, student participants approached mockingbird nests, gently touched the edges of the nest and then walked away. After witnessing these 30-second advances for two consecutive days, the mockingbirds could distinguish the volunteers from the thousands of other people who walk near their nests each day, Levey said. The birds in the study gave alarm calls, flew overhead, swooped at participants and sometimes made direct contact with their heads. But when different volunteers approached the nest, the mockingbirds did not exhibit these defensive behaviors.
"This study gives us an idea of what mockingbirds are doing all day," Fitzpatrick said.
As they build nests, raise young and feed on insects, they keenly observe and remember everything that comes near their territory. "Mockingbirds can recognize a human after only 60 seconds of contact," Levey said. "I would challenge most humans to do the same." http://www.gainesville.com/article/20090519/ARTICLES/905191010/1002?Title=Study-Mockingbirds-recognize-individual-humans

There is a battle over federal preemption of state laws governing product-liability and personal-injury suits. The Bush administration encouraged federal agencies to issue rules preempting state laws and declared that a single federal standard held sway. But in a two-page order on May 21, President Obama called for a rollback of these regulations. He said federal agencies and departments should claim that state law is preempted by federal law only when there is a well-defined legal basis, and ordered agencies to review regulations from the past 10 years to see if the government had improperly asserted federal preemption. Click here for the WSJ story, from Alicia Mundy and Brent Kendall. WSJ Law Blog May 21, 2009

More than 300,000 residential units sit empty across Florida, 64,588 properties were in foreclosure last month, second only to Nevada, and real estate prices are still plummeting. Nonetheless, state lawmakers are making it easier for developers to add even more. Gov. Charlie Crist now has a bill on his desk, which he said Wednesday he “probably will” sign, that would ease government oversight and exempt many areas from a requirement that says builders must pay for road improvements if traffic generated by their projects exceeds the local capacity.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/21florida.html?ref=global-home

The buns came off in a battle between the nation's two biggest hot dog-makers as Downers Grove-based Sara Lee Corp. Wednesday sued its local rival for false advertising. Sara Lee, maker of Ball Park franks, said that Northfield-based Kraft Foods Inc., purveyor of Oscar Mayer hot dogs, is running ads that claim one particular Oscar dog trumps the taste of Ball Park's entire line. One of those ads appeared in May 20 USA Today in conjunction with a giveaway of up to $1 million in Oscar Mayer hot dogs.
The full-page USA Today ad claimed that Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef Franks beat Ball Park and ConAgra Foods' Hebrew National hot dogs in a national taste test. B ut in a footnote, the ad notes that the Oscar Mayer Jumbo Beef frank is being compared to the "leading beef hot dogs" made by its rivals. The Sara Lee suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago, says the ad is false and misleading because in large type it implies one Oscar Mayer dog bested the taste of all Ball Park dogs. But the footnote, "in very small type," says that Oscar Mayer compared its hot dogs to "the leading beef franks" of its main rivals. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-thu-hot-dog-suit-0520-may21,0,3237841.story

Metropolitan Sandusky, home of Cedar Point amusement park, was the easiest place in the nation to swing a home purchase in the first quarter of 2009, according to a new study conducted for the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo & Co. Nationwide, housing affordability jumped 10 percentage points during the first quarter of 2008 to its highest level since the study began 18 years ago, the Home Builders said. Metro Toledo ranked 25th. Study authors said that 90.2 percent of homes were affordable to families with the median income of $61,800. The median selling price was $78,000 in the recent quarter. In a separate survey of metro areas with at least 500,000 people, Toledo ranked ninth, just behind No. 8 Buffalo, and No. 7 Cleveland. Indianapolis was first, with the most affordable housing by its area residents. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090520/BUSINESS05/905200329 Find the Housing Opportunity Index here: http://www.nahb.org/page.aspx/category/sectionID=135


D.C. Circuit Holds Office of Administration Is Not An Agency, Not Subject to FOIA
Follow up to previous postings on missing White House emails during Bush administrations, today's news release: "Today, in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) v. Office of Administration, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an opinion upholding the district court's conclusion that the Office of Administration (OA) is not an agency and therefore is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). CREW brought this lawsuit under the FOIA to uncover documents related to OA's response to the discovery that millions of emails had gone missing from White House servers. Although OA had a history of responding to FOIA requests--in fact the office’s own website included regulations for filing FOIA requests with OA--after CREW sued OA suddenly claimed it was not an agency and was not required to produce any of the requested documents. The district court sided with the Bush administration, finding that OA was not an agency because it performed only administrative support functions and did not exercise substantial independent authority. In today's ruling, the D.C. Circuit agreed with that decision."

Remarks by President on National Fuel Efficiency Standards
Remarks: "...While the United States makes up less than 5 percent of the world's population, we create roughly a quarter of the world's demand for oil. And this appetite comes at a tremendous price--a price measured by our vulnerability to volatile oil markets, which send gas prices soaring and families scrambling. It's measured by a trade deficit where as much as 20 percent of what we spend on imports is spent on oil. It's measured in billions of dollars sent to oil-exporting nations, many that we do not choose to support, if we had a choice. It's measured in a changing climate, as sea levels rise, and droughts spread, forest burns, and storms rage."
Statement: Automakers Support President in Development of National Program for Autos

A preserved fossil of a small lemur-like creature from 47 million years ago was
unveiled on May 19 at the American Museum of Natural History, The skeleton is the best-preserved primate in the fossil record, with 95 percent of the creature's bones still intact, and even the contents of its guts preserved to reveal what it ate before it died.
The unveiling coincides not only with the publication of a scientific paper, but also with the release of a new book about the fossil—"The Link," (Little Brown and Company, 2009)—and a documentary also called "The Link" and set to premiere on the History Channel May 25. See pictures and story at: http://www.livescience.com/animals/090519-fossil-scene.html

Feedback from Toledo muse reader: I highly recommend the book In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. Bill Moyers had the author on his "Journal" program. It will inspire all to move to the garden!

On May 20, 1609, the publisher Thomas Thorpe made an entry in the Stationer's Register that said: Entred for his copie under the handes of master Wilson and master Lownes Wardenes a booke called Shakespeares sonnettes, (books by this author) and soon after (we don't know the exact date) Shakespeare's sonnets were published. Many people think that Thorpe published them without Shakespeare's consent. The 1609 collection contained 154 sonnets, only two of which had been published before.
May 20 is the birthday of Honoré de Balzac, (books by this author)born in Tours, France (1799). He devoted most of his life to a huge cycle of novels and plays that he called La Comédie humaine,or The Human Comedy. He wanted La Comédie humaine to address all aspects of French society in the 19th century. He often wrote for at least 15 hours at a time, and he would keep it up for weeks on end. He wrote about everyone and everything By the end of his life, he had written almost 100 novels and plays, and created more than 2,000 characters. He said, "I am not deep, but I am very wide."
The Writer’s Almanac

IN TOLEDO: Thursday, May 21, from 6-9 p.m., the Arts Zone and Warehouse District in downtown Toledo will come alive as its galleries and artist studios open to the public. The Arts Zone/Warehouse District Third Thursday Art Walk is a great opportunity to browse and purchase affordable local art, while getting to know the artists and galleries of the Arts Zone, the Warehouse District, and the surrounding area. The Art Walk, presented by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo (ACGT) and artists, galleries, and arts enthusiasts of the Arts Zone and Warehouse District, will continue on Third Thursdays through September. Participants for the May 21 event include: MMK Gallery, 20 North Gallery, Sur St. Clair, the studio of Jack Wilson, offices of Paul Sullivan AIA, the Little Gallery, South Wing Gallery, Olive Street Studios, Calvin Babich Creations in Stone, Studio 356, Secor Studios, The Ford Gallery and Madhouse Gallery. Maps with information about each venue will be available at each of the stops along the walk.

Former President Bill Clinton, who has pledged his philanthropic weight to help a storm ravaged Haiti, has been named a special envoy to the Caribbean nation on behalf of the United Nations. The appointment comes two months after Clinton visited Haiti alongside U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in an effort to raise global attention to the country's halting efforts to rebuild following a string of storms that wreaked havoc on the Haitian economy, its nine million citizens and its already fragile landscape. Last summer's two hurricanes and two tropical storms in less than 30 days left nearly 800 dead and nearly $1 billion in damage in an impoverished Haiti. They came five months after rising global fuel and food prices triggered days of deadly food riots. The U.N. currently has no special envoy for Haiti, and it is expected that Clinton will travel there at least four times a year as part of the UN's effort to build on the momentum created by his March visit. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/haiti/story/1054866.html

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a San Francisco case May 18 that AT&T and other employers can pay lower retirement benefits to women who took pregnancy leave before Congress changed the nation's anti-discrimination laws in 1979 than they pay to co-workers who went out on disability during the same period. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/18/BUSQ17MMBK.DTL

Cuba's Undersea Oil Could Help Thaw Trade With U.S. by Nick Miroff: "Deep in the Gulf of Mexico, an end to the 1962 U.S. trade embargo against Cuba may be lying untapped, buried under layers of rock, seawater and bitter relations. Oil, up to 20 billion barrels of it, sits off Cuba's northwest coast in territorial waters, according to the Cuban government--enough to turn the island into the Qatar of the Caribbean. At a minimum, estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey place Cuba's potential deep-water reserves at 4.6 billion barrels of oil and 9.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, stores that would rank the island among the region's top producers."

The Global Food Crisis, The End of Plenty by Joel K. Bourne Jr.
It is the simplest, most natural of acts, akin to breathing and walking upright. We sit down at the dinner table, pick up a fork, and take a juicy bite, obliv¬ious to the double helping of global ramifications on our plate. Our beef comes from Iowa, fed by Nebraska corn. Our grapes come from Chile, our bananas from Honduras, our olive oil from Sicily, our apple juice—not from Washington State but all the way from China. Modern society has relieved us of the burden of growing, harvesting, even preparing our daily bread, in exchange for the burden of simply paying for it. Last year the skyrocketing cost of food was a wake-up call for the planet. Between 2005 and the summer of 2008, the price of wheat and corn tripled, and the price of rice climbed fivefold, spurring food riots in nearly two dozen countries and pushing 75 million more people into poverty. But unlike previous shocks driven by short-term food shortages, this price spike came in a year when the world's farmers reaped a record grain crop. This time, the high prices were a symptom of a larger problem tugging at the strands of our worldwide food web, one that's not going away anytime soon. Simply put: For most of the past decade, the world has been consuming more food than it has been producing. After years of drawing down stockpiles, in 2007 the world saw global carryover stocks fall to 61 days of global consumption, the second lowest on record."

Easter Island, in the relative far east of the Pacific Ocean, 2,360 miles from South America, was one of the very last places to be settled by Polynesians. People arrived around the year 500, and after several generations the population was sufficient to get into the labor-intensive monument business. Polynesians were carvers anyway; here they had the perfect volcanic rock for it and little else to occupy their time. So statue building became the central activity of Easter's society. Archaeologists have inventoried 887 carved figures made between about A.D. 1000 and 1600. These big busts, called moai, are an average of 13 feet tall and are known to islanders as the "living faces." In or around 1680, civil war broke out. People began tearing down the statues, possibly in deliberate effrontery to leaders they believed had failed them. (A 33-foot tall statue named Paro, dating from about 1620, was one of the last erected and one of the last felled.) The year 1838 offers the last European mention of a standing statue, and in 1868 every moai on Easter Island was either toppled in the dirt or resting stillborn in the quarry. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124242685832325213.html

brachiate (verb: BRAY-kee-ayt, BRAK-ee-ayt, adjective: BRAY-kee-it, BRAK-ee-it)
verb intr.: to move by swinging from one hold to another by using arms
adjective: having arms
From Latin brachiatus (having arms), from brachium (arm), from Greek brakhion (upper arm). Ultimately from the Indo-European root mregh-u- (short) that is also the source of brief, abbreviate, abridge, brassiere, and brumal. A.Word.A.Day

Art you can eat in Kyoto
The meal at famed Kikunoi restaurant was cutting-edge: 12 courses made up of 60 different items, each fanatically sourced using the freshest and highest-quality ingredients available. And in the trendiest fashion, the entire meal, which stretched to almost three hours, weighed in at less than 1,000 calories. Welcome to kaiseki (kye-SEK-ee), the original fixed-price tasting menu, whose roots in Kyoto go back almost 500 years to the Japanese tea ceremony's origins and the practices of meat-shunning Buddhist monks. Derek Wilcox, a 32-year-old American, has worked in Kikunoi's kitchen for two years at no pay to learn how kaiseki is properly done. His hours--7 a.m. to 11 p.m. six days a week--are grueling. He plans to open a kaiseki restaurant in the U.S. in seven to 10 years--the amount of time he figures he'll need to learn all the principles and techniques. Kaiseki's elaborate style dates back to the 16th century and the tea master Sen no Rikyu, who thought the powdered green tea used in the tea ceremony was too intense to be sipped on an empty stomach. He started serving small plates of food to make drinking the tea more enjoyable. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124242719429025155.html

Possible lawsuits, reports the National Law Journal, might be on their way. The National Law Journal reports that Squire, Sanders & Dempsey is representing a coalition of rejected Chrysler dealers and has scheduled a meeting with President Obama's auto task force next week to ask for federal assistance. The firm claims that the closures are unlawful and that roughly 100,000 employees stand to lose their jobs. It vows to litigate if franchise rights are ignored. WSJ Law Blog May 15, 2009

GM has not made its list of closings public as of May 15.

Free is good. But free is not necessarily equal. Click link for 10 sites that provide free access to case law. Each has its peculiar strengths and weaknesses. http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1202430532688

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, and TransUnion) are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you ("Firm Offers"). The FCRA also provides you the right to "Opt-Out", which prevents Consumer Credit Reporting Companies from providing your credit file information for Firm Offers.
Through this website, you may request to:
• Opt-Out from receiving Firm Offers for Five Years - (electronically through this website).
• Opt-Out from receiving Firm Offers permanently - (mail Permanent Opt-Out Election form available through this website).
• Opt-In and be eligible to receive Firm Offers. This option is for consumers who have previously completed an Opt-Out request - (electronically through this website).
If you choose to Opt-Out, you will no longer be included in firm offer lists provided by these four consumer credit reporting companies. If you are not receiving firm offers because you have previously completed a request to Opt-Out, you can request to Opt-In. In doing so, you will soon be among the many consumers who can significantly benefit from having ready access to product information on credit and insurance products that may not be available to the general public. https://www.optoutprescreen.com/?rf=t

A French court on May 13 rejected a claim from the cosmetics company L’Oréal that the online auctioneer eBay was profiting from sales of counterfeit perfumes. The court said that eBay was making a reasonable effort to keep fake goods off its site. The lawsuit pitted L’Oréal, a French brand owner, against an outsider, eBay, in a country where the laissez-faire ethos of American Internet companies sometimes clashed with local business and legal traditions. EBay has lost several similar cases brought by other brand owners in France, including LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Hermès. L’Oréal has also sued eBay in Belgium, Britain and Spain. A Belgian court recently sided with the online auctioneer; a decision is expected soon in Britain. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/technology/companies/14loreal.html

Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her. No wonder. She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy of one of her most enduring novels, “The Left Hand of Darkness.” Neither Ms. Le Guin nor her publisher had authorized the electronic editions. To Ms. Le Guin, it was a rude introduction to the quietly proliferating problem of digital piracy in the literary world. “I thought, who do these people think they are?” Ms. Le Guin said. “Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?” Some publishers say the problem has ballooned in recent months as an expanding appetite for e-books has spawned a bumper crop of pirated editions on Web sites like Scribd and Wattpad, and on file-sharing services like RapidShare and MediaFire. “It’s exponentially up,” said David Young, chief executive of Hachette Book Group, whose Little, Brown division publishes the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer, a favorite among digital pirates. “Our legal department is spending an ever-increasing time policing sites where copyrighted material is being presented.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/technology/internet/12digital.html

May 17 is the birthday of composer Erik Satie, born in a seaport town in northern France (1866). He's known for his eccentric piano pieces, with French titles that roughly translate into Flabby Preludes (for a Dog) (1912) and Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear (1903). His scores also contain instructions to the performers like "Light as an egg," "With astonishment," or "Work it out yourself."
May 17 is the birthday of Mexican writer and diplomat Alfonso Reyes, (books by this author) born in Monterrey, Mexico (1889). When he was 21, he published a very successful book of essays, Cuestiones estéticas. And when he was 22, he wrote a short story called "La Cena" ("The Supper"), which was one of the first pieces to be classified as Latin American magical realism—the genre that's now used to describe work by authors like Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende. The year after he wrote that story, his father, a governor, was assassinated. Reyes graduated from law school and got a job with Mexico's foreign service. He was posted to France and then spent a decade in Spain, largely missing out on the violent Mexican Revolution at home. He served as ambassador to Argentina and Brazil, and returned to Mexico after he retired. His complete works have been published in 26 volumes, and he has translated the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, G.K. Chesterton, Anton Chekhov, and Homer.
May 18 is the birthday of Omar Khayyám, born in Nishapur, Iran (1048). During his lifetime, he was known as a scientist and a mathematician, and his treatise on algebra is considered one of the greatest mathematical works of the Middle Ages. But today we know him for his Rubáiyát—which means, simply, "quatrains," four-lined stanzas with a rhyming pattern. In 1859, E.B. Cowell, a scholar of Persian at Oxford University, stumbled on a manuscript copy of 158 of Khayyám's quatrains at Oxford's Bodleian Library. He passed it on to one of his students, Edward FitzGerald, and FitzGerald translated 75 of the quatrains. He thought some of the quatrains were too sensual or made Khayyám seem too much like an atheist, so those he left in Persian, and he made liberal changes to the verses he did translate. FitzGerald self-published the Rubáiyát, and sold it in a local bookstore for a shilling, about 12 cents. But he didn't sell a single copy, so he moved it to the penny bin on the street, where it was picked up by Whitley Stokes, the editor of the famous weekly paper The Saturday Review.Stokes passed it on to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who passed it to Algernon Charles Swinburne, who gave it to George Meredith, and so on, and soon it was all the rage of the English and American literati. It became one of the most reproduced works of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Rubáiyát has been translated by many translators since then, some of them much more faithful to the original text, but it is FitzGerald's translation that remains the most popular in English. Here is his translation of one of Khayyám's quatrains:
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow.
On May 18, 1980 Mount St. Helens erupted. There had been earthquakes and smaller steam eruptions in the volcano for two months, but on the morning of May 18, 1980, an earthquake caused the entire north side of the mountain to collapse. This caused the largest landslide in recorded history and a volcanic eruption that was as powerful as 500 atomic bombs. No one expected the eruption to be so large, but they did know it was coming, so the Forest Service had worked to keep visitors away, although 57 people still died. The blast destroyed 230 square miles of old-growth forest, and the ash was deposited in 11 states. The Writer’s Almanac

More on engagement rings from Toledo muse reader: In Ohio, the ring is called a "gift in contemplation of marriage". Now it doesn't matter who caused the split. The ring goes back to the giver.

In court documents filed May 14 before U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Chrysler asked Judge Arthur Gonzalez for approval to reject dealership agreements it has with 789 dealers across the country. List of Chrysler dealerships to be closed from The Washington Post--Go to Exhibit A and see list alphabetically by title:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/pdf/list_of_dealers_051409.pdf?sid=ST2009051401978

When Audrey Spangenberg idly typed “FirePond,” the name of her small software company, into Google this year, she was not happy with what she saw. Her company’s site came up as the top search listing. But just above it, Google showed the ads of competitors that had paid Google to display their marketing messages whenever someone searched for FirePond, a registered trademark. On May 11, FPX filed a class-action suit against Google in federal court in Texas, saying that Google had infringed on its trademark and challenging Google’s policies on behalf of all trademark owners in the state. Legal experts said it was the first class-action suit against Google over the issue.
But Google’s acceptance of such competitive uses of trademarks has irked many other companies, including the likes of American Airlines and Geico, which have filed suits against Google and settled them. Many brand owners say the practice abuses their brands, confuses customers and increases their cost of doing business. None of this, apparently, is giving Google much reason to reconsider. This month, it expanded to more than 190 new countries its policy of allowing anyone to buy someone else’s trademark as a trigger for an ad. On May 14 it announced that it would allow limited use of trademarks in the text of some search ads, even if the trademark owner objects. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/technology/internet/15google.html?ref=technology

Farrah Fawcett plans to watch with the rest of America tonight when a documentary about her battle with cancer airs on national television. One cloud hanging over tonight's broadcast is a lawsuit filed May 13 by one of the documentary's producers. Craig Nevius, a producer who once served as Fawcett's spokesman, is suing O'Neal, his business manager and another producer, Alana Stewart, to regain creative control over the program. He claimed that the trio interfered with his right to produce the documentary and that O'Neal threatened him. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/CancerPreventionAndTreatment/story?id=7590321&page=1

wend (wend) verb tr., intr.: To travel along a route
From Old English wendan
If you've ever wondered why we have the peculiar form "went" as the past tense of the word go (go, went, gone), today's word is the culprit. "Went" is the archaic past form of "wend". In current usage, the past form of wend is wended. The word is typically used in the phrase "to wend one's way". A.Word.A.Day

EPA Offers Tips to Save Energy and Fight Climate Change this Summer
News release: "With summer and the high costs of cooling right around the corner, EPA is offering advice to help Americans reduce both energy bills and greenhouse gas emissions by one third through Energy Star. The energy used in an average home costs more than $2,200 a year and contributes more greenhouse gas emissions than a typical car."
More tips on to how to save energy at home: http://www.energystar.gov
More tips on how to save energy at work: http://www.energystar.gov/bizcooling
More hot tips for a cool summer: http://www.epa.gov/epahome/hi-summer.htm
Related postings on climate change

LLRX.com: Can Collaboration Solve Copyright Status Questions? The WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry - As Roger V. Skalbeck documents, one of the underlying obstacles to reproducing older books is a central place to look for information about what is protected by copyright and what may have passed into the public domain is lacking. Responding to this need, OCLC recently introduced a beta service, the WorldCat Copyright Evidence Registry (CER).

Unified Agenda, May 2009 Edition: "The Unified Agenda summarizes the rules and proposed rules that each Federal agency expects to issue during the next six months."

The first movies were a penny arcade item. Individuals put a penny into a kinetoscope machine, and turned the crank to see about 40 seconds of moving images. Arcade, to make more money per showing, showed them to a group in a corner of the arcade. Because of large audiences, arcade owners rented nearby stores and charged 5 cents admission—soon theaters got name of “nickelodeon.” Film music started with a pianist, then sometimes string trio or full orchestra. Books of film music were developed into cue sheets by mood (love, hate, frenzy). Classical repertoire was included.
Film Music, comp. and ed. by James L. Limbacher, 1974.

When an engagement breaks up, who gets the ring?
It turns out that, like so many areas of the law, it depends. San Diego-based speaker, author and lawyer Jeff Isaac, who goes by the moniker “The Lawyer in Blue Jeans,” says that the law depends on the state, but as a threshold matter, the common-law rule is that an engagement ring is a conditional gift--it is given (often but not always) by a man to a woman with the express condition that the recipient go ahead with the marriage.
In California, this apparently happens so often that the state legislature passed a law. CA Civil Code 1590 states:
Where either party to a contemplated marriage in this State makes a gift of money or property to the other on the basis or assumption that the marriage will take place, in the event that the donee refuses to enter into the marriage as contemplated or that it is given up by mutual consent, the donor may recover such gift or such part of its value as may, under all of the circumstances of the case, be found by a court or jury to be just."
But what happens when the giver backs out, against the will of the recipient? Isaac says that, generally speaking, if the giver is the one who gets cold feet, then he gives up the right to the ring. Of course, the facts surrounding “engagement-ring law,” says Isaac, are rarely so simple. Someone officially breaking off the engagement could, of course, say that he or she had no choice, that the other person's hitherto undiscovered behavior was so intolerable, for example, that it effectively ended the engagement. And is the lawyer in blue jeans always in blue jeans? Indeed. “I have 50 pair,” he says. “I have to wear them. People know me, and if I don't, they call me out on it.” WSJ Law Blog May 13, 2009

Treasury Releases the President's FY2010 Budget 'Greenbook'
News release: "As part of the Administration's effort to develop a budget that invests in our nation's future, the U.S. Treasury Department today released the General Explanations of the Administration's Fiscal Year 2010 Revenue Proposals (Greenbook) to provide details of plans to cut taxes for small businesses and middle class families and close unfair corporate tax loopholes. The plan includes $736 billion in tax cuts for working families over the next ten years and provides almost $100 billion in tax cuts for businesses, providing support to the entrepreneurs who will help drive an economic recovery. The plan also promotes fairness and fiscal responsibility by closing hundreds of billions in loopholes, including $36 billion in tax breaks for oil companies and the $86.5 billion "check-the-box" loophole which allows U.S. companies that invest overseas to shift income to tax havens."

Google News Search Results Now Providing More Content Options
Google News Blog: "Last Thursday we launched a new format for story pages on Google News. These are the pages you see when you click the "all [#] news articles" link of each cluster of articles which cover the same news event--or "story," as we say on the Google News team. The story page includes timely and relevant information from different sources indexed in Google News. Depending on the most recent coverage and materials available for a given story, the page features top articles, quotes from the people in the story, and posts from news blogs. You'll also find image thumbnails, videos, articles from sources based near the story, and a timeline of articles to trace media coverage of the story."

The earliest wind chill index was based on the research of Antarctic explorers Siple and Passel who first measured the combined impacts of varying wind speed and freezing temperatures in 1945. They did this by measuring heat loss from water as it froze in a plastic container suspended from a tall pole. The new Wind Chill Temperature Index, by Randall Osczevski of DCIEM and Maurice Bluestein of Purdue University in Indiana, makes use of advances in science, technology and computer modeling to provide a more accurate, understandable and useful formula for estimating the dangers arising from winter winds and freezing temperatures. http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ssd/html/windchil.htm

The nation's first Survey of the Coast, headed by Ferdinand Hassler, a young Swiss immigrant personally chosen for the job by President Thomas Jefferson. It also marked the beginning of the oldest scientific agency in the U.S. Government, what is now called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA—the agency that charts the seacoasts for ships, predicts the path of hurricanes, and protects delicate coral reefs and spawning salmon. Hassler's work was the result of legislation in 1807 that authorized the President "to cause a Survey to be taken of the coasts of the United States" for various purposes. Jefferson had just received reports from the expedition he dispatched to explore the recently purchased Louisiana Territory, the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Now, Congress had given him discretion "to cause proper and intelligent persons to be employed" in carrying out a rigorous survey of the nation's coastline—which would eventually grow to fulfill Jefferson's dream of a nation facing both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Hassler had received a scientific education and had served as both official surveyor of his Swiss canton of Berne and also its attorney general. Like so many others, though, he felt the Old World to be confining, so he sailed to America armed with hope, a large technical library sealed in barrels, and his very own meter, a heavy iron bar marked with the exact length of the French unit of measure.
The Survey of the Coast soon became known as the Coast Survey, and later in the 19th century it was renamed the Coast and Geodetic Survey. http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/coast-survey.html

Office of Coast Survey: The Nation’s Chartmaker http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/

What is Roycroft? A handicraft community founded in East Aurora, NY about 1895 by Elbert Hubbard. Hubbard had been a very successful soap salesman for J. D. Larkin and Co. in Buffalo, but wasn't satisfied with his life. So in 1892, he sold his interests in the company and briefly enrolled at Harvard. Disenchanted, he quickly dropped out and set off on a walking tour of England. He briefly met William Morris and became enamored of Morris' Arts-and-Crafts Kelmscott Press. Upon his return to America, he tried to find a publisher for a series of biographical sketches he had written called "Little Journeys." When he was unsuccessful in his attempts to have someone else publish the works, he decided to print them himself. Thus the Roycroft Press was born. Hubbard proved to be such a prolific and popular writer that fame and fortune soon followed. The print shop expanded and then visitors began coming to East Aurora to see this extraordinary man. Initially, visitors were housed in the printworker's living quarters, but this arrangement soon proved inadequate. A hotel was built to house the ever increasing number of visitors. The inn had to be furnished so Hubbard had local craftsmen make a simple, straight lined style of furniture. The furniture became popular with visitors who wished to buy pieces for their homes. In addition, Roycroft craftspeople were skilled metalsmiths, leathersmiths, and bookbinders. The community flourished and was at its peak in 1910 with over 500 workers. It all changed when Elbert and his wife, Alice, were among the fatalities onboard the Lusitania. The Hubbards had been traveling to England to begin a lecture tour when they died. The Community's leadership then fell to Elbert's son, Bert. Though Bert took the Roycrofters to wider sales distribution, changing American tastes led to slowly declining sales figures. Finally, in 1938 the Roycrofters closed shop. http://www.roycrofter.com/

American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) evolved his Prairie House type, with volumes developing from a central core, long, low roofs that appeared to float over the structure, corners treated as voids, and enclosing walls that were treated more as independent screens (techniques he called ‘breaking the box’). His organic architecture, in which “function and form are one” and nature is respected break the box, creating open space, where rooms flow from one to the other.
http://www.answers.com/topic/frank-lloyd-wright
http://www.phoenixmag.com/lifestyle/history/200904/so-long--frank-lloyd-wright/3/

Quote: Don't fear failure. Don't crave success. The reward is not in the results, but rather in the doing.
Wilson Greatbatch from his “favorite” two-minute speech, first given in 1987 at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y. (b. 1919) American inventor of the implantable pacemaker
http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/ilives/lecture09.html
http://www.hrsonline.org/News/ep-history/notable-figures/wilsongreatbatch.cfm

A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO, May 3-8, 2009
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Situated on the south shore of Lake Ontario at the mouth of the Niagara River, the first capital of Ontario, where the first library in Ontario was established, birthplace of the Law Society of Upper Canada, home of first newspaper in the province, and site of the oldest golf course in Ontario. Former names: Butlersburg, Newark, Niagara. In 1781, the British purchased land from the Mississaugas, a strip of land 6 miles wide along the western bank of the Niagara River for 300 suits of clothing. The town was almost erased when burned by the Americans during the War of 1812. Visited shops in historic buildings and two wineries.
Drove to Niagara Falls, viewing American and Canadian (horseshoe) falls
Buffalo, New York, home of America’s first public park system
“In Buffalo, we measure snow in feet, not inches.”
Buffalo was discovered by LaSalle and Hennepin in 17th century, and destroyed by fire during War of 1812. In 1797, Dutch speculators bought 1.3 million acres from the Senecas for $100,000. Early names were New Amsterdam and Buffaloe (for Buffaloe’s Creek). Erie Canal opened in 1825 and transformed a village into a city. Source: Buffalo: Lake City in Niagara Land by Richard C. Brown and Bob Watson, 1981.
Visited Frank Lloyd Wright structures: Darwin D. Martin complex, http://www.darwinmartinhouse.org/history.php
Graycliff, http://graycliff.bfn.org/history.html and
Rowing Boathouse, http://www.wrightsboathouse.org/photos.php,
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens.
Erie, Pennsylvania
Visited Erie Maritime Museum and Erie Public Library—toured Brig Niagara, the resurrected and restored ship that defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813. http://www.brigniagara.org/museum.htm
Learn about “Don’t Give Up the Ship” and “We Have Met the Enemy and They Are Ours” at: http://www.brigniagara.org/OliverPerry.htm

The expression “vale of tears” goes back to pious sentiments that consider life on earth to be a series of sorrows to be left behind when we go on to a better world in Heaven. It conjures up an image of a suffering traveler laboring through a valley ("vale”) of troubles and sorrow. “Veil of tears” is poetic sounding, but it’s a mistake. http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/veil.html

Hamlet complains of the drunken carousing at Elsinore to his friend Horatio, who asks “Is it a custom?” Hamlet replies that it is and adds, “but to my mind,—though I am native here and to the manner born,—it is a custom more honour’d in the breach than the observance.” “To the Manor Born” was the punning title of a popular BBC comedy, which greatly increased the number of people who mistakenly supposed the original expression had something to do with being born on a manor. The correct expression is “to the manner born.” http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/manor.html

Common errors in English
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

Best-selling Irish author John Connolly, who sets his crime fiction in the United States, credits his inspiration to M.R. James. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/john-connolly-dying-is-an-art-i-do-exceptionally-well-448261.html

James, M[ontague]. R[hodes] (1862-1936)
English writer, antiquarian, and academic, widely regarded as one of the greatest practitioners of supernaturalist short fiction; his specialty was the antiquarian ghost story. http://www.litgothic.com/Authors/mrjames.html

pseudandry (su-DAN-dree)
noun: The use of a male name as a pseudonym by a woman
Many women wrote under male pen names because in the 18th and 19th centuries it was considered scandalous for a woman to write a book. The English novelist Mary Ann Evans wrote as George Eliot. Also, in olden times, people didn't take a woman's writing seriously.
The counterpart of pseudandry is pseudogyny where a man takes a woman's name as a pseudonym. The rationale here is that people expect certain genres, such as romance, to be written by women. A.Word.A.Day

Last week, on the Concurring Opinions blog, Temple Law professor David Hoffman responded to the whirlwind of criticism of Second Circuit judge Sonia Sotomayor with a post about the qualities the legal profession generally uses to evaluate “smartness.” At the end of the post, Hoffman wrote: [T]he quality of the information we use to evaluate the smartness of judges is terrible. So why the focus? I blame the Socratic Method, which teaches young lawyers that being a good lawyer is the same thing as being a good debater: quick, witty, cutting, etc. We don't want the smartest justice. We want the wisest. Or at least someone who understands that smartness correlates with wisdom about as well as law does to justice.
Responded GW's Orin Kerr, in the comments section of the same post: “I don't see the connection to the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method does not reward intelligence; it rewards glibness. But as far as I know, no one claims to want a Supreme Court Justice who is exceedingly glib.”
But then comes Scott Greenfield, who on his Simple Justice blog, puts forth with a pretty robust defense of the Socratic method. Writes Greenfield: We work with a gun to our head, demanding that we analyze and react in a split second. We risk public humiliation if our utterances are foolish or incomprehensible. We face a room of people who are wholly unconcerned about whether we feel warm and fuzzy, and are by definition judgmental and critical. So what pedagogical exercise best prepares a law student to survive in this environment? . . . The Socratic Method forces law students to face the circumstances they will face in the courtroom, and to either figure out how to deal with it or figure out what else they should do with their lives. If you can't handle the pressure, then you don't belong in the trenches.
The passage of the Copyright Act of 1976 represented the first major revision in seven decades of a basic law governing intellectual property. The drafter of that seminal piece of legislation--Barbara Ringer--died last month. And this weekend's WSJ has a fascinating remembrance of Ringer, who joined the Copyright Office as an examiner on her graduation in 1949, after graduating from Columbia Law School. According to the story: The 1976 act was the culmination of more than two decades Ms. Ringer spent negotiating with business, lobbying Congress and drafting provisions. It established an expanded length of copyright (life plus 50 years, changed from 28 years, renewable once), codified the concept of “fair use” and made other key updates in response to technologies such as broadcasting, recording and photocopying. “Barbara was the heart and soul of that project,” says former U.S. Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, chairman of the House subcommittee that dealt with copyrights. Despite attempting to bring U.S. copyright law up to date, “the 1976 act was obsolete when passed,” says Jessica Litman, a law professor at Michigan. WSJ Law Blog May 11, 2009

First class postage goes up to 44 cents on May 11.

As a high school senior in 2007, Trevor Dickerson couldn't believe how many historic structures on the west side of Richmond, Va., were being torn down. Development in the once-quaint Short Pump area was simply "out of control," Dickerson says, lamenting the loss of "the things that have significance, things that will never be built again." Compelled to do what he could, Dickerson began photographing buildings slated for demolition. In 2008, Preservation Virginia presented Dickerson, now a communications major at Virginia Commonwealth University, with its first-ever Young Preservationist of the Year Award. http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/may-june/trevor-dickerson.html

May is Preservation Month—the ideal time for you to stand up and be counted. This year, PiP is focusing on greater Boston. At PartnersinPreservation.com you can vote for one of 25 local landmarks you would like to see preserved using PiP funds. Sites under consideration range from a local aquarium to several arts centers to Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House to a school for the blind. All are vying for a portion of $1 million in PiP grant assistance.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2009/may-june/cast-your-ballot.html

Historic St. Mary's City, the site of the fourth permanent settlement in British North America, was Maryland's first capital. http://www.stmaryscity.org/

List of capitals in the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_capitals_in_the_United_States
Note: site also lists former state capitals and
• 3 Former national capitals
o 3.1 United States of America
o 3.2 Vermont Republic
o 3.3 Kingdom and Republic of Hawaii
o 3.4 Republic of Texas
o 3.5 Confederate States of America
• 4 Unrecognized national capitals
o 4.1 State of Franklin
o 4.2 State of Muskogee
o 4.3 Republic of West Florida
o 4.4 Republic of Indian Stream
o 4.5 Republic of the Rio Grande
o 4.6 California Republic
U.S. history timeline, 1789-1790
February 4, 1789 - Ballots are cast in the first presidential election, to be counted on April 6.
March 4, 1789 - The first Congress convenes in New York City, but is unable to achieve a quorum, since most members are still traveling there.
April 1, 1789 - A quorum is reached in Congress with 30 of 59 members present and the House of Representatives begins to function. Of the 59 members, 54 had also been delegates to the constitutional convention.
April 6, 1789 - In the Senate, with 9 of 22 senators present, the presidential ballots cast on Feb. 4 are counted. George Washington is the unanimous choice for President with 69 votes. John Adams is elected Vice President with 34 votes. Messengers are then sent to inform Washington and Adams.
June 1, 1789 - In its first act, Congress establishes the procedure for administering oaths of office.
July 4, 1789 - Congress passes its first tax, an 8.5 percent protective tax on 30 different items, with items arriving on American ships charged at a lower rate than foreign ships.
September 22, 1789 - The Federal Judiciary Act passed by Congress establishes a six-man Supreme Court, attorney general, 13 federal district courts and 3 circuit courts. All federal cases would originate in the district court and, if appealed, would go to the circuit court and from there to the Supreme Court.
September 25, 1789 - Congress submits 12 proposed constitutional amendments to the states for ratification. The first ten will be ratified and added to the Constitution in 1791 as the Bill of Rights.
November 26, 1789 - A Day of Thanksgiving is established by a congressional resolution and a proclamation by George Washington.
March 1, 1790 - A Census Act is passed by Congress. The first census, finished on Aug. 1, indicates a total population of nearly 4 million persons in the U.S. and western territories. African Americans make up 19 percent of the population, with 90 percent living in the South. Native Americans were not counted, although there were likely over 80 tribes with 150,000 persons. For white Americans, the average age is under 16. Most white families are large, with an average of eight children born. The white population will double every 22 years.
The largest American city is Philadelphia, with 42,000 persons, followed by New York (33,000) Boston (18,000) Charleston (16,000) and Baltimore (13,000). The majority of Americans are involved in agricultural pursuits, with little industrial activity occurring at this time.
July 10, 1790 - The House of Representatives votes to locate the national capital on a 10 square-mile site along the Potomac, with President George Washington choosing the exact location. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/rev-nation.htm

The 1790 census showed a population of 3,929,214.
The 2006 census showed a population of 300,009,716 .
See chart and table, 1790-2006 at http://govpubs.lib.umn.edu/census/popchart.phtml
Note: Population percentage rise between 1790 and 2006 is 7400%--we live in a large country in area and we have a large population as well.

May 11 is the birthday of songwriter Irving Berlin, born Israel Baline in Eastern Russia (1888). He wrote more than 1,500 songs, including the classics "Blue Skies," "Puttin' on the Ritz," "God Bless America," "White Christmas," and "There's No Business Like Show Business."
May 11 is the birthday of surrealist painter Salvador Dali, born in Figueras, Spain (1904). He was influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, and he made what he called "hand-painted dream photographs." He painted distorted human figures, limp pocket watches, and burning giraffes. He was a born performer who relished an audience, and he found that audience when he moved to America in 1940.
May 11 is the anniversary of the printing of the first known book. In the year 868, Wang Chieh printed the Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, on a 16-foot scroll using wood blocks. It was discovered in 1907 in Turkestan, among 40,000 books and manuscripts walled up in one of the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas.
The Writer’s Almanac

I will be on vacation next week, starting in a “town of firsts” in its province: the first capital, where the first library was established, birthplace of the Law Society of Upper Canada, home of first newspaper, and site of the oldest golf course. More information upon my return!

Court Extends Time to Opt Out of Google Settlement by Four Months
Follow up to Authors, Publishers, and Google Reach Landmark Settlement, from the Authors Guild: "The court overseeing Authors Guild v. Google extended the time for authors and publishers to opt out of the settlement by four months, to September 4th (Judge Chin's order). The fairness hearing will be on October 7th."
New York Times: "The Justice Department has begun an inquiry into the antitrust implications of Google’s settlement with authors and publishers over its Google Book Search service..."

Justice David Souter to retire from Supreme Court in June Souter has never made his dislike for Washington a secret, once telling acquaintances that he had "the world's best job in the world's worst city." When the court finishes its work for the summer, he quickly departs for his beloved New Hampshire. He has been on the court since 1990, when he was an obscure federal appeals court judge until President George Bush tapped him. http://www.freep.com/article/20090501/NEWS07/905010491/Justice+Souter+to+retire+from+Supreme+Court

It's official: Chrysler has filed for Chapter 11 in Gotham. Judge Arthur Gonzalez, who oversaw the Enron bankruptcy, will preside over the matter. (Click here for a copy of the company's petition.) Bankruptcy venue is a heated topic. Critics say that public companies file so often in New York and Delaware, because judges there are more apt to give debtors what they want, even if workers and creditors are the worse for it. But many lawyers counter that New York and Delaware are popular venues, because the judges there are experienced in handling mega cases and bankruptcy law is highly evolved; thus, the argument goes, outcomes are more predictable in Manhattan and Wilmington. Click here and here for statistics from BankruptcyData.com, which show just how much power is wielded by the two Chap. 11 hotspots.
Few Supreme Court opinions have riled up the masses in recent years like 2005's Kelo v. City of New London. In the Kelo ruling, the court held that governments can take property for the purpose of promoting “economic development,” a broader justification than the court had previously allowed for a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment. Rudy Giuliani slammed the ruling. And a group shortly after the ruling came down proposed “taking” the farmhouse of Justice David Souter, who signed onto the majority opinion. In the years following, more than 40 states passed laws aimed at limiting the power of so-called “eminent domain,” including measures to remove “economic development” as a justification for seizing property. Click here for a story out today by the WSJ's Nathan Koppel.
Rick Hasen, an election-law specialist at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and author of the Election Law Blog confirms that a switch in party is not actionable. “There are other countries where if you switch parties, you might lose your seat in parliament, but not here,” he said. “Here, you can switch teams.” Hasen said that no binding contract is created when a voter casts a ballot. The spark of this idea, Hasen told us, can be found in a speech that Edmund Burke gave to the Electors of Bristol in 1774. Quoth Burke: [A]uthoritative instructions, mandates issued, which a member is bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judgment and conscience; these are things utterly unknown to the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court picked up Burke's language in a 2001 case called Cook v. Gralike. WSJ Law Blog April 30, 2009

prosopagnosia (pros-uh-pag-NO-see-uh)
noun: Inability to recognize familiar faces
From Greek prosopon (face, mask), from pros- (near) + opon (face), from ops (eye) + agnosia (ignorance). Ultimately from the Indo-European root gno- (to know) that is also the source of know, recognize, acquaint, ignore, diagnosis, notice, and normal.
A.Word.A.Day

May 1 is May Day, a holiday with its roots in the fertility celebrations of pre-Christian Europe. At Oxford University, otherwise intelligent young scholars jump off the Magdalen Bridge into a section of the Cherwell River that is two feet deep. At St. Andrews in Scotland, students gather on the beach the night before May Day, build bonfires, and then at sunrise they run into the very cold North Sea, some of them without any clothes on. There are bonfires and revelry in rural Germany. And there's hula dancing to the "May Day is Lei Day" song in Hawaii. In Minneapolis, there's the May Day Parade that marches south down Bloomington Avenue. It's organized by the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, now in its 35th year and attracting about 35,000 people. May Day is also Labor Day for much of the world, a day to commemorate the economic and social improvements of workers, like the eight-hour workday. It evolved from the 1886 Haymarket Square riots, so in the United States, President Cleveland moved Labor Day to September to disassociate it with the radical left. In 1958, U.S. Congress under Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 "Loyalty Day" and also "Law Day"—two holidays that have not caught on. Incidentally, the international distress signal code word "Mayday" has nothing to do with May 1st. It's actually derived from the French m'aider,meaning, come help me. The Writer’s Almanac