potato 

1560s, from Spanish patata, from Carib (Haiti) batata "sweet potato."  Sweet potatoes were first to be introduced to Europe; in cultivation in Spain by mid-16c.; in Virginia by 1648.  Early 16c. Portuguese traders carried the crop to all their shipping ports and the sweet potato was quickly adopted from Africa to India and Java.  The name later (1590s) was extended to the common white potato, from Peru, which was at first (mistakenly) called Virginia potato, or, because at first it was of minor importance compared to the sweet potato, bastard potato.  Spanish invaders in Peru began to use white potatoes as cheap food for sailors 1530s.  The first potato from South America reached Pope Paul III in 1540; grown in France at first as an ornamental plant.   According to popular tradition, introduced to Ireland 1565 by John Hawkins.  Brought to England from Colombia by Sir Thomas Herriot, 1586.  The French is pomme de terre, literally "earth-apple;" a Swedish dialectal word for "potato" is jordpäron, literally "earth-pear."  Colloquial pronunciation tater is attested in print from 1759.  To drop (something) like a hot potato is from 1846.  Children's counting-out rhyme that begins one potato, two potato first recorded 1885 in Canada.   http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=potato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant (Solanum lycopersicum) or the edible, typically red, fruit that it bears.  Having originated in America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler climates.  The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks.  While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion.  The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.  The tomato belongs to the nightshade family.  The plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its native habitat, although often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual.  The scientific species epithet lycopersicum means "wolf peach", and comes from German werewolf myths.  These said that deadly nightshade was used to summon werewolves, so the tomato's similar, but much larger, fruit was called the "wolf peach" when it arrived in Europe.  The Aztecs called the fruit xitomatl (pronounced [ʃiːˈtomatɬ]), meaning plump thing with a navel.  Other Mesoamerican peoples, including the Nahuas, took the name as tomatl, from which most western European languages derived their names for "tomato".  However, the Italian word, pomodoro (from pomo d'oro  "apple of gold") was borrowed into Polish, and via Russian, into several other languages.  Similarly, the now rare German term Paradeisapfel (for "apple of paradise") is still heard in the form paradeiser in the Bavarian and Austrian dialects, and was borrowed into modern Hungarian, Slovenian and Serbian.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

 

·         Libbey Inc., headquartered in Toledo, recently donated 2,000 pieces of glassware to the Toledo   Zoo's catering department. 

·         Wild Walkabout (Australia comes to your zoo):  May 24-September 2
·         Aboriginal art (over 100 works by aboriginal Australian artists) at Toledo Museum of Art: 
April 14-July 18
·         An estimated 3/4 of the world's population relies mainly on plants and plant extracts for health care.  In the U.S., about 40% of all prescribed medicines contain chemicals derived from plants.  Only about 2% of the estimated 250,000 species of plants have been examined for possible use in the manufacture of medicines.
Safari, the official magazine of the Toledo Zoo, vol. 22, no. 1, Spring 2013

With a $1.5 million gift to New York's Center for Jewish History, Amy Goldman Fowler is proving the adage "like mother, like daughter."  The donation, made from the Lillian Goldman Charitable Trust, is to establish a reference services division that complements the Center for Jewish History's established Lillian Goldman Reading Room.    "Lillian had a deep commitment to Jewish history, to libraries and archives, to the preservation and transmission of knowledge.  So do I," explains Dr. Goldman Fowler, 58 years old, and a resident of Manhattan and Rhinebeck, N.Y.  The Center for Jewish History is the home of the library and research collections of the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.  The center's resources include 500,000 volumes and 100 million archival documents that span some 600 years of history.  The center opened in 2000.  In making named gifts in her mother's honor, Dr. Goldman Fowler says that there isn't a lot of guesswork in what types of charities to support as she and her mother were "generally on the same wavelength" when it came to worthy causes. Mutual interests include libraries, reproductive health and public television.  "It's all about access and education," explains Dr. Goldman Fowler.  One other area of interest shared by mother and daughter is gardening.  Although she's a clinical psychologist by trade, Dr. Goldman Fowler has for decades devoted her time to gardening and advocating for the preservation of heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables.  Lillian Goldman loved tomatoes and roses, and Dr. Goldman Fowler has a passion for vegetables, too, as well as a small rose garden.  To honor this shared interest, Dr. Goldman Fowler supports public gardens, too.  The Lillian and Amy Goldman Stone Mill at the New York Botanical Garden opened in 2010 and there is a fountain at the garden named for Lillian Goldman.  "She appreciated beauty wherever it could be found," says Dr. Goldman Fowler of her mother.  Melanie Grayce West  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324048904578320603006606108.html?mod=djemITP_hgsp 

Mar. 13, 2013  Packed into Bexley, Ohio's 2.5 square miles are more maples, oaks and pines than there are people.  The leafy cover is so thick along some city streets that a woman once told the city council she walked a block in a rainstorm without feeling a single drop.  “We’re very proud of our trees and our landscape and our forestry,” said resident Ginny Salamy.  “ And we just want the city of Columbus ... and also the United States to know about it.”  So Salamy is leading an effort to have the city — the entirety of Bexley — declared an arboretum.  The designation typically is attached to a plot of land dedicated to trees, but Salamy said Bexley fits the criteria for Level 2 accreditation established by the Morton Register of Arboreta, an Illinois-based arboretum accreditation program:  It has more than 100 kinds of woody plants, an organizational plan for the arboretum, staff and volunteer support, public access and educational programs.  If Bexley gains accreditation, it would be a first.  Nicole Cavender, the vice president of science and conservation at the Morton Arboretum, which coordinates the register, said no city in the country had applied to be an arboretum, though a city in Colorado has expressed interest.  Salamy, the chairwoman of the Bexley Arboretum Committee, submitted the city’s paperwork yesterday.  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/13/tree-loving-bexley-asks-to-be-declared-an-arboretum.html 

Philip Milton Roth (born March 19, 1933) is an American novelist.  See his biography, lists of books and awards at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Roth

As a way of commemorating Philip Roth’s 80th birthday, the Newark Preservation and Landmarks committee is offering a $35 bus tour called “Philip Roth’s Newark.”  Visitors will get a tour of “places recalled in Mr. Roth’s books” such as Washington Park, the Essex County Courthouse and “various spots in the Weequahic neighborhood where Mr. Roth was born and raised.” 

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http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/philip-roths-newark.html