According to the Oxford English Corpus, a database of a billion words, dozens of traditional phrases are now more commonly misspelled than rendered correctly in written English.  "Straight-laced" is used 66% of the time even though it should be written "strait-laced", according to lexicographers working for Oxford Dictionaries, who record the way English is spoken and written by monitoring books, television, radio and newspapers and, increasingly, websites and blogs.  "Just desserts" is used 58% of the time instead of the correct spelling, "just deserts" (desert is a variation of deserve), while 59% of all written examples of the phrase in the Corpus call it a "font of knowledge or wisdom" when it should be "fount".  It has become so widely used that the wrong version is now included in Oxford dictionaries alongside the right one.  Other mistakes fast becoming the received spelling include substituting "free reign" for the correct phrase, "free rein".  The original refers to letting a horse loose, but many use "reign" and assume the expression means to allow a free rule.  Other examples of common mistakes include "slight of hand" instead of "sleight", "phased by" when it should be "fazed by", "butt naked" instead of the correct "buck naked" and "vocal chords" for "vocal cords."  http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/may/01/news.books  Thanks, Paul.

Most of the beef Americans eat is ground meat, not high-end steak.  About 23% of restaurant lunches and 16% of dinners included a hamburger in the U.S., according to NPD Group, a consumer market-research firm.  To entice consumers to stick with beef in the face of high prices, the beef industry is marketing "steakable" cuts.  "Our goal is to dry heat cook," over a grill or in a skillet, says Dave Zino, executive chef for the Beef Checkoff, an industry organization that has funded research to identify cuts of beef that can be priced between high-end steak and inexpensive ground beef.  In the past decade, the organization has pushed the flat iron (an "eight-year overnight success story," quips Mr. Zino), and lesser-known cuts like the Denver steak, which is cut from a part of the shoulder usually used for "hunk and chunk" like a roast or to make ground beef in the U.S.  Beef cuts have official names approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Compliance is voluntary, so shoppers often see what the industry calls "fanciful" names like delmonico.  The Beef Checkoff spent eight months researching fanciful names for the new cuts it wanted to market, says a spokeswoman. "Denver steak" won out over "Tavern steak" and "Prairie steak."   Sarah Nassauer  Click on Steak Shakeup graphic to see descriptions, new names and alternate names for cuts of beef.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303448404577412202284317014.html#project%3Dsteak0523%26articleTabs%3Darticle

Winston Churchill gave his "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College, in Fulton, Missouri, after receiving an honorary degree on March 5, 1946.  With typical oratorical skills, Church introduced the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe the division between Western powers and the area controlled by the Soviet Union.  As such the speech marks the onset of the Cold War.  See excerpts of speech from Internet Modern History Sourcebook.  http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.asp   

The Toledo Zoo raises insects and saves an estimated $300,000 a year by doing so.  Amphibians, reptiles, fish, carnivorous plants, and birds snack on insects such as crickets, mealworms, fruit flies and more.  Safari, the official magazine of the Toledo Zoo  Summer 2012

The Eyre Affair was Jasper Fforde's first novel, although he had amassed 76 rejection slips from publishers for several earlier novels.  The "genre-busting" novel spans numerous types of literature, with critics identifying aspects of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, satire, romance, and thriller.  This led one critic to jokingly suggest that Fforde "must have jotted a bundle of unrelated ideas on slips of paper", and, "instead of tossing them in a hat and choosing a few topics as the focus of his story, [he] grabbed the whole hat."  Fforde's quirky writing style has led to comparisons with other notable writers, most frequently Douglas Adams, for similar "surrealism and satire",and Lewis Carroll, for similar "nonsense and wordplay".   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyre_Affair

Q:  How do you pronounce “dour”?  Does it have an OO or an OW sound? 

A:  These days, “dour” can properly be pronounced either way, to rhyme with “tour” or “tower.” But it wasn’t always so.  At one time, this adjective meaning stern, obstinate, or gloomy had only one pronunciation, the one with the OO sound.  A usage note in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.) says “dour, which is etymologically related to duress and endure, traditionally rhymes with tour.”  “The variant pronunciation that rhymes with sour is, however, widely used and must be considered acceptable,” American Heritage adds. 

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/04/dour.html

See a 1'12" funny video on the future of libraries at: 

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2012/06/the-future-of-libraries.html

Thanks, Julie.

Equus caballus, our modern horse, has developed over 60 million years from its earliest ancestor, Eohippus (scientific name, Hyracotherium).  Eohippus (which in the Greek language means "dawn horse") which made its way on the scene around 55 million years ago, looked more like a rabbit than the horse that we now know.  Eohippus stood about 12 to14 inches high at the shoulder, and had a pad with four toes on the forefeet and three on the hind feet.  Although archaeologists and others have found the fossil remains of Eohippus scattered throughout North America, Great Britain and Europe, only in North America did this animal thrive and develop through 20 million years into its next form, Mesohippus ("middle horse"). Mesohippus was a bit larger, the size of a collie, having longer legs and a straighter back.  Now it had three toes on each foot, but the middle toe was definitely larger.  The fourth toe on the front foot had shrunk to a splint.  At this point, all of the toes touched the ground, changing the animal's center of gravity. Also the animal's intelligence and agility had increased.  Mesohippus evolved through other stages, namely Merychippus ("rudimentary horse") and Pliohippus ("more horse") at 28 million and 12 million years respectively.  The modern horse, Equus arose in North America.  http://www.searchroots.com/Equus/history.htm

2012 horse races

138th Kentucky Derby (Kentucky) winner:  I'll Have Another

137th Preakness (Maryland) winner:  I'll Have Another
144th Belmont Stakes (New York) winner:  Union Rags

Dick Francis, who wrote more than 40 best-selling novels during his career, was also champion jockey in the 1950s and the Queen Mother's jockey.  He first published his autobiography in 1957, and his first thriller, Dead Cert, followed five years later.  Francis went on to sell some 60 million books worldwide and his novels were published into 20 languages.  They were all written in the first person and were meticulously researched and written in longhand.  Francis's most recent works, including Dead Heat and Silks, were co-authored by his son Felix.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8515165.stm

When about 1,200 glass artists and aficionados convene in Toledo this week for the Glass Arts Conference, they’ll be marking a special anniversary in the history of their favored art form. 

Fifty years ago a group of committed artists and craftsmen and women gathered here to fit the final pieces into the puzzle of how to make studio glass, those beautiful, intricate designs that can be breathtaking in their artistry.  We take glass for granted—look around you right now and you’ll likely see it in many forms—but it took almost 5,000 years for its production to become industrialized enough to be part of our everyday lives.  See pictures plus a timeline of glass from 3000 BCE to 1903 at:  http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2012/06/10/Toledo-Magazine-A-timeline-of-glass.html