According to the National Law Journal: In 1962, 11.5% of federal civil cases went to trial, compared with 6.1% in 1982, 1.8% in 2002 and 1.2% in 2009. So what’s happening? Two federal judges at a Federal Bar Association panel recently gave their takes on the phenomenon. Judge William Young of the District of Massachusetts, according to the NLJ story, feels the fault lies partly with federal judges themselves. Judge Brock Hornby of the District of Maine, on the other hand, said, according to the NLJ story, that “outside forces, not judges,” are causing the decline. “Whether we care or not, I don’t think there’s much we judges or anyone else can do about it,” Hornby, according to the story, listed nine reasons why he believes the number of civil trials has declined:
Lawyers have learned to measure which cases will be profitable.
Clients are far more sophisticated about how they use lawyers.
Companies are more skilled in risk management than they used to be.
Many causes of action and the bases for liability have matured, so litigants can more easily settle sexual harassment or asbestos cases, for example.
Congress hasn’t recently passed new laws creating liability for actions, such as the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
More lawyers and law firms use alternative dispute resolution and more contracts contain clauses requiring it.
Electronic discovery has significantly jacked the cost of litigation.
News and entertainment portray juries as irrational, unpredictable and out of control.
Disputes are increasingly international and more amenable to international arbitration.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/09/21/why-have-federal-civil-jury-trials-basically-disappeared/?mod=djemlawblog_h

Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century See list--you have probably read or heard of most of them-- at: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned/index.cfm

Steampunk art
Dr. Evermor's Forevertron is the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world, standing 50 ft. (15,2 m.) high and 120 ft. (36,5 m.) wide, and weighing 300 tons. It is housed in Dr. Evermore's Art Park on Highway 12, in the town of Sumpter, in Sauk County, Wisconsin. Built in the 1980s, it is steampunk art from before the term was coined. The sculpture incorporates two Thomas Edison dynamos from the 1880s, lightning rods, high-voltage components from 1920s power plants, scrap from the nearby Badger Army Ammunition Plant, and the decontamination chamber from the Apollo 11 spacecraft. Its fictional creator, Dr. Evermor, was born Tom Every in Brooklyn, Wisconsin and is a former demolition expert who spent decades collecting antique machinery for the sculpture and the surrounding fiction that justifies it. According to Every, Dr. Evermor is a Victorian inventor who designed the Forevertron to launch himself, "into the heavens on a magnetic lightning force beam." The Forevertron, despite its size and weight, was designed to be relocatable to a different site—the sculpture is built in sections that are connected by bolts and pins. In addition to the Forevertron itself, the sculpture includes a tea house gazebo from which Every says Queen Victoria and Prince Albert may observe the launching of Dr. Evermor; it also includes a giant telescope where sceptics may observe the ascent. Dr. Evermor's art park is home to scores of other sculptures, many of which relate to the Forevertron, such as the "Celestial Listening Ear" and the "Overlord Master Control Tower". Other large-scale sculptures include gigantic insects (the "Juicer Bug" and "Arachna Artie"), the "Epicurean" bellows-driven barbecue train, "The Dragon", and "The UFO". The most numerous sculptures are the "Bird Band and Orchestra" which includes nearly 70 birds ranging from the size of a child to twenty feet tall, all made from scrap industrial parts, geological survey markers, knives, loudspeakers, springs, and musical instruments, among other salvaged materials.
Tom Every says he takes pride in allowing the original materials to remain unaltered as much as possible, using their original forms in new juxtapositions to create his aesthetic. While he himself is not often available for tours of the art park, the site can generally be accessed from passing through the surplus store adjacent to it, Delaney's Surplus. Mr. Every also created much of the installation art for the House on the Rock, including the world's largest carousel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forevertron

A baby zedonk, an unusual cross between a donkey and a zebra, is an eye-catching animal attracting attention from around the world. The animal, named Pippi, was born July 21 at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, near Dahlonega, Georgia. Her mother is "Sarah," a donkey, and the father is "Zeke," a zebra. Pippi has black-and-white-striped legs and a brown back. C.W. Wathen, the owner of the preserve, said she was named after Pippi Longstocking, the stripe-socked heroine created by children's author Astrid Lindgren.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/23/what.is.zedonk/?hpt=C2

I enjoyed the book On Rue Tatin, Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Herrmann Loomis that was lent to me by a muse reader. Tatin Street is named after a general in Napoleon's army, and has nothing to do with Tarte Tatin. A recipe for Braised Chicken in White Wine and Mustard almost word for word as found in the Loomis book is at: http://www.chow.com/recipes/11507-chicken-braised-in-white-wine-and-mustard A recipe for half the amount of The Rolls That Brought Us Together in the Loomis book, and very close in directions to make is at: http://cleverkaren.blogspot.com/2008/01/rolls-from-rue-tatin.html

Rue Tatin is in Louviers, a village in Normandy not far from artist Claude Monet's home and gardens in Giverny. Louviers is best known for the mammoth Gothic church that dominates the center of town, and the Loomis family lines in a leaning stone and stucco building across the street. With its crooked wooden timbers, wavy glass windows and tiny bell tower atop a slanted roof, it looks like a gigantic gingerbread house. See pictures and read more about former Seattleite Susan Herrmann Loomis at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/pacificnw/2001/0603/cover.html

Coming to Shumaker charity sale in Toledo
Cruel and Unusual by Patricia Cornwell
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Robert Ludlum's The Paris Option by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds
Sanctuary by Faye Kellerman
Shades of Red by Doris Mortman