From a reader after seeing a muse mentioning Lane Cake
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by (Nelle) Harper Lee (b. 1926)
Synopsis: A principled small-town lawyer is called on to defend a black man unfairly accused of raping a white woman; in the course of the trial and its aftermath, his children learn the meaning of courage and understanding. Narrated by the lawyer’s young daughter, the story is also a memoir of growing up in the South in the 30s, in Lee’s words, a “love song” to her father. Though the court case is fictional (but inspired by the 1931 “Scottsboro Trial”) most of the characters can be directly traced to inhabitants of Lee’s hometown; Atticus is modeled on Lee’s father, Scout is Lee, herself, and Dill is based on next-door neighbor, Truman Capote. The surname Finch is Lee’s mother’s maiden name.
Author info: Descended from Robert E. Lee (a genealogical condition she ironically bestows on the novel’s white-trash villain, Bob Ewell) and the daughter of a title attorney, Lee grew up in a Methodist household in Monroeville, AL. An avid reader, she studied law at the University of Alabama and worked as an airline reservation clerk in New York when she went North to launch a literary career; she wrote Mockingbird during a year financed by friends who thought she showed promise.
Movie: Horton Foote’s excellent screenplay and Gregory Peck’s remarkable performance as Atticus combine to make this one powerful film; both men won Oscars for their 1962 work. Elmer Bernstein’s music also catches the mood just right; watch carefully to catch Robert Duvall ‘s screen debut as Boo.
Dessert: Lane Cake According to Scout, Miss Maudie made the best cakes in Maycomb, and her Lane Cake was no exception. Feel free to use any white or yellow cake recipe for its base; this version is formulated specifically not to waste the whites of the 8 eggs that are needed for the filling. Likewise, you can also improvise the filling: a touch less coconut, your choice of candied/dried fruits, etc.
Thanks, Barbara

Nancy Silverstone, founder of LaBrea Bakery and chef and co-owner of Mozza Restaurant, explains how to make focaccia. An installment of the Master Class series:
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-masterclass-20110526,0,1188913.htmlstory

Often described as one of the most important American paintings from the 19th-century, the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s recent restoration of Thomas Eakins’ ”The Gross Clinic”, was displayed at the Museum July 2010-January, 2011. Capturing Eakins’ characteristic darkness (or at least chiaroscuro), the work is as historically illuminating as it is aesthetic. Dr. Samuel D. Gross, a man once monikered to be ”the Emperor of American Surgery.” Shown originally at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, early critics actually banished the work from display for its rather gross, graphic depiction of the removal of a malignancy from a young lady’s thigh. Painted just blocks from the Museum, in the city where Eakins lived his entire life, “Gross Clinic” celebrates the lives of two men at the peak of their professional powers. http://culturemob.com/philadelphia-museum-of-art-presents-thomas-eakins-restored-gross-clinic

From the 1880s until the 1960s the weekly covers of Journal of the American Medical Association displayed only a table of contents. On April 20th, 1964, the JAMA cover featured an original painting for the first time. Since then, works of art have graced the covers of JAMA each week.
http://www.backfiles.org/ The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association Volumes I and II of The Art of JAMA are widely available for purchase.
You may also be interested in A Piece of My Mind https://catalog.ama-assn.org/Catalog/product/product_detail.jsp?childName=&parentCategoryName=&parentCategory=&productId=OP031700+&categoryName=&prodId=&start=&parentId=
and Soul of the Physician https://catalog.ama-assn.org/Catalog/product/product_detail.jsp?childName=&parentCategoryName=&parentCategory=&productId=OP209701+&categoryName=&prodId=&start=&parentId=

Hymenaea courbaril (Jatobá or Guapinol) is a tree common to the Caribbean, Central, and South America. It is a hardwood that is used for furniture, flooring and decorative purposes. Although Jatoba is sometimes referred to as Brazilian Cherry or South American Cherry, it is not a cherry tree and it is in no way, botanically or otherwise related to the Black Cherry (Prunus serotina), a very common North American hardwood. Depending on the locale, Jatoba is also known as Brazilian Copal, South American Locust, the West Indian Locust Tree, or Stinking Toe, Old Man's Toe or Stinktoe (because of the unpleasant odor of the edible pulp inside its seed pods and various other names. Jatoba produces an orange, resinous, sticky gum that converts to amber through a chemical process that requires millions of years. Amber of million year old Hymenaea trees have provided scientists with many clues to its prehistoric presence on Earth as well as to the often extinct insects and plants encased in it, as shown in the Jurassic Park films. Jatoba is a very hard wood measuring 5.6 on the Brinell scale or 2,350 lbf (10,500 N) on the Janka scale, approximate measurements of hardness. For comparison, Douglas Fir measures 660 lbf (2,900 N), White Oak 1,360 lbf (6,000 N), and Brazilian Walnut 3,800 lbf (17,000 N) on the Janka scale. Jatoba wood features a tan/salmon color with black accent stripes that over time turns to a deep rich red color. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymenaea_courbaril

The terrine, a loaf of meat, seafood or vegetables, takes its name from the earthenweare mold in which it is traditionally cooked. A terrine mixture enclosed and baked in pastry becomes a pate--literally, a pie. A galantine is contained in a whole boned bird or a large cut of meat, not pastry. It is poached, not baked.
Terrines, Pates & Galantines (The Good Cook Techniques & Recipes Series)

Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day. Why is it observed in late May? Look outside. See the roses and lilies of the field? The “decoration” in Decoration Day referred to ornamentation, not to a military medal. This is the time when flowers are blooming in most regions of the United States, and they can be picked and used to decorate the graves of the fallen. Thus in 1868, Gen. John Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans’ organization for Union Civil War soldiers, issued a general order setting aside May 30 for the purpose of “strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” But that was only a beginning. North and South remained split on many things in the decades following the Civil War, and the day to remember their late soldiers was one of them. Southern observances for the Confederate dead arose independently of Logan’s order, notes Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust in her book on the post-Civil War period, “This Republic of Suffering.” In some locations, they were held on May 10, the anniversary of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s death. In others, they were held on April 26, the day Gen. Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to Union Gen. William Sherman in 1865, effectively ending the war. A number of Southern states still hold a Confederate Memorial Day on a different date than that used for the national holiday. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/DC-Decoder/2011/0527/Why-is-Memorial-Day-observed-in-May