American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood from 1930. Its inspiration came from a cottage designed in the Gothic Revival style with a distinctive upper window[1] and a decision to paint the house along with "the kind of people I fancied should live in that house."[2] The painting shows a farmer standing beside a woman whose identity remains ambiguous; she may either be his spinster daughter, as explained by the artist's sister, or the farmer's wife. The figures were modeled by the artist's dentist and sister. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic

What are other much-parodied paintings?
Answer is forthcoming.

Eldon, Iowa is the site of the small Carpenter Gothic style house that has come to be known as the American Gothic House, It was incorporated in 1872; the elevation is 610 feet; the land area is 1.13 square miles—and the population density is 862 people per square mile.
http://www.city-data.com/city/Eldon-Iowa.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldon,_Iowa

I have a new PC and new e-mail. Even with the help of two technicians, I could not bring my contacts into the new system. Please bear with me as I re-build a subscriber list. If you cannot go to Web links, then paste them in.

Reactions to stories on scrapple and kimchi from readers:
Try goette from Cincinnati. Scrapple with pin oats.

Sure enjoyed the link to the "scrapple story." People are still debating the issue today!
When we lived in Federal Way, WA, from 1991-1993, our next-door neighbor was a young Korean woman married to an older American man. She always had kimchi in their refrigerator and would open and close the door as fast as possible lest the smell escape into the house! Her husband didn't particularly like kimchi. I didn't particularly like the smell!

Literary terms site suggested by reader Thanks, Beth.
http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/

chef-d'oeuvre (shay-DOO-vruh) noun
a masterpiece
From French chef-d'oeuvre (masterpiece), from chef (chief) + oeuvre (work)
savoir-faire (SAV-wahr-fayr) noun
the ability to say or do the right thing in any situation; tact
From French savoir-faire (know-how), from savoir (to know) + faire (to do)
A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Google Launches Their Own Dictionary
As many of you know, for years Google has hyperlinked search terms (right below the blue bar, at the top-right side of the page) and linked them to a dictionary at Answers.com. Now the link goes to Google’s own dictionary. You can also get to any definition by going to the Google Dictionary interface. The dictionary (note the drop down box) is available in more than 20 languages and makes it very easy to translate from the non-english dictionary to English. It’s important to mention that there are two types of definitions. Some words have both, others just one. There are dictionary definitions and synonyms (the source(s) are unknown) and “web definitions When we tested the service. Google results pages only allowed one word to be defined. In some cases, no words were defined. Here’s a search for baseketball game. No hyperlinked definitions but the word airplane does provide a definition. When running a Google web search, you can use the syntax define: {search term} and find a web definition above the first result.
So what we need to know:
1) Who supplies the Google Dictionary?
2) Why do some words have definitions on a results page while multiple words do not?
www.resourceshelf.com December 4, 2009

Changes are here for Google Finance pages.
From a Google Blog post:
1) Streaming real-time quotes eliminates the 15- and 20-minute delays often associated with pricing data. Streaming the quotes keeps information on the page up to date, without having to reload. Example.
2) You can view news on the Google Finance homepage, or the dedicated news page. Updated news items will appear automatically in the News section. will be streamed from 8am-5:30pm ET, 90 minutes before and after U.S. trading hours.
3) + As you navigate throughout Google Finance, your recent quotes are streamed live in the left-navigation bar, so you don’t need to keep checking the same tickers.
+ On company pages, all stock prices, index and sector comparisons as well as the interactive chart are streamed during market hours.
+ The new interactive Related companies page lets customize a table that compares companies along the dimensions you specify.
www.resourceshelf.com December 4, 2009

A Year's Reading, reader's favorites from 2009 at:
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/reviews/brieflynoted/2009/12/14/091214crbn_brieflynoted

Recently, a University of Wisconsin anthropologist concluded that the human brain has shrunk a full 10 percent over the last 5,000 years. The Week magazine had a contest asking for more proof that our brains are getting smaller. First prize: “Two words: Reality TV.” Frank Letchworth, Knoxville, TN (and others)
See other contest entries at:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/103463/The_Week_contest_Small_Brain___Dec_4_2009