Retirement account holders who avoided minimum distributions in 2009 won’t have the same break in 2010. By December 31, anyone born before July 1, 1939 will have to pull money out of their IRAs and other tax-deferred retirement accounts. But there are some ways to make that less painful, tax wise, says Rebecca Pavese, a tax adviser with Palisades Hudson Financial Group in Atlanta. Here are her tips for minimizing the impact of those distributions:
Take even more. If 2010 was a bad year for you — with lower income and lots of deductible expenses or business losses — take more than the minimum out of your tax deferred account. Your tax rate might be higher in 2011. If you make more than $200,000, there’s a chance your tax rate will go up in 2011 as the George W. Bush-era tax cuts expire. Wait to see what Congress does in its lame duck session, suggests Pavese. If those tax cuts expire, take more out of your IRA this year.
Take shares, not cash. Most people simply take cash out of their accounts, but there are benefits to taking your distribution in shares of securities like stocks or bonds. That’s because the shares come out of your retirement account valued at their current price. If you hold them for at least a year before you sell them, you’ll pay tax on their gains at the lower capital gains rate instead of the income tax rate. “This can work especially well if you think the security is undervalued and you don’t need the cash,” says Pavese. Of course, if you don’t love the stock, you can simply take cash out of your IRA and invest it in another security for the same benefit. Use tax withholding to your advantage. Since those withdrawals are taxable, savers usually have to pay quarterly estimated taxes to cover the amount of taxes that are due, starting in October of the year the distribution is to be made. But if you instead direct the bank or investment company that holds your IRA to withhold taxes on the distribution, that won’t happen until you take the distribution at the end of the year. http://blogs.reuters.com/deep-pocket/2010/10/21/mandatory-ira-withdrawals-are-back-in-2010/

A murder of crows (originally murther of crowes) is based on the folk tale that crows form tribunals to judge and punish the bad behavior of a member of the flock. If the verdict goes against the defendant, that bird is killed (murdered) by the flock. The basis in fact is probably that occasionally crows will kill a dying crow who doesn’t belong in their territory or much more commonly feed on carcasses of dead crows. Also, both crows and ravens are associated with battlefields, medieval hospitals, execution sites and cemeteries because they scavenged on human remains. In England, a tombstone is sometimes called a ravenstone.

Terms for groups of animals, including murder of crows, business of ferrets, chine of polecats gaze of raccoons, rhumba of rattlesnakes, and unkindness of ravens. Some animals have more than one collective name--for instance there are almost a dozen different names for rabbits. http://www.rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml

Two good examples of collective nouns are "team" and "government," which are both words referring to groups of (usually) people. Both "team" and "government" are count nouns. However, confusion often stems from the fact that plural verb forms can often be used, at least in English as it is used in several countries, with the singular forms of these count nouns (for example: "The team have finished the project"). Conversely, singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in "-s" that were once considered plural (for example: "Physics is my favorite academic subject"). This apparent "number mismatch" is actually a quite natural and logical feature of human language, and its mechanism is a subtle metonymic shift in the thoughts underlying the words. In British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms depending on the context and the metonymic shift that it implies. For example, "the team is in the dressing room" (formal agreement) refers to the team as an ensemble, whilst "the team are fighting among themselves" (notional agreement) refers to the team as individuals. This is also British English practice with names of countries and cities in sports contexts; for example, "Germany have won the competition," The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals stems from an English Medieval hunting tradition, dating back to at least the fifteenth century. Terms of venery were used by gentlemen to distinguish themselves from yeomen and others and formed part of their education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun

A new Web site developed by the United States Botanic Garden and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin brings homeowners comprehensive, accessible advice on creating nature-friendly, sustainable landscapes at home, no matter where they live. The new site at Landscape for Life provides a layman's explanation and practical approaches to "greening" gardens and home landscape based on the principles outlined in the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITESTM). This national rating system for sustainable landscapes was developed over four years by technical experts on water, sustainable materials, human health and other topics. The Landscape for Life Web site provides homeowners a scaled-down version of the SITES voluntary guidelines and performance benchmarks that have, until now, been developed for landscape professionals. "Conventional gardens often work against nature," said Holly Shimizu, executive director of the U.S. Botanic Garden. " We hope to enlist the power of all those home gardeners who want to give the benefits of nature a helping hand have a regenerative sustainable garden. What a difference that can make." Conventional home landscapes very often consume large quantities of water and chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. They often use plants ill-adapted to local conditions or plants that are invasive. A sustainable landscape harnesses the power of nature to cleanse pollutants from air and water, to capture and hold rainwater and mitigate the urban heat island effect. A downloadable workbook that covers the Web site content is available online. A colorful, informative overview brochure about the Web site content, "Landscape for LifeTM, Your Guide to Harnessing Nature's Power for a Healthy, Beautiful Garden" (PDF) is also available. http://www.utexas.edu/news/2010/10/19/landscape_wildflower/

France's new Internet piracy police has been scouring the Web this month for people illegally downloading films and music and sending hundreds of warning emails to suspected intellectual property thieves. The implementation of France's new antipiracy law—which is one of the first in the world, along with similar legislation in South Korea, Taiwan and Britain—is considered a litmus test by other nations hoping to crack down on intellectual property theft. Responsible for implementing the law is "Hadopi," the acronym for an independent agency that reports to the French Ministry of Culture. Enforcement is meeting early resistance, underscoring how hard it will be to change the behavior of consumers accustomed to accessing pirated music and movies online. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303550904575562130775993568.html

Thousands of people opted to delete their profiles from Internet tracking firm RapLeaf Inc. on October 25, briefly causing some delays in the company's systems. The rush followed a Wall Street Journal article on RapLeaf that investigated the San Francisco firm's role in gathering and selling personal details about individuals to marketers and political campaigns. The article, part of the paper's What They Know investigation into online privacy, reported how the company takes a step beyond traditional online trackers by collecting real names and email addresses of Internet users to build detailed dossiers on them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304248704575574653801361746.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

'All Facts Considered' By NPR's Longtime Librarian "Thank goodness for librarian Kee Malesky — who, for 20 years, has been saving NPR's hosts and reporters from themselves. Malesky is the organization's longest-serving librarian, and [NPR host Scott] Simon says he suspects that she is actually the source of all human knowledge. In her new book, All Facts Considered; An Essential Library Of Inessential Knowledge, Malesky catalogs some of the facts that she has researched so dutifully over the years."

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg From: Mark Adler Subject: The origin of sandwiches Woody Allen once published an extract from the Earl of Sandwich's diary: "23 May: I think I'm close to a breakthrough; two slices of bread with meat on top."

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1729-1792) was a prominent statesman and served as First Lord of the Admiralty and as Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Lord Sandwich is also remembered for sponsoring the voyages of discovery made by Captain James Cook, who named the Sandwich Islands in his honour, and as the namesake of the sandwich. John Montagu became the 11th Earl of Sandwich in 1995. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_of_Sandwich

In most countries, seasons begin on the 21st of a month. In Australia, seasons begin on the first day of a month. Summer begins December 1, autumn on March 1, winter on June 1, and spring on September 1. http://www.apex.net.au/~mhumphry/aust.html

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said October 27 that an agreement was reached with Time Warner Inc. to film "The Hobbit" movies in the Pacific country after a dispute with unions threatened to send the $500 million production overseas. Mr. Key said the movies were given the green light after two days of marathon talks with a battalion of studio executives who feared industrial action after the New Zealand Actors' Equity union called on its members and other unions around the world to boycott the "The Hobbit," accusing producers of refusing to recognize its right to negotiate minimum standards for its members. The boycott was lifted, but Time Warner needed more assurance and sent a "broad and heavy-hitting team of executives" to get it, Mr. Key said. "We have delivered an environment that is conducive to doing business," the prime minister said, explaining that the government agreed to widen a tax rebate for the film industry and fast-track labor legislation as early as October 29. The new legislation will clarify the distinction between contractors and employees, and the wider tax rebate adds up to an additional $15 million for the two movies. The government will also offset $10 million of the movie makers' marketing costs as part of the strategic agreement. Mr. Jackson's films have been followed by other big-budget movies shot in New Zealand, including "King Kong," "The Last Samurai" and "Prince Caspian." The country's film industry generated 2.8 billion New Zealand dollars ($2.1 billion) last year.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575577542157742262.html

A decade ago, only a handful of states subsidized wineries, according to WineAmerica, the industry trade group. Now all U.S. states offer funding for them. Viticulture "is at the core of agri-tourism, and states should do more" to support it, says Cary Green, chief operating officer of WineAmerica. Texas, which has 212 wineries, allocates $2.3 million a year for wine research, marketing, and grants for producers, nine times the level in 2005. Ohio spent more than $1.1 million on subsidies for its wine industry in the 12 months through June, up 38 percent over the previous year. And Virginia dedicates 70 percent of its tax of 30¢ per bottle of wine—a total of about $1.3 million this year—to promote the industry. The federal government is bellying up, too. The 2008 Farm Bill, which sets spending priorities through 2012, for the first time earmarked money to support specialty crops, including programs that help wineries. http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2010/sb20101020_349721.htm

Rahul Jain has something Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t. And for $21,000-plus, it can be yours. Zuckerberg launched Facebook forerunner FaceMash seven years ago this month, a tale popularized in the blockbuster film "The Social Network." But he allowed his lease of the rights to the Internet domain name FaceMash.com to lapse in 2007, and Jain snatched them up at auction late last year ahead of the movie’s release. Now, he’s selling them on domain auction site Flippa.com. Bidding was at $21,000 on October 21. Jain, a New York-area investment banker by day, says he’s bought, developed and sold domain names as a part-time business since 1999. He estimates that he holds between 300 and 400.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/FaceMash+forerunner+Facebook+auction/3694847/story.html

Lee De Forest (1873-1961) was an American inventor with over 300 patents to his name. De Forest invented the audion, a vacuum tube that takes weak electrical signals and amplifies them. De Forest is one of the fathers of the "electronic age," as the audion helped to usher in the widespread use of electronics. He was involved in several patent lawsuits (and he spent his fortune from his inventions on legal bills). In 1916, De Forest, from his own news radio station, had the first radio advertisement (for his products) and the first presidential election reported by radio. He went on to lead the first radio broadcasts of music (featuring opera star Enrico Caruso) and many other events but could receive little backing. In the early 1920s, he invented talking movies. In 1922, De Forest improved on the work of German inventors and developed the Phonofilm. Phonofilm process recorded sound directly onto the film stock as parallel lines. Lines photographically record electrical impulses from a microphone and are translated back into sound waves when projected. The Phonofilm system of recording synchronized sound directly onto film stock was used to record stage performances (such as in vaudeville), speeches, and musical acts. He started the "De Forest Phonofilm Corporation", but could interest no one in Hollywood in his invention at the time. Several years after the Phonofilm Company folded, Hollywood decided to use a different method but eventually came back to the methods De Forest originally proposed. http://www.biographybase.com/biography/DeForest_Lee.html

Latinized Given Names See if your name is here--don't forget to check column on the right. http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oel/latingivennames.html
Latin Forms of English Surnames in Great Britain and Ireland http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/recint6.htm

A site that typifies the multi-layered nature of British history is Old Sarum. Situated just north of the city of Salisbury and west of Castle Road (A345), the mound known today as Old Sarum has been the site of a Neolithic settlement, an Iron Age Hillfort, a Roman military station, and a Norman palace and cathedral, before fading into history on a final sour note as a "rotten borough." In Roman times, the hill was known as Sorvioduni or Sorbiodoni. It is referred to as Searobyrg in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and Sarisberie in the Domesday Book. The name "Sarum," which begins to appear in the early 13th century, seems actually to be the result of a sort of medieval typo. In medieval manuscripts, the name "Sarisberia" or "Sarisburia" was often abbreviated as simply "Sa" -- but a mark at the end of this abbreviation (and others like it) was often incorrectly taken for an "r" and believed to indicate the suffix "rum." In the case of Sarum, the typo stuck, causing the site to be known both as Sarum and Salisbury.
See pictures at: http://www.timetravel-britain.com/articles/castles/sarum.shtml

The Croton Distributing Reservoir, also known as the Murray Hill Reservoir, was an above-ground reservoir at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It supplied the city with drinking water during the 19th century. The reservoir was a man-made lake 4 acres (16,000 m2) in area, surrounded by massive, 50-foot (15 m) high, 25-foot (7.6 m) thick granite walls. Its facade was done in a vaguely Egyptian style. Along the tops of the walls were public promenades, offering breathtaking views. After construction was completed, it became a popular place to go strolling for residents of New York City. The reservoir held a total capacity of 20 million gallons. When established, the Croton Aqueduct was once NYC's foremost water source. Amidst great fanfare, water was introduced into the Croton Distributing Reservoir on July 4, 1842. Prior to construction of the aqueduct, water was obtained from cisterns, wells and barrels from rain. The aqueduct and reservoir obtained their names from the water's source, a series of mostly underground conduits that would bring water from the Croton River in northern Westchester County to NYC's spigots. The Croton Distributing Reservoir was torn down at the end of the century; in the 1890s. Today, the main branch of the New York Public Library and Bryant Park exist at that location. Some of the reservoir's original foundation can still be found in the South Court at the New York Public Library. Today water is primarily supplied to New York City via its three city water tunnels. The Central Park Reservoir still remains, but since 1993 has no longer been in use. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croton_Distributing_Reservoir

Civilians: Those individuals not involved in the computer industry, or casual computer users to hackers
Crack: To illicitly break into a computer, usually to steal or destroy data or prevent others from using the system.
Hack: Originally this word meant to quickly write a software program for a limited purpose though it evolved to mean the study and writing of innovative software programs. Increasingly the term is used by civilians to mean breaking into computer systems for malicious purposes--a practice more properly referred to as cracking. The word is also used as a noun to mean a clever piece of programming.
Social engineering: conning someone, feeding them facts, pretending you're someone you're not in order to get them to do something you want.
Dinosaur pens: Special rooms housing early computers
ENIAC: Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator--came online in the forties
UNIVAC: Universal Automatic Computer--first one was delivered to the Census Bureau March 31, 1951. The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver

The first elevators designed expressly for passenger use were introduced in the 1850s. In 1854, in a dramatic demonstration at the New York Crystal Palace Exhibition, Elisha Graves Otis demonstrated the first “safety elevator.” With the elevator set up in a prominent part of the exhibition hall, he stood on the elevator platform as it was raised four stories. He then had the suspension rope cut. The audience gasped, but the platform did not hurtle to the ground. Instead it stood locked and safely suspended above the ground. Four years later in 1857, Otis installed the first passenger elevator in E.V. Haughwout & Co., a store located on Broadway in New York, NY. Powered by a steam engine, the elevator at Haughwout was the talk of the city, as thousands of curious visitors flocked to the store. http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/The_Electric_Elevator

Grain elevators serve as a monument to a bygone era; monolithic structures standing on water's edge waiting for lake and canal freighters that will no longer come to Buffalo, New York. Today all except a few of these enormous buildings are abandoned and no longer serve the industry for which they were designed. As they stand in their decrepit state they remain a mystery to those who view them. Few venture close to investigate their design and operation. At one time in Buffalo's history, the grain elevators dominated the skyline of the waterfront and served as a symbol of Buffalo's industrial importance as the largest supplier of grain in the world. Prior to the year 1827 there was no grain handled in Buffalo. Surplus grain grown in the American Midwest reached markets in the East only after transportation over long and often impossible routes. Grain from the midwest was shipped on flatboards down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans where it was then loaded onto sailing vessels that carried it to its eventual destination in the East or in Europe. http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/grain/history/history.htm

Frito-Lay makes a lot of noise marketing its Sun Chips snacks as "green." They are cookedwith steam from solar energy, the message goes. But its latest effort—making the bags out of biodegradable plant material instead of plastic—is creating a different kind of racket. Chip eaters are griping about the loud crackling sounds the new bag makes. Some have compared it to a "revving motorcycle" and "glass breaking." It is louder than "the cockpit of my jet," said J. Scot Heathman, an Air Force pilot, in a video probing the issue that he posted on his blog under the headline "Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing." Mr. Heathman tested the loudness using a RadioShack sound meter. He squeezed the bag and recorded a 95 decibel level. A bag of Tostitos Scoops chips (another Frito-Lay brand, in bags made from plastic) measured 77. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427150103293906.html

luddite (LUHD-yt) noun One who opposes or avoids the use of new technology.
After the Luddites, name taken by textile workers in England during 1811-1816 who destroyed machinery that was displacing them. They took the name after one Ned Ludd, whose identity is not clear. Ned Ludd is said to have destroyed, in a fit of insanity, a knitting frame in 1779. In response to the Luddites, the British parliament passed the Frame Breaking Act which made the destroying of knitting frames punishable by death. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Toponyms (from the Greek, "place" + "name")
Hieronymus Bosch (or Jerome Bosch or Jeroen van Aken) (c. 1453-1516) lived and worked in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch), a Dutch city.
Leonardo da Vinci (Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", which means "Leonardo, son of Piero, of Vinci") was named for his town of birth in the Italian region of Tuscany. (1452-1519)
Chicago is first recorded in 1688 in a French document, where it appears as Chigagou, an Algonquian word meaning 'onion field.'
tuxedo (Tuxedo Park, New York)
marathon (from the battle of Marathon, Greece)
spartan (from Sparta in ancient Greece)

Unusual uses for jute twine
In a pinch, replace a broken shoelace with a piece of twine. Retrieve dropped metal objects with a magnet knotted to the end of a length of twine. Dip wet piece of twine into a bag of tiny seeds, then plant the seed-covered string in a line.
This Old House magazine November 2010

Quote These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.
Gilbert Highet (1906-1978) Scottish-American author, teacher and critic

Reduce, reuse, recycle and look for products containing recycled content. Buy gifts that are durable, and with not too much packaging. If you buy disposable products, choose paper rather than plastic or styrofoam. Find ideas for holiday crafts at: http://www.ceee.uni.edu/Portals/0/recycledholidaycrafts.pdf

The New York City Bar has an extensive collection of business directories from the 19th century. Many of these books contain vintage advertisements that open a window to a city that was on the verge of greatness. This nostalgic tour takes a look at how small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs shaped the landscape of New York and built the foundation for the city to become the economic capital of the world. See cover illustration of Kampfe Brothers Star Safety Razor (1895) at: http://www.abcny.org/Library/FeaturedExhibitions6.htm
The Kampfe brothers, Frederick, Richard, and Otto, were born in Eastern Germany. They settled in New York in 1872 and started a cutlery business. In 1880 Frederick and Otto applied for a patent on “new and useful improvements in safety-razors.” This was the first use of the term “safety razor” The Kampfe Brothers began manufacturing the Star Safety Razor in 1875 in a one-room shop in New York City. The Star Razor was extremely successful and the Kampfe brothers ultimately acquired over 50 patents on razors and stropping devices. The Kampfe brothers’ designs inspired many competitors including Gillette's 1904 patent of the first razor with a disposable blade.

Have you ever worked on your laptop computer with it sitting on your lap, heating up your legs? If so, you might want to rethink that habit. Doing it a lot can lead to "toasted skin syndrome," an unusual-looking mottled skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure, according to medical reports. In one recent case, a 12-year-old boy developed a sponge-patterned skin discoloration on his left thigh after playing computer games a few hours every day for several months. "He recognized that the laptop got hot on the left side; however, regardless of that, he did not change its position," Swiss researchers reported in an article published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. Another case involved a Virginia law student who sought treatment for the mottled discoloration on her leg. Dr. Kimberley Salkey, who treated the young woman, was stumped until she learned the student spent about six hours a day working with her computer propped on her lap. The temperature underneath registered 125 degrees. http://www.theledger.com/article/20101003/NEWS/10035070

Antique Tin Ceilings Information and History by Laura Evans
During the Victorian era, ceilings were an integral part of houses. The very wealthy incorporated ornate plastered design work into their homes' ceilings, making their ceilings part of the "art" of their houses. Many people who wanted to include intricate designs on their ceilings could finally install them with the introduction of tin ceilings during the mid-1800s. Tin ceilings were made in a stamping, or hammer, press. After the tin was laid on the bottom die, the ram, or the top part of the press, was lifted by rope or chain and then dropped onto the tin, smashing the metal with the chosen pattern. Tin ceilings, or the panels and tiles which made up tin ceilings, were painted and then installed. These tin ceilings were lightweight, easier to install than plaster and, best of all, affordable to many. The popularity of tin ceilings started to wane during the 1890s. Modern manufacturers are replicating Victorian ceiling patterns, usually using aluminum instead of tin. Today's tin ceilings, and they are still called that regardless of the metal used, are lighter in weight and easier to install than the old ones. Many people are using unpainted tin ceiling panels on the walls of their kitchens as well as on their ceilings as architectural accents.
http://www.life123.com/home-garden/building-renovations/ceilings/tin-ceilings.shtml

Save these old houses--low-cost beauties pictured at:
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20278529,00.html
NOTE: The November 2010 issue of This Old House magazine devotes its last page to a house in Fairhill, Maryland. Maryland's Resident Curatorship program requires that a person pledge to restore and maintain the house according to the state's historic preservation guidelines can live there with a lifetime lease that's just $1 a year. The original section of the house was built near the turn of the 19th century, and two additions were added later.

Victorian Data Processing by Martin Campbell-Kelly
The Victorian world was awash with data and with organizations that processed it; and they usually used nothing more technologically advanced than pen and paper. The Bankers' Clearing House—the first payment system—is just one of many examples. The Bankers' Clearing House was established in London in the early 1800s. Interestingly, we owe the first description of the Bankers' Clearing House to Charles Babbage. Today we think of Babbage primarily as the inventor of calculating machines, but in his life-time he was better known as a scientist and an economist of international standing. In 1832 he published the first economic treatise on mass production, The Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. It is there that he published his account of the Bankers' Clearing House. Babbage described the operation of the Bankers' Clearing House almost in terms of an algorithm—though one executed by people, not machinery. He wrote: "In a large room in Lombard Street, about 30 clerks from the several London bankers take their stations, in alphabetical order, at desks placed round the room; each having a small open box by his side, and the name of the firm to which he belongs in large characters on the wall above his head. From time to time other clerks from every house enter the room, and, passing along, drop into the box the checks due by that firm to the house from which this distributor is sent." The amount of money flowing through the Bankers' Clearing House was staggering. In the year 1839, £954 million was cleared—equivalent to $250 billion in today's currency. However, one of the benefits of the system was that the banks now needed to bring only a relatively small amount of money to the Clearing House. On any day, the totals of checks received and checks paid out would tend to cancel each other out, so that a bank needed only the difference between these two amounts. For example, on the busiest single day of 1839, when £6 million was cleared, only approximately £1/2 million in bank notes was used for the settlement. In his account of the Clearing House, Babbage noted that if the banks were to each open an account with the Bank of England, no money in the form of cash would be needed at all. All that the Clearing House would have to do would be to adjust the account that each bank held with the Bank of England at the close of the business day. This innovation was instituted in 1850, and the physical movement of money was entirely replaced by pen-strokes in an accounting ledger. It was a key moment in both fiscal and information processing history, and Babbage recognized it as such. Communications of the ACM October 2010

SEC Proposes Rules on "Say on Pay" and Proxy Vote Reporting FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 2010-198 Washington, D.C., Oct. 18, 2010 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rules that would enable shareholders to cast advisory votes on executive compensation and "golden parachute" arrangements. The rules are called for by Section 951 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Under the proposed rules, public companies subject to the federal proxy rules would be required to: provide their shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation and an advisory vote on the desired frequency of these votes; provide shareholders with an advisory vote on compensation arrangements and understandings in connection with merger transactions, known as "golden parachute" arrangements; and provide additional disclosure of "golden parachute" arrangements in merger proxy statements. The proposed rules would also require that institutional investment managers report their votes on executive compensation and "golden parachute" arrangements at least annually, unless the votes are otherwise required to be reported publicly by SEC rules. http://sec.gov/news/press/2010/2010-198.htm

In an ambitious application of 21st century technology brought to bear on a first century wonder, the Israel Antiquities Authority and internet search giant Google October 19 announced a plan to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the entire collection available to the public online. Made up of 30,000 fragments from 900 manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by many historians to be one of the most important archaeological finds ever made. The ancient manuscripts, made of leather, papyrus, and copper, were first discovered in 1947 by a nomadic shepherd in a cave near the Dead Sea. In the years following, more scroll fragments were located. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/10/19/dead.sea.scrolls.google/

Greywater/Grey Water/Gray Water Greywater is water from your bathroom sinks, showers, tubs, and washing machines. It is not water that has come into contact with feces, either from the toilet or from washing diapers. Greywater may contain traces of dirt, food, grease, hair, and certain household cleaning products. While greywater may look “dirty,” it is a safe and even beneficial source of irrigation water in a yard. If released into rivers, lakes, or estuaries, the nutrients in greywater become pollutants, but to plants, they are valuable fertilizer. Aside from the obvious benefits of saving water (and money on your water bill), reusing your greywater keeps it out of the sewer or septic system, thereby reducing the chance that it will pollute local water bodies. Reusing greywater for irrigation reconnects urban residents and our backyard gardens to the natural water cycle. The easiest way to use greywater is to pipe it directly outside and use it to water ornamental plants or fruit trees. Greywater can be used directly on vegetables as long as it doesn't touch edible parts of the plants. In any greywater system, it is essential to put nothing toxic down the drain--no bleach, no dye, no bath salts, no cleanser, no shampoo with unpronounceable ingredients, and no products containing boron, which is toxic to plants. It is crucial to use all-natural, biodegradable soaps whose ingredients do not harm plants. Most powdered detergent, and some liquid detergent, is sodium based, but sodium can keep seeds from sprouting and destroy the structure of clay soils. Chose salt-free liquid soaps. While you're at it, watch out for your own health: "natural" body products often contain substances toxic to humans, including parabens, stearalkonium chloride, phenoxyethanol, polyethelene glycol (PEG), and synthetic fragrances. (to learn more about what’s in your products, go to the Cosmetic Database and see how they rate for toxicity). http://greywateraction.org/content/about-greywater-reuse

"I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accomodate ourselves to them and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. See more Jefferson quotes on politics and government at: http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeff1000.htm

Artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) was born to Hattie Weaver and Francis Maryville Wood on a farm near Anamosa, Iowa, a rural town with a population of about 2,000. After the unexpected death of her husband in 1901, Hattie Wood relocated with her four children to her parent’s house in Cedar Rapids. Removed from their idyllic family farm, Grant Wood and his siblings quickly accustomed to the new, urban setting that surrounded them. In 1930, his painting American Gothic (1930) was accepted into the juried a nnual exhibition of the Art Institute of Chicago and won the Norman Walt Harris Bronze Medal. Wood’s painting of a woman, man and pitchfork received almost overnight success and catapulted the artist into the public eye. In the years following the exhibition of American Gothic, critics were eager to present Wood to the public as the leader of American Regionalism. In 1932, he and fellow artists Edward Rowan (1898-1946) and Adrian Dornbush (1900-1970) opened a summer art colony and school in Stone City, Iowa. The art colony proved to be successful in attracting many aspiring Midwestern artists. Lasting two summers, the colony was Wood’s most dramatic attempt yet to establish the Midwest as a significant art center. After two summers, Wood closed the art colony and accepted a position as an associate professor in the art department of the University of Iowa in hopes of giving wider breathe to his artistic vision. During his tenure, Wood gave many lectures on Regionalism and even published a tract entitled Revolt Against the City that drew comparisons between Regionalist art and literature. http://www.sullivangoss.com/Grant_Wood/#Biography

Grant Wood's Potato Salad
6 potatoes cooked in skins and peeled hot
1 clove of garlic
1/3 c. salad oil
3 tbsp. vinegar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 onion, grated
2 or 3 tbsp. minced parsley
1/2 c. celery
2 tbsp. chopped pickle
Rub bowl well with garlic. Blend oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, onion and parsley well. Add diced warm potatoes and toss well. Add celery and chopped pickle. Cool in refrigerator for several hours. Garnish with slices of hard-cooked eggs.
Adapted from The American Gothic Cookbook, compiled by Joan Liffring-Zug

Tried and tested in downtown Toledo
Michael's Bar & Grill 901 Monroe Street 419-241-3900 dine in or take out http://www.clubzone.com/c/2039/michaels-bar-and-grill-toledo Good food and friendly atmosphere, Michael's passed our taste test. It's on the southwest corner of Monroe and Michigan with free parking in a lot for about a dozen cars west of the restaurant plus three free 60 minute-parking spaces in cutout portions on the south side of Monroe. Breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday-Friday, and breakfast and lunch on Saturday.

A fairy seed I planted, so dry and white and old;
There sprang a vine enchanted, with magic flowers of gold.
I watched it, I tended it, and truly, by and by,
It bore a jack-o-lantern, and a great Thanksgiving pie.
Author unknown

Mistakes I have seen in print
wreck havoc rather than wreak havoc
mute point rather than moot point
stick rather than schtick or shtick

Stage names
Charlton Heston (John Charles Carter), Elton John (Reginald Dwight), Eminem (Marshall Bruce Mathers III) See many more at: http://www.pubquizhelp.com/ent/names.html

While the number of miles driven by U.S. motorists over the past five years has increased just 2 percent, the number of deer-vehicle collisions in this country during that time has grown by ten times that amount. Using its claims data, State Farm®, the nation’s leading auto insurer estimates 2.3 million collisions between deer and vehicles occurred in the U.S. during the two-year period between July 1, 2008 and June 30, 2010. That’s 21.1 percent more than five years earlier. To put it another way, during your reading of this paragraph, a collision between a deer and vehicle will likely have taken place (they are much more likely during the last three months of the year and in the early evening). For the fourth year in a row, West Virginia tops the list of those states where a driver is most likely to collide with a deer. Using its claims data in conjunction with state licensed driver counts from the Federal Highway Administration, State Farm calculates the chances of a West Virginia driver striking a deer over the next 12 months at 1 in 42. Iowa is second on the list. The likelihood of a licensed driver in Iowa striking a deer within the next year is 1 in 67. Michigan (1 in 70) is third. Fourth and fifth on the list are South Dakota (1 in 76) and Montana (1 in 82). Pennsylvania is sixth, followed by North Dakota and Wisconsin. Arkansas and Minnesota round out the top 10. http://www.statefarm.com/aboutus/_pressreleases/2010/deer-vehicle-collision-frequency.asp

Employer Health Reform Issues Brief: Health Savings Account Reimbursements
Source: Deloitte
Distributions from Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to pay for a medicine or drug will not be qualified medical expenses unless the medicine or drug: can be obtained only with a prescription is available without a prescription (i.e., “over-the-counter”) but the individual obtains it with a prescription, or is insulin. Any distributions from an HSA for nonqualified medical expenses are includable in the HSA beneficiary’s gross income and subject to a 20% excise tax. However, the excise tax does not apply if the HSA beneficiary is at least 65 years old. The requirement to have a prescription will apply only to medicines and drugs. As a result, medical equipment (e.g., crutches), supplies (e.g., bandages) or diagnostic tests (e.g., blood sugar test kits) can still be qualified medical expenses even if purchased without a prescription. + Full Document (PDF)
http://web.docuticker.com/go/docubase/61233

For Baseball Archivists, a Tag Ends Every Play by John Branch
SECAUCUS, N.J. — Most baseball fans saw it as a dribbler in front of the plate, a throw to first and the completion of a no-hitter for Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay. To those whose job is to put the moment into Major League Baseball’s new, digitized archives as soon as possible, it was a furious series of 38 mouse clicks. The play that completed the second no-hitter in postseason history was instantly tagged with various descriptions so that it could be easy retrieved in coming years. There are more than 500 possible tags to choose from, and among those chosen at that moment were “ground out,” “from knees,” “last out,” “premier plays,” “milestone call” and “hugging.” Strangely, one tag not offered was “no-hitter.” Maybe soon. This is how baseball’s archives are created now — not by merely storing videotapes on a shelf, as it has been done for decades, but by a team of “loggers” whose job is to watch every game as it happens (2,430 during the regular season, and up to 41 in the postseason) and add computerized notes on every play, no matter how ordinary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/13/sports/baseball/13video.html

New York's Beautiful J.P. Morgan Library Gets a Facelift
The classic library has been around since 1906, was opened to the public in 1924 and recently received some refurbishment as reported by Art News. Some history: At a contentious meeting of bankers during the 1907 financial crisis, J. Pierpont Morgan locked the doors of his private library and study in New York's Murray Hill, refusing to let his fellow financiers leave until they had agreed on a national-rescue plan. In that grand but intimate building, designed by Charles Follen McKim after an Italian Renaissance palazzo, Morgan also convened meetings of the acquisitions committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which he was president. After Morgan's death, the building became the heart of the institution that for more than 80 years has made his collections available to the public. Now the Morgan Library & Museum is restoring and reinstalling the rooms of his domain to better tell the story of its collections and the man behind them. When the McKim building reopens on October 30, the North Room, originally the librarian's office, will be accessible to the public for the first time. Visitors will also be able to peer inside Morgan's vault. The interiors will be cleaned, the furniture restored, state-of-the-art lighting installed, and hundreds of additional objects placed on view. The refurbishment, which has closed the building since June, has cost $4.5 million.
http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=3088¤t=True

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods increased 0.4 percent in September, seasonally adjusted, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on October 14. This advance followed a 0.4-percent rise in August and a 0.2-percent increase in July. At the earlier stages of processing, prices received by manufacturers of intermediate goods moved up 0.5 percent in September, and the crude goods index fell 0.5 percent. On an unadjusted basis, prices for finished goods advanced 4.0 percent for the 12 months ended September 2010, their eleventh straight year-over-year rise. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ppi.pdf Reduce print to 100% for ease in reading.

The Federal Communications Commission has proposed new rules that would require mobile service providers to provide usage alerts and related information that will assist consumers in avoiding unexpected charges on their bills. The proposed rules would empower consumers with simple alerts and easy-to-find tools and information so they can make smart decisions about their mobile plans. The record thus far indicates that mobile “bill shock” -- an unexpected increase in the monthly mobile bill -- is a growing challenge for the surveyed consumers, and that current tools could be improved. According to an April-May 2010 FCC survey, 30 million Americans -- one in six mobile users -- have experienced bill shock. More than half those consumers saw an increase of $50 or more, but many were not alerted by their provider before they incurred the charges. http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2010/db1014/DOC-302192A1.pdf Reduce print to 100% for ease in reading.

According to a 2010 R. R. Bowker study, 764,448 self-published and micro-niche titles came out in 2009. That’s more than twice the number—288,355—of traditional books published that year. And that’s just books. The publishing work of “regular people” can also reasonably be said to encompass some substantial portion of 234 million Web sites, 126 million blogs, 4 billion pictures on Flickr and the 1 billion+ videos served up every day on YouTube. In which case, the technology of personal publishing is now somewhere between “ubiquitous” and “pervasive.” Xerox is largely credited with establishing the on-demand printing industry when, in 1990, the company introduced the Docutech Production Publisher. Its 135-page-per-minute, black and white, xerographic print engine and attached finisher module was arguably the first, fully integrated “print-on-demand” publishing system. Since then, POD technologies have fueled a range of new book-creation and publishing opportunities. Other POD companies include Lulu, Blurb, QooP, TheBookPatch, Trafford Publishing, NetPublications, Outskirts Press and Amazon’s Booksurge. One opportunity for libraries to become publishers is with equipment like the Espresso Book Machine (EBM). There are 30 machines in operation, mostly in the higher education field, with another 30 to be added by the end of 2010. There are now 10 libraries using the EBM, including libraries in Canada, Australia and Egypt. The New Orleans Public Library, the University of Michigan, the University of Utah and the University of Pittsburgh are using the machine in the following ways: expanding the selection of public domain, out-of-print and backlist titles available on demand; establishing a university bookstore press ‘Classics’ line; producing custom course materials (publisher, course packs); supporting university and local library archiving efforts. The Espresso Book Machine also has the ability to connect with other print-on-demand equipment and other content providers, including publishers, content aggregators, libraries, university presses and self-publishing sites, to build a vast network where users can search and discover content. The books can be ordered and produced on-site and integrated with a library Web site so that users can order books remotely via the Internet. http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/016/1.htm Thanks, Julie for this article.

Another hoax "An interesting fact about October 2010. This October has 5 Fridays 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays all in one month. This happens once in every 823 years. These are money bags. Paste it on your status and money will appear in 4 days. Based on Chinese fengshui. Whoever stops this will experience none. its worth a try! " Deja vu? The same hokum went around a couple of months ago, except that version said: "This August has 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays, 5 Tuesdays, all in one month. This happens once in every 823 years." Fact: In any 31-day month, whatever days of the week the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd fall on will occur a total of five times. If a month starts with Friday-Saturday-Sunday, it will have a total of 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays, and 5 Sundays. If it starts with Sunday-Monday-Tuesday, it will have a total of 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays, and 5 Tuesdays. http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2010/10/13/hoax-an-interesting-fact-about-oct-2010.htm

On October 13, a federal appeals court found that the estate of Elaine Steinbeck, the Nobel laureate’s third wife, doesn’t owe a fiduciary duty under a 1983 agreement with his sons over rights to several of his works. The decision allows Elaine Steinbeck’s estate to retain authority over the famous author’s later works, such as Cannery Row, The Pearl, East of Eden, and Travels With Charley. Thomas Steinbeck, one of two sons from John Steinbeck’s second marriage, and the daughter of Thomas Steinbeck’s brother John Steinbeck IV had claimed in part that the estate, as well as the literary agent for his works, breached their fiduciary duties under the agreement, claiming it created an agency relationship under New York law. The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s March 2009 decision dismissing the case. It was the second lawsuit in long-running litigation between the sons and their heirs and Elaine Steinbeck’s estate over John Steinbeck’s works. “The 1983 agreement increased the Steinbeck sons’ shares in certain copyright revenue, from one-quarter to one-third each, and, in return, conferred upon Elaine Steinbeck ‘the complete power and authority to negotiate, authorize and take action with respect to the exploitation and/or termination rights in the works of John Steinbeck” in which the sons had renewal or termination rights,” the circuit found. “This language is unambiguous and forecloses any argument that the parties intended the Steinbeck sons to retain control over Elaine Steinbeck’s exercise of the authority conferred upon her, as would be necessary to create an agency relationship.” http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/10/15/battle-over-steinbeck-works-ends-in-favor-of-third-wife-elaine/?mod=djemlawblog_h

Last night I heard Tristan and Isolde, with Celtic harp and dialogue. Tristan (sometimes called Tristram), the nephew of King Mark of Cornwall, was a symbol of all the virtues of chivalry, including bravery and honor. Some accounts also claim that he was a brilliant harp player. According to the most detailed versions of this legend, the king of Ireland sent a champion named Morholt to demand tribute from Cornwall, and Tristan fought Morholt in single combat. Read a summary of the story at: http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Tr-Wa/Tristan-and-Isolde.html

Q: When I took bacteriology in college, I had the understanding that all eggs were sterile and that salmonella could only enter the egg through a crack that occurred when or after the egg was laid. Recently, however, an article hinted that the salmonella was already in the egg because the chicken was the carrier. Would you please clarify?
A: "Salmonella bacteria are found in the intestinal tracts of animals, birds, reptiles, insects and humans," said Cari Randall, spokeswoman for the Egg Safety Center, part of the American Egg Board. "Salmonella may be found on the outside of the eggshell before the egg is washed or it may be found inside the egg if the hen was infected. It is estimated that one egg in 20,000 eggs may contain salmonella, which is a 0.005 percent contamination rate. Eggs contain natural anti-microbial substances in the egg white, and all eggs from commercial producers are washed and sanitized before they are packed. Egg recipes properly prepared in individual servings and promptly eaten are rarely a problem. Inadequate refrigeration, improper handling and insufficient cooking are all factors that have contributed to disease outbreaks. Salmonella is destroyed by heat. Eggs that have been handled and cooked properly should not cause human illness." American Egg Board.
http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Oct/JU/ar_JU_101810.asp?d=101810,2010,Oct,18&c=c_13

Reader response to blue plate special Your librarian friend refers to the blue plate special as having been served on a blue plate. However, I'm not sure when or where I had a blue plate special; maybe when dime stores had full service lunch counters. But I do remember the plates were divided as she said, but the plates were not solid blue, but were a "blue willow" sort of pattern.

A hobby horse (or hobby-horse) is a child's toy horse, particularly popular during the days before cars. Children played at riding a wooden hobby-horse made of a straight stick with a small horse's head (of wood or stuffed fabric), and perhaps reins, attached to one end. The bottom end of the stick sometimes had a small wheel or wheels attached. This toy was also sometimes known as a cock horse (as in the nursery rhyme Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross). From "hobby horse" came the expression "to ride one's hobby-horse", meaning "to follow a favourite pastime", and in turn, the modern sense of the term hobby. The term is also connected to the draisine, a forerunner of the bicycle, invented by Baron Karl von Drais. In 1818, a London coach-maker named Denis Johnson began producing an improved version, which was popularly known as the "hobby-horse". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_horse

Gardens I have enjoyed in California
Santa Barbara Botanic Garden http://www.sbbg.org/
Wrigley Memorial & Botanic Garden (Santa Catalina Island) http://www.catalinaconservancy.org/index.php?s=visit&p=wrigley_memorial_and_botanic_garden
Filoli (Woodside) http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/western-region/filoli.html?gclid=CPSasMPhz6QCFUIUKgodezm5EA

"Taliesin was the name of a Welsh poet, a druid-bard who sang to Wales the glories of fine art. Many legends cling to that beloved reverend name in Wales. Richard Hovey's charming masque, 'Taliesin,' had just made me acquainted with his image of the historic bard. Since all my relatives had Welsh names for their places, why not Taliesin for mine? . . . Literally the Welsh word means 'shining brow.' Frank Lloyd Wright
See images of Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona and Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin. http://www.taliesin.edu/pages/campuses.html

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1867. His parents, William Cary Wright and Anna Lloyd-Jones, originally named him Frank Lincoln Wright, which he later changed after they divorced. When he was twelve years old, Wright's family settled in Madison, Wisconsin where he attended Madison High School. During summers spent on his Uncle James Lloyd Jones' farm in Spring Green, Wisconsin, Wright first began to realize his dream of becoming an architect. In 1885, he left Madison without finishing high school to work for Allan Conover, the Dean of the University of Wisconsin's Engineering department. While at the University, Wright spent two semesters studying civil engineering before moving to Chicago in 1887. http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html

To search for books and authors, try Google Book Search at: http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp To see Books and other searchable features including Blogs and Photos, start at the Google page, and click on more at the top of the screen.

Iowa Pork Chops Supreme
6 pork chops
1 c. ketchup
6 tbsp. honey
1 large lemon, sliced
Wipe chops with damp paper towel. Blend ketchup and honey--put over each chop. and top with lemon slice. Bake uncovered at 325 degrees one hour or until done. Optional: Substitute chicken or veal for pork.

sienna (see-EN-uh) noun
A color derived from clay, ranging from yellowish brown (in raw form) to reddish brown (when roasted). From Italian terra di Siena (earth of Siena). After Siena, a city in Italy once noted for the mining of this mineral. In its roasted form, the color is known as burnt sienna. nankeen or nankin (nan-KEEN or nan-KIN) noun
1. A yellow or buff color. 2. A sturdy yellow or buff cotton fabric.
3. (nankeens) Trousers made of this cloth.
4. A Chinese porcelain having blue designs on a white background. After Nanking, a city in China, where it was first made, now spelled as Nanjing. Nanjing is literally "southern capital". Beijing means "northern capital". A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

LOWER MERION, Pa. -- A local school district will pay $610,000 to settle two lawsuits over secret photos taken on school-issued laptop computers. The Lower Merion School District in Montgomery County admitted capturing thousands of webcam pictures and screen shots from the student laptops. Officials said the photos were taken for the purpose of finding missing computers. Harriton High School student Blake Robbins said the district photographed him 400 times in a two-week period, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom. District officials voted on October 11 to pay Robbins $175,000, a second student $10,000,and their lawyer, Mark Haltzman,425,000. http://www.wfmz.com/bucksnews/25366777/detail.html

ness (plural nesses) (geography) A promontory; a cape or headland. (frequently used as a suffix in placenames)
Old English næs; cognate with Icelandic nes, Swedish näs, Danish næs. Related to nose. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ness

Places using "Ness" Loch Ness River Ness, links the Loch to the North Sea at Inverness, Scotland, UK Ness: East Ness & West Ness, Ryedale, North Yorkshire Ness, Western Isles, the most northerly area on Lewis, Scotland, UK Ness Football Club, Football club based in the Western Isles Ness, Cheshire, a village in Cheshire on the Wirral Peninsula, England, UK Ness Botanic Gardens, owned by the University of Liverpool and located on the Wirral Peninsula, England, UK Ness City, Kansas Ness Township, Minnesota

Places with "ness" in the title Caithness, a Scottish county Dungeness (headland), shingle promontory and site of a nuclear power station in Kent, England Inverness, a Scottish city Langness Peninsula, in the Isle of Man Sheerness, an English town in Kent Shoeburyness, an Essex Town on the North Bank of the Thames Estuary Stromness, a harbour town in the Orkney Isles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ness

A blue plate special is a set meal provided at a reduced price. Webster's Dictionary defines it:
1. A restaurant dinner plate divided into compartments for serving several kinds of food as a single order.
2. A main course (as of meat and vegetable) served as a single menu item. Webster's doesn't cite an origin but there seems little reason to look further than the colour for the derivation of the phrase - blue plate specials were served on blue plates, The earliest citation of the phrase that I've found is in this advert for the Young Women's Christian Association, printed in the Illinois newspaper The Decatur Daily Review, September 1924. The food writer Daniel Rogov claims that blue-plate special was first used on 22 October 1892, on a menu of a Fred Harvey restaurant on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/blue-plate-special.html

As worldwide population increases by 40 percent over the next 40 years, sparsely populated Canada, Scandinavia, Russia and the northern United States will become formidable economic powers and migration magnets, Laurence C. Smith writes in "The World in 2050: Four Forces Shaping Civilization's Northern Future" (Dutton Books). While wreaking havoc on the environment, global warming will liberate a treasure trove of oil, gas, water and other natural resources previously locked in the frozen north, enriching residents and attracting newcomers, according to Smith. And these resources will pour from northern rim countries — or NORCs, as Smith calls them — precisely at a time when natural resources elsewhere are becoming critically depleted, making them all the more valuable. http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/global-warming-s-silver-lining-169919.aspx

The Gulf Stream ensures Reykjavik winter weather is milder than the country's name, Iceland, would suggest. Average winter temperatures are around 0ºC, but this makes Reykjavik warmer than New York and considerably warmer than Moscow and St Petersburg. However, winter weather in Reykjavik can feel a lot colder due to bitter winds and an icy atmosphere. Snow does not usually settle in the city. http://www.directline-citybreaks.co.uk/Reykjavik%20Weather

Climate (from Ancient Greek klima, meaning inclination) is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period of time. The standard averaging period is 30 years, but other periods may be used depending on the purpose. Climate also includes statistics other than the average, such as the magnitudes of day-to-day or year-to-year variations. The difference between climate and weather is usefully summarized by the popular phrase "Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get." See more plus world climate classifications at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate

Patrick Dougherty, a sculptor who weaves tree saplings into whirling, animated shapes that resemble tumbleweeds or gusts of wind, likes to say that his first artwork was his house. Built from old barn timber, fallen trees and rocks he dug from the ground here, this rangy log villa started off as a one-room cabin, and is his only permanent work (most of his installations break down after a year or two in the wild). Since then, he has made well over 200 startling (and delightful) pieces for sites all over the world — woolly lairs and wild follies, gigantic snares, nests and cocoons, some woven into groves of trees, others lashed around buildings. And in August, he was invited by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to make a piece for its centennial: you’ll find “Natural History,” five winsome wind-blown pods that Mr. Dougherty described as “lairs for feral children or wayward adults,” near the Magnolia Plaza there. Thirty-eight of these works are collected in “Stickwork,” a monograph-memoir, published last month by Princeton Architectural Press. Read more plus see images at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/garden/07twig.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

For three weeks in summer 2010, artist Patrick Dougherty and a team of volunteers constructed a monumental woven-wood sculpture in honor of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's centennial. The result, which the artist titled Natural History, will be on display for the next year, complementing the beauty of the Garden through the seasons. Garden visitors will find the work in the Plant Family Collection near Magnolia Plaza. See picture at: http://www.bbg.org/discover/gallery/dougherty/

Microcosmos takes readers into a secret world of extreme close-ups. Some subjects have been magnified by as much as 22million times. See a selection of photos taken by 30 'microscopists' and compiled in new book Microcosmos by science author Brandon Broll. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1318795/Feeling-chipper-wood-ant-caught-bringing-science-life.html

cater-cousin (KAY-tuhr kuz-uhn) noun An intimate friend.
The origin of the term is uncertain, though various theories have been proposed. According to one, the term is derived from French quatre-cousin (fourth cousin), implying someone who is so close as to almost be a relative, or one who is close enough to be among the fourth cousins. Another idea is that the term cater-cousin alludes to people intimate enough to be catering to each other. Finally, there's the sense of cater meaning diagonally (as in catercorner).
Dutch uncle (duch UNG-kuhl) noun Someone who advises or criticizes frankly and sternly.
The English and the Dutch have fought in many wars during the 17th and 18th century. Even though they are friendly with each other now, the English language still carries traces of the past animosity, demeaning the Dutch: from Dutch treat (where each must pay his or her own share), Dutch gold (imitation gold), Dutch courage (courage inspired by liquor), and so on. A Dutch uncle is the opposite of a typical uncle (kind and indulgent), he's not avuncular. You can be sure, he doesn't believe in nepotism. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

A new Delaware law that went into effect September 15 is enabling public libraries to get their internet use policies ready for the inevitable influx into their facilities of patrons wielding wireless devices. HB 340 extends libraries’ acceptable-use policies to any mobile devices that individuals bring onto library premises, and specifies that, while in the library, what patrons access on their personally owned devices is subject to the Delaware Children’s Internet Protection Act. The state’s CIPA law enables children’s parents and guardians to decide whether or not minors should have unfettered online access, and if not, how restricted that access should be. http://www.americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/09212010/acceptable-use-policies-go-mobile-delaware

UNESCO's City of Literature program is part of its Creative Cities Network which was launched in 2004. The Network was born out of UNESCO's Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity initiative which was created in 2002. Its aim is to "promote the social, economic and cultural development of cities in both the developed and the developing world." The cities in network promote their local creative scene and conform to UNESCO’s goal of fostering cultural diversity. An important aspect of the "Creative Cities" concept is that the cities foster public/private partnerships particularly by encouraging the entrepreneurial and creative potential of small enterprises. Literature is just one of several categories of Creative Cities. Others include music, film, media, gastronomy, crafts and folk art, and design. Cities of Literature: Edinburgh, Scotland (2004) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (2008) Iowa City, Iowa, United States (2008) Dublin, Ireland (2010) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Literature

On July 12, the University of Iowa Main Library opened an exhibit showcasing poetry and literature of Iowa City. The display celebrates the city being named the third City of Literature by UNESCO. Dave Morice’s “Dr. Alphabet” costume, a white suit and top hat decorated with colorful letters of the alphabet, is included in the display. In celebration of the event, Morice, will participate in one of his biggest poetry marathons. He has set a goal to write 10,000 pages of poetry in 100 days. “Some people don’t think it’s possible,” the 63-year-old said. “But they should sit back, relax, and enjoy the impossible.” Morice started doing poetry marathons in Iowa City during the 1970s as part of the Actualist Poetry Movement, of which he was a founder. Members gathered for poetry readings and marathons. http://uwire.com/2010/07/12/%E2%80%98dr-alphabet%E2%80%99-sets-out-to-write-10000-pages-of-poetry/

In his first year as an assistant professor in the University of Iowa's archaeology department, Matthew E. Hill made a move that many other junior faculty would have considered risky: he said he wanted to teach an undergraduate seminar on animals and culture. Hill first taught Animals, Culture and Food in the fall of 2008 and will offer it again this fall. Leaders in his department are "real happy that I've been able to fill the class," attracting not just anthropology majors, but also students studying nursing, engineering, visual art and several liberal arts fields. "Any time animals come up in any of my more traditional archaeology classes, there's kind of an excitement in the room," he says. "I realized there's an interest in learning more about human-animal interactions. I'm trying to fulfill a need." He plans to teach a course next spring on humans' ancient and modern relationships with dogs. The field that has perhaps been most amenable to examining humans and other animals is the law. By the Animal Legal Defense Fund's own count, more than 120 law schools in the United States and Canada have offered courses on animal law since 2000. In 2000, the group identified just nine law schools with courses on animals. Pamela D. Alexander, director of ALDF's animal law program, says that students are demanding courses on animal law. "A lot of it is coming grassroots, from the students. More and more students are going to law school because they want to fight for animals," she says. "Animal rights is one of the greatest social justice movements of our time. It's captivating and alluring to students to get involved in this, to recognized that the human-animal bond is not reflected in the law as it is in society." http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-07-08-IHE-animal-studies-culture-courses08_ST_N.htm

The need in Ethiopia is great but the vision and perseverance of Yohannes Gebregeorgis is greater, which helps explain why a new library worthy of any developed country opened August 20 in Mekele, the first of its kind in this small and grindingly poor city. The Segenat Children and Youth Library in the region of Tigray is located in a sturdy, free-standing building donated by the municipal authorities. It’s fully loaded with some 10,000 books and a computer room with 10 workstations; two e-book readers and 8,000 more books are on the way. A companion donkey-mobile regularly transports some 2,000 additional books to more distant parts of Tigray, powered by two beasts of burden named Sege and Nat.
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/news/08232010/new-youth-library-ethiopia-makes-impossible-dream-reality

Singer Michael Feinstein is making his case for preserving great songwriting in a three-part series on PBS. Filled with rare archival film clips and recordings, and presented with a true believer's fervent passion, the program highlights the link between popular music on the radio and tunes from films and stage shows in the first half of the 20th century. It also reveals the unusual role the U.S. military played in American popular song during World War II, and the way that the era's racial troubles were reflected in the music of the time, even while the songs' creators and performers often worked together regardless of color. "Michael Feinstein's American Songbook" is also a funny, candid portrait of Feinstein himself on the road, in rehearsal and in a basement studio where he spends every spare moment transferring rare and fragile recordings into his digital archive for safekeeping. In the most memorable shot in the series, Feinstein stands next to the roaring traffic of I-405 in Los Angeles and explains that beneath its eight lanes are thousands of musical scores, dumped there as landfill by MGM in the 1960s. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thearts/2013030618_feinstein03.html

The traditional place for a retired soldier’s uniform is, perhaps, in a trunk in the attic. But a more creative option begins in a portable pulping machine belonging to Drew Matott, an artist who makes paper. Through the Combat Paper Project, founded by Mr. Matott, 32, and Drew Cameron, 28, an Iraq war veteran, in Burlington, Vt., in 2007, hundreds of veterans of World War II and of the wars in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and other conflicts have turned their uniforms into hangable works of art meant to convey something of their experiences. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/nyregion/04spotnj.html See also: http://www.combatpaper.org/about.html

The World Digital Library makes available, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. Launched in 2009, its principal objectives are to promote international and intercultural understanding, and expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the internet. These cultural treasures include manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings. The library was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries, the support of UNESCO, and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations. The collection is browsable by place, time, topic, type of item, and institution. Try it at: http://www.wdl.org/en/

The most famous fish stew of the Mediterranean is bouillabaisse, and its home is considered to be Marseilles, although it is made in every little port throughout the coastal regions of Provence. The apocryphal story of the origin of bouillabaisse told by the Marseillais is that Venus served bouillabaisse to her husband Vulcan in order to lull him to sleep while she consorted with Mars. Greek food writers have laid claim to inventing the precursor of bouillabaisse. They argue that when the Phocaeans, Greeks from Asia Minor, founded Marseilles in about 600 B.C. they brought with them a fish soup known as kakavia that was the basis to the future bouillabaisse. This can be said to be true only in the most general (and meaningless) sense. In fact, we have no idea whether such a soup was “brought” to the western Mediterranean. In the culinary writings of the ancient Greeks, especially as represented by Athenaeus (A.D. 170-230), there are many mentions of boiled fish, cooked in unspecified ways, as well as one fish stew made with grayfish, herbs, oil, caraway seeds, and salt. The most likely precursor to the Provençal bouillabaisse is likely to be an Italian fish stew and, in fact, the closest thing to a bouillabaisse that I have found in a medieval text is the brodecto de li dicti pisci that appears in an anonymous fifteenth-century Italian cookery book from southern Italy where sardines and anchovies are boiled in vino greco (a strong Neapolitan wine) with black pepper, saffron, and sugar with a little olive oil. There is also the matellotte du poisson recipe found in Jourdain Le Cointe's La cuisine de santé published in 1790 that Alan Davidson, author of Oxford Companion to Food believes is a relevant precursor. But given the obviousness and simplicity of boiling fish one cannot point to one location as a place of origin.
http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/id/70/ Praise for bouillabaisse http://www.petravillas.com/article_11.html and information plus pronunciation at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bouillabaisse

Jackrabbits are not rabbits, but hares Three major species of jackrabbits occur in North America. These hares are of the genus Lepus and are represented primarily by the blacktail jackrabbit, the whitetail jackrabbit, and the snowshoe hare. Other members of this genus include the antelope jackrabbit and the European hare. Hares have large, long ears, long legs, and a larger body size than rabbits. http://icwdm.org/handbook/mammals/mam_d81.pdf

Quadrivium (‘meeting place of four roads’), the four mathematical disciplines of astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music which during the Middle Ages constituted the advanced part of the educational curriculum, known as the seven liberal arts. The trivium, the more elementary part, consisted of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. http://www.answers.com/topic/quadrivium

We recently saw Stephanie Beck Cut Paper Sculptures at Philadelphia International Airport (Neighborhood Arrangement #1: Maze, Aviary, Neighborhood Arrangement #1: Circle) See story and two of the three sculptures at: http://www.phl.org/art/beck.html The sculptures are on view through January 2011. See slide show of Beck's paper sculptures at: http://www.stephaniebeck.org/paperCutworkSculpture.htm See many more sculptures including all three mentioned above at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephaniebeck/

Colonel Charles Whittlesey (1808-1886), born in Connecticut and a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point (1831), was a resident of Cleveland and served as a prominent geologist and topographer for the first Geological Survey of Ohio (1837-1838). He published more than 50 reports on the geology of the State, including early studies of Lake Erie water levels, shoreline erosion rates, and mineral resources. Whittlesey also served as a geologist for the US Geological Survey; exploring the mineral resources of the Lake Superior region, and later working there as a mining engineer. He became an authority on western history and archaeology, discovering more than 60 earthworks in Ohio and mapping half of them. He is credited with doing much to develop mining engineering in Ohio. His life work includes some 200 scientific papers http://www.ohiosci.org/OHIOSCIENCE200APPENDIX.htm

The Whittlesey culture is a Late Prehistoric group that occupied portions of northeastern Ohio. It is distinguished from other Late Prehistoric societies mainly by distinctive kinds of pottery. Many Whittlesey communities were located on plateaus overlooking stream valleys or the shores of Lake Erie. The villages often were surrounded with a pallisade or a ditch, suggesting a need for defense. The Whittlesey culture is named for Charles Whittlesey, a 19th century geologist and archaeologist who was a founder of the Western Reserve Historical Society. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=2052 Note that this Web site lists Ohio science and technology contributions by county.

Ohio Archaeology Month is celebrated in October. Find the month observed for all states at: http://www.saa.org/ForthePublic/NewsEvents/ArchaeologyWeeksMonths/ArchaeologyWeekMonthbyState/tabid/143/Default.aspx

Matthew Carter (born in London in 1937) is a type designer. Carter's career in type design has witnessed the transition from physical metal type to digital type. He was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow. His best known typefaces are Verdana, Georgia and Tahoma. See his many other typefaces at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Carter

Helvetica was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann at the Haas'sche Schriftgiesserei (Haas type foundry) of Münchenstein, Switzerland. Haas set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, its design was based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas’ Normal Grotesk. The aim of the new design was to create a neutral typeface that had great clarity, no intrinsic meaning in its form, and could be used on a wide variety of signage. When Linotype adopted Neue Haas Grotesk (which was never planned to be a full range of mechanical and hot-metal typefaces) its design was reworked. After the success of Univers, Arthur Ritzel of Stempel redesigned Neue Haas Grotesk into a larger family. In 1960, the typeface's name was changed by Haas' German parent company Stempel to Helvetica (derived from Confoederatio Helvetica, the Latin name for Switzerland) in order to make it more marketable internationally. It was initially suggested that the type be called 'Helvetia' which is the original Latin name for Switzerland. This was ignored by Eduard Hoffmann as he decided it wouldn't be appropriate to name a type after a country. He then decided on 'Helvetica' as this meant 'Swiss' as opposed to 'Switzerland'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica

Pecorino is sheep's milk cheese. Hundreds of different ones are made throughout Italy, but the type I think is being referred to here is an aged style that is a grating cheese. Pecorino Romano, which isn't hard to find, would work. If you can find the Sini Fulvi Sini brand, you'll have a superior example. Fresh ricotta cheese has soft, nearly melting curds and tastes clean and almost sweet in its creaminess. Most of what we have here is a cow cheese, but in southern Italy it's often done with sheep's milk. Freshness is essential with ricotta. If at all possible, taste the cheese before buying. If premium ricotta isn't unavailable, look for whole-milk Polly-O, available in many supermarkets. A sound sheep's milk ricotta is produced by Old Chatham Sheepherders in Old Chatham, New York.
Homemade Ricotta For about 1-1/2 pounds of cheese, pour 3 quarts, plus 3 cups whole milk into a stainless steel pot with 1 cup heavy cream (not ultra pasteurized). If possible make them both organic. Line a large sieve with cheese cloth or a thin towel and set it over a medium bowl. Bring the milk and cream to a very gentle simmer, stir in 2 teaspoons salt and 1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed). Simmer 1 or 2 minutes or until you have cloud-like clumps floating in almost clear liquid. Don't let them cook until they are hard. Scoop them up and into the sieve. Gently press out excess moisture so the cheese isn't soupy. Put into a storage container and chill. The Splendid Table October 6, 2010

Plant Exchange on October 9 in Toledo All are welcome to join local gardeners for this FREE exchange! Please bring plants and gardening paraphernalia in good condition.
9:00 AM Plant Drop-Off
9:15 AM Workshop - Sustainable Eating & Veggie U
10:00 - 11:30 AM Plant Exchange Information 419.243.4857 Location Original Sub Shop, 402 Broadway (near Amtrak Station) http://www.toledogarden.org/content/events/

samizdat (SAH-miz-daht) noun An underground publishing system used to print and circulate banned literature clandestinely. Also, such literature. From Russian samizdat, from samo- (self) + izdatelstvo (publishing house), from izdat (to publish). Coined facetiously on the model of Gosizdat (State Publishing House). A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg
Feedback to A.Word.A.Day
From: Charles Burbank Subject: samizdat
My best friend studied Russian at Stetson in the early nineties. She shared this word with me as it was the "publisher" of many of her creative works while she was in college. The -izdat ending was also on a couple of other words tamizdat (which means published out there, i.e. works that were smuggled out and published outside Russia's borders), and magnitizdat (which deals with recorded tapes that were smuggled out of the country as well).
From: Michael Bash Subject: euphemism
Even euphemism becomes a euphemism. I think it's in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" where George asks if anybody "has to use the euphemism" before they leave.

A mesostic is a poem or other typography such that a vertical phrase intersects lines of horizontal text. It is similar to an acrostic, but with the vertical phrase intersecting the middle of the line, as opposed to beginning each new line. The practice of using of using index words to select pieces from a preexisting text was developed by Jackson Mac Low as "diastics". It was used extensively by the experimental composer John Cage. There are two types of mesostic: fifty percent and one hundred percent. In a fifty-percent mesostic, according to Andrew Culver (John Cage's assistant), "Between any two [capitalized] letters, you can't have the second [letter]." In a one-hundred percent mesostic, "Between any two [capitalized] letters, you can't have either [letter]." See example of a one-hundred percent mesostic at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesostic

A detailed and well-preserved Roman parade helmet -- complete with fine facial features on its face mask, tight curly hair, and a griffin-topped cap -- will go up for auction October 7, five months after it was found in northern England. The helmet is estimated at £200,000 to £300,000 (about $316,000 to $475,000) but could go for much more when it goes on sale at Christie's auction house in London. The Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, near where the helmet was found in May by a person with a metal detector, has launched a public fundraising appeal to try to procure the helmet as the centerpiece for a new Roman gallery. Christie's called the Crosby Garrett helmet -- so named for the village where it was found, about 45 miles south of the Scottish border -- an "extraordinary example of Roman metalwork at its zenith" and said it dates to the late 1st to 2nd century A.D. See beautiful pictures of front and side view of helmet at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/10/06/england.roman.helmet/?hpt=T2

Since 2006, 20 to 40 percent of the bee colonies in the United States alone have suffered “colony collapse.” Suspected culprits ranged from pesticides to genetically modified food. Now, a unique partnership — of military scientists and entomologists — appears to have achieved a major breakthrough: identifying a new suspect, or two. A fungus tag-teaming with a virus have apparently interacted to cause the problem, according to a paper by Army scientists in Maryland and bee experts in Montana in the online science journal PLoS One. Exactly how that combination kills bees remains uncertain, the scientists said — a subject for the next round of research. But there are solid clues: both the virus and the fungus proliferate in cool, damp weather, and both do their dirty work in the bee gut, suggesting that insect nutrition is somehow compromised. Liaisons between the military and academia are nothing new, of course. World War II, perhaps the most profound example, ended in an atomic strike on Japan in 1945 largely on the shoulders of scientist-soldiers in the Manhattan Project. And a group of scientists led by Jerry Bromenshenk of the University of Montana in Missoula has researched bee-related applications for the military in the past — developing, for example, a way to use honeybees in detecting land mines. But researchers on both sides say that colony collapse may be the first time that the defense machinery of the post-Sept. 11 Homeland Security Department and academia have teamed up to address a problem that both sides say they might never have solved on their own. One perverse twist of colony collapse that has compounded the difficulty of solving it is that the bees do not just die — they fly off in every direction from the hive, then die alone and dispersed. That makes large numbers of bee autopsies — and yes, entomologists actually do those — problematic. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/07bees.html

The most important thing to take into account when thinking about salt is that the flavor of the salt itself is not what matters. Nobody eats salt by itself. What matters is the interaction of the salt and the food. Three main things that determine how salt will play up the flavors of food are its crystal shape, its mineral content, and the residual moisture caught up in the crystals. Delicate moist clean flavored fleur de sel is the go-to salt for all the subtle to medium bodied and flavored foods, from buttered toast to steamed veggies to fish to caramels. Snappy bright flake salts are great for fresh vegetables and green salads, or anywhere that you want a spark of salt to contrast vibrantly with the food. Sel gris is the best salt for finishing red meats, root vegetables, and other heartier foods, and this is also your go-to salt for most cooking uses, from boiling pasta water to rubbing the cavity of a chicken before roasting. Mark Bitterman, author of Salted (Ten Speed Press). http://www.herbivoracious.com/2010/06/interview-with-mark-bitterman-leading-expert-on-culinary-salts.html According to Bitterman, there are 145 kinds of sea salt.

The Black Canyon of Gunnison National Park stretches far beyond the 14 miles within the national park. Including the canyon within Curecanti National Recreation Area and Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, the total length is 53 miles. http://www.nps.gov/blca/planyourvisit/things2do.htm The Gunnison River drops an average of 43 feet per mile through the entire canyon, making it one of the steepest mountain descents in North America. In comparison, the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon drops an average of 7.5 feet per mile. The greatest descent of the Gunnison River occurs in the park at Chasm View dropping 240 feet per mile. The Black Canyon is so named on account of its steepness which makes it difficult for sunlight to penetrate very far down. As a result, the canyon walls are most often in shadow, causing the rocky walls to appear black. At its narrowest point, the canyon is only 40 feet wide across the river. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Canyon_of_the_Gunnison_National_Park

The luxury home that Thomas Chapman built on the lip of the magnificent Black Canyon here isn't just an investment. It's a provocation. Mr. Chapman, a small-town real-estate broker, has made a controversial career trading scattered parcels of private land that sit inside national forests and national parks. On behalf of his clients or his business partners, he talks up plans to develop the parcels: a subdivision at a scenic overlook, an RV park on a canyon rim, a rustic estate inside a remote wilderness area. Sometimes he even brings out the bulldozers. Environmentalists sound the alarm. And often, the government or conservationists come with money or a land swap to buy him out, saving the cherished parcel from development—and making Mr. Chapman money. He and his business partners bought a 112-acre parcel within the boundaries of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in rugged western Colorado. They spent $240,000 for land the federal government had recently appraised at $175,000. When no conservationists stepped forward to buy the land, Mr. Chapman raised the ante: He built a 4,800-square-foot home on the canyon rim, which he has put on the market for $13 million, helicopter included. And he sold off a second home site—on higher ground, with even more spectacular views—for $2.1 million. Read much more at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703743504575493500432327106.html

It’s hard to keep up with the patent suits flying among mobile phone companies. On October 1, Microsoft joined the ring, with a suit leveled at Motorola’s Android-based smart phones, filed in the International Trade Commission and the federal court in the Western District of Washington. The suit charges Motorola with infringing on its patents related to “synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power.”
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/microsoft-sues-motorola-over-android/

In a key test of free speech protections in the US, the supreme court has heard arguments about whether a fundamentalist church had the right to picket a marine's funeral with signs like "Thank God for Dead Soldiers". Members of the Westboro Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas, protested at the 2006 funeral of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder to express their view that US deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq were God's punishment for US immorality and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion. While distancing themselves from the church's message, media organisations, including the Associated Press, have called on the court to side with the Westboro church because of concerns that a victory for Albert Snyder could erode the right to free speech. http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/oct/07/us-military-funeral-protest-supreme-court

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child who is born on the Sabbath Day
Is blithe ,winsome happy and gay.

This rhyme was first recorded in A. E. Bray's Traditions of Devonshire (Volume II, pp.287-288) in 1838 and was collected by James Orchard Halliwell in the mid-nineteenth century. The tradition of fortune telling by days of birth is much older. Thomas Nashe recalled stories told to "yong folks" in Suffolk in the 1570s which included "tell[ing] what luck eurie one should have by the day of the weeke he was borne on". Nashe thus provides evidence for fortune telling rhymes of this type circulating in Suffolk in the 1570s, There was considerable variation and debate about the exact attributes of each day and even over the days. Halliwell had 'Christmas Day' instead of the Sabbath. A version in which, "Wednesday's child is full of woe," an early incarnation of this rhyme appeared in a multi-part fictional story in a chapter appearing in Harper's Weekly on September 17, 1887, in which "Friday's child is full of woe", perhaps reflecting traditional superstitions associated with bad luck on Friday the 13th. In addition to Wednesday's and Friday's children's role reversal, the fates of Thursday's and Saturday's children was also exchanged and Sunday's child is "happy and wise" instead of "blithe and good". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monday's_Child

What day were you born and where do you fit in this poem? Check your day of birth at: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/generate.html

The French Camisards, whose religious beliefs inspired both the Quakers and Shakers, originated in southern France during the 17th century. Influenced by the French Calvinists, the Camisards, whose name originated from the Provence word camiso, or chemise (shirt), rebelled against the royal persecution of their faith by the French authorities. It was during the 1740s that the "Shaking Quakers," or Shakers, came under the influence of some exiled French Camisards. This group split off from mainstream Quakerism in 1747, and developed along their own lines, forming into a society with Jane and James Wardley as their leaders. Ann Lee, the founder and later leader of the American Shakers, and her parents were members of this society. The Shakers eventually created 19 official communities in the Northeast, Ohio, and Kentucky. From these communities came agricultural advances and quality manufactured goods. The community meeting-house became the center of Shaker worship services on Sunday where the sexes sat in separate rows. The spontaneous dancing that was part of Shaker worship until the early 1800s became replaced by choreographed dancing. Around the 1840s spontaneous dancing returned, but by the end of the 19th century dancing ceased, and worship services were taken up with the singing of hymns, testimonials, a short homily, and silence. The Shakers came under a spiritual revival called the Era of Manifestations, which lasted from the late 1830s to about 1850. According to Shaker tradition, heavenly spirits came to earth, bringing visions, often giving them to young Shaker women, who danced, whirled, spoke in tongues, and interpreted these visions through their drawings and dancing. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/shaker/shakers.htm

The first Shaker songs were wordless tunes, droning fragments from psalms, babble of unknown tongues, shouts, outcries such as ho, ho or hallelujah, random sing-song; for instance, do, do, diddle, do. Mother Ann and her chief elders were imprisoned for pacifism in the U.S. which served to attract attention to the sect. The Gift to Be Simple by Edward Deming Andrews

Switchel (Shaker Haying Water)
2 quarts water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 Tbsp cider vinegar (optional)
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
In a 2-quart saucepan, heat 1 quart water, sugar, molasses, vinegar, and ginger over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in remaining water. Pour Switchel into pitcher and chill until very cold. Makes six to eight servings.

Q: Where did Brutus Buckeye come from?
A: Brutus Buckeye hit the scene in 1965 when student Ray Bourhis and the student organization Ohio Staters Inc. convinced Ohio State University's Athletic Council of the idea of a Buckeye as Ohio State's mascot. At the time, other schools used animals for their mascots and some had the animals present at the games. Bourhis thought the only animal fitting was the buck deer, but bringing a deer to games would have been virtually impossible. So, he chose a buckeye. The buckeye was later named Brutus in a campus naming contest and began his career as a large fiberglass shell which weighed 40 pounds. Brutus was the responsibility of the Block "O" cheering section during the early 1970s. He was then turned over to the Athletic Department. Brutus has gone through several updates, and today is a much more lightweight and active part of Ohio State sporting and spirit events. -- Ohio State University Libraries. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2010/Oct/JU/ar_JU_100410.asp?d=100410,2010,Oct,04&c=c_13

It’s Friday afternoon, time for some comic relief. Thing is, for a San Diego judge accused of using her courtroom as a launching pad for a career in stand-up comedy, the situation may no longer seem so funny. The judge, DeAnn M. Salcido of the Superior Court, is facing removal or censure by the California Commission on Judicial Performance on charges of “willful misconduct” and conduct that “brings the judicial office into disrepute.” She is accused of having her courtroom proceedings filmed as an audition for a television show and for ridiculing defendants, their friends and relatives, lawyers, prosecutors, other judges and pretty much anyone who got in her way to get a few laughs from the courtroom audience.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/09/24/judge-judy-wannabe-isnt-laughing-anymore/?mod=djemlawblog_h

Congress punts net neutrality back to FCC
Despite garnering some industry support, the net neutrality legislation being drafted by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) got shot down yesterday when Congressional Republicans said they would not support it. Waxman had been holding meetings with both consumer groups and telecom companies while drafting legislation aimed at bridging the gap between proponents and opponents of net neutrality. However, now that negotiations have fallen apart, Waxman has signaled to the Federal Communications Commission that it should act to reclassify broadband services as telecommunications services. In essence, then, we're back to the same point we were at earlier this year when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the FCC lacked the authority to stop Comcast from throttling peer-to-peer Internet traffic.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9189084/Congress_punts_net_neutrality_back_to_FCC?taxonomyId=13

There is something in the Autumn that is native to my blood--Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time . . . There is something in October . . .
See rest of the poem by Bliss Carman at: http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1266.html

Three quotes Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat. Jules Renard (1864-1910) French writer

English or Spanish speakers probably do not even imagine that they speak more Arabic than they think they do. It's not "real" Arabic they are speaking, but rather words that come from Arabic. After Latin and English, Arabic is probably the biggest contributor of words to the Spanish language, and a large portion of English-Spanish cognates (words that the two language share) that don't come from Latin, but from Arabic. The Spanish words of Arabic origin are those that start with "al-," such as álgebra, Alá, álkali and alkimia (algebra, Allah, alkali, and alchemy in English). But they are far from the only ones. A variety of other types of common words such as café, cero, and azucár (coffee, zero, and sugar in English) also come from Arabic. The etymology of Spanish words goes beyond these lines, but the introduction of Arabic words into Spanish began in earnest in the eighth century, although even before then some words of Latin and Greek origin had roots in Arabic. People living in, what is now Spain, spoke Latin at one time, of course, but over the centuries Spanish and other Romance languages such as French and Italian gradually differentiated themselves. The Latin dialect that eventually became Spanish was highly influenced by the invasion of the Arabic-speaking Moors (Moros) in 711. For many centuries, Latin/Spanish and Arabic existed side by side, and even today many Spanish place names retain Arabic roots. It wasn't until late in the 15th century that the Moors were expelled, and by then literally thousands of Arabic words had become part of Spanish. See a list of some of the most common Arabic-origin Spanish words. Many of the words are a part of English as well, but most Arabic words in English probably entered English by other routes. http://www.mexpanol.com/About_Spanish/Arabic_roots/arabic_roots.html

FLAT AND CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
This recipe is based on one published in The Essential New York Times Cookbook (Norton, 2010).
ELEGANT PORK CHOPS
Authors Jane and Michael Stern gave us this recipe from Virginia Miller, a home cook from Iowa who bakes thick-cut pork chops in a sweet, tomatoey sauce.
BROWN BUTTER PASTA
Chef Gabrielle Hamilton of New York City's Prune restaurant gave us her recipe for this delicious pasta, which is tossed in brown butter and pine nuts, then topped with sunny-side-up eggs. See these recipes and others at: http://www.saveur.com/in_this_issue.jsp?page=2&order=1&subcat=&issueId=201007

Seaweeds (kaiso) have been an important part of the Japanese diet for many centuries. Today, various types of seaweed are used extensively as soup stock, seasonings and other forms in daily Japanese cooking. The following are the three most commonly used types of seaweed: kombu, wakame and nori. See information and images at:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2310.html

The Road to Carnegie Hall at Manhattan's, 1516 Adams in Toledo
On every second Tuesday, 5-7 p.m. through April, Manhattan's will donate a percentage of their food and beverage sales to the Toledo Symphony Orchestra to help the musicians and team get to New York City for their Carnegie Hall concert.