Muse reader responds to Book Addicts with her own cinquain
Book addicts are never bored. They
have the world at their fingertips,
so to speak. They can laugh, cry, learn,
grow, travel, escape, imagine,
experience—all in mind’s eye.

Aconcagua is the highest mountain in the Americas at 6,962 m (22,841 ft), and the highest mountain outside Asia. It is located in the Andes mountain range, in the Argentine province of Mendoza. The summit is located about 5 kilometres from San Juan Province and 15 kilometres from the international border with Chile and about 50 miles northeast of the Chilean capital of Santiago. It lies 112 kilometres (70 mi) west by north of the city of Mendoza. Aconcagua is the highest peak in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres. It is one of the Seven Summits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aconcagua

The Seven Summits are the highest mountains of each of the seven continents. See map, table and information at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Summits

New Zealand is part of the largely submerged continent of Zealandia, which stretches from the north of New Caledonia to the south of New Zealand's subantartic islands. 93% of Zealandia is underwater. New Zealand is an island nation. The three main islands which make up New Zealand are the North Island, the South Island, and Stewart Island, but a number of smaller offshore islands are also included:
The Chatham Islands
The Kermadec Islands
Campbell Island
The Antipodes Islands
The Bounty Islands
The Auckland Islands http://history-nz.org/today.html

The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936) is a short documentary film which shows what happened to the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada when uncontrolled agricultural farming led to the Dust Bowl. It was written and directed by Pare Lorentz.
Lorentz worked on the film with composer Virgil Thomson, who shared Lorentz' enthusiasm for folk music and incorporated many folk melodies, along with other popular and religious music, into the soundtrack. The film was narrated by the American baritone Thomas Hardie Chalmers. The film was sponsored by the United States government (Resettlement Administration) to raise awareness about the New Deal and was intended to cost $6,000 or less; it eventually cost over $19,000 and Lorentz, turning in many receipts written on various scraps of paper, had many of his reimbursements denied and paid for much of the film himself. Lorentz later faced criticism for appearing to blame westward bound settlers for the ecological crisis by having eroded the soil of the Plains with unrestrained farming (and one of his photographers, Arthur Rothstein, was criticized for moving a skull from one location to another in the Dust Bowl to shoot it and for other stagings in the film), but the film nonetheless succeeded in driving home the message of the severity of the problem caused by the misuse of land. In 1999, The Plow That Broke the Plains was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The Plow exists in at least three versions. The original includes an epilogue detailing the activities of the Resettlement Administration. The most common version today on DVD omits this final chapter. Finally, another contemporary version places the scrolling Prologue text before the opening credits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plow_That_Broke_the_Plains

Before tomato sauce and pasta (first recorded in 1827), there was a dish called Spaghettini with garlic, parsley and olive oil. Tips from Lynne: In a simple recipe like this one, the ingredients are everything. Buy the best imported pasta you can (brands like Rustichella, Latini, Setaro, Spinosi and, at more reasonable prices, De Cecco, Del Verde, Geraldo & Nola and Molisana), good olive oil (Moustere Grove from New Zealand, De Verde from Sicily, and the Tuscan Laudemio oils are all excellent but pricey). There is the option of Spectrum's Spanish blend oil which is pretty good. And you'll want nice plump cloves of garlic; at this time of year they're fresh and very fine. When a recipe calls for a “generous pot of salted water,” think a 6-quart pot for a pound or less of pasta. To prevent sticking, you want plenty of room for the pasta to move about in the briskly boiling water. The water should be salted so it tastes like the sea, and don't bother with olive oil in the water. Pasta sticks when it's cooked in too little water. Always set aside some pasta cooking water to thin out a sauce if needed. As a reminder, set a one cup size measuring cup in your colander to scoop out the water just before draining the pasta in the colander. Stir into the pan as you warm up the sauté. The starch and salt thicken and season simple sautés like this one. The Splendid Table September 8, 2010

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
From: Cal Audrain Subject: faux Def: Artificial; fake; false.
Faux is used in architecture to describe materials that are fabricated and painted to look like more expensive materials, typically walls painted to look like they are made of real stone. At the Art Institute of Chicago, when the Grand Staircase was built 100 years ago, the work was never completed according to the plans. Parts of the stairs were made from real marble, parts were made of concrete and plaster and then painted to look like the marble. Likewise, the surrounding walls of brick were plastered and painted and an arcade with columns that was to surround the second floor was finished on only the West side and the egg and cart moulding faded into a plaster blob. The most interesting part was that the bottom five feet of one wall was actually covered with marble, but then, when the plastered walls were painted as faux marble, they also painted the real marble so you would not see the difference. You can visit today and see if you can tell which is real and which is faux.
From: Thierry Larrivée Subject: Fait accompli Def: A thing accomplished: a done deal.
Under "MEANING:" you write: "noun: A thing accomplished: a done deal."
Well, it's literally right, but we (French speakers) usually use this expression to describe an action that has been completed BEFORE those affected by it can say anything about it or change it." or instance "Tu m'as mis devant le fait accompli." (You put me in front of the accomplished fact). It's somehow a reprimand. I guess it's an important "nuance"... Strange enough, I have a bottle of "Fait accompli" (Westbrook Wine Farm, in the Sierra Nevada Foothills of eastern Madera County, CA) and was wondering, last night, why they had chosen this name. I went on their website and could see they had made the same "nuance mistake"...
From: Lynne Glasscoe Subject: agent provocateur Def: Someone employed to encourage or provoke suspects into doing something illegal so they can be arrested or discredited.
"Stanislav Beranek was critical over the creation of the role of agent provocateur, who will seek to provoke artificial situations in which someone will accept a bribe." Cillian O'Donoghue; New Pandur Purchase Inquiry Launched; The Prague Post (Czech Republic); Jul 21, 2010. I was amused that the usage for agent provacateur was gleaned from an article in a Czech journal written by what appears to be an Irishman. What does this tell us? That other nationalities using the English language are more comfortable with its nuances?