An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants.  Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils or aetherolea, or simply as the "oil of" the plant from which they were extracted, such as oil of clove.  An oil is "essential" in the sense that it carries a distinctive scent, or essence, of the plant.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_oil 

Fixed oils are the base oils used in making soaps and lotions.  Fixed oils do not evaporate like essential oil and are often called carrier oils.  See a list of fixed oils from acai* butter to wheat germ oil at:   https://www.thesage.com/catalog/PFixedOil.html

* The acai berry is an inch-long reddish, purple fruit.  It comes from the acai palm tree (Euterpe oleracea), which is native to Central and South America.

Similes and metaphors

You can tell if a phrase is a simile if it includes the words "like" or "as":  his eyes were like the sun.  The problem with similes is that they are often overused, which turns them into the dreaded cliché:  bright as a button.  Metaphors have more depth.  A metaphor, according to dictionary.com, is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something else to which it is not literally applicable. This one's from Raymond Chandler:  I bent over and took hold of the room with both hands and spun it.  When I had it nicely spinning I gave it a full swing and hit myself on the back of the head with the floor.  http://www.susanroebuck.com/2012/04/z-m-metaphors-similes-and-cliches.html

Five-spice powder

3 tablespoons cinnamon
6 star anise or 2 teaspoons anise seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons szechuan peppercorns or 1 1/2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
Combine all ingredients in blender or coffee grinder.  Blend until finely ground.  Store in airtight container.  Keeps up to 2 months.  Note:  You could "roast" the whole spices a bit for a more intense flavor in a dry frying pan-- watch closely to prevent spices from burning.  http://www.food.com/recipe/five-spice-powder-66216

Five recipes using five-spice powder  http://www.finecooking.com/item/5486/five-spice-powder

About 2,680 porcelain-steel homes were produced in America between 1949 and 1950 by the Lustron Corporation in Columbus, Ohio.  An enormous facility housed the nine-mile Lustron assembly line.  The ranch style homes usually had two or three bedrooms.  Modern appliances including dishwasher were included.  Heating was provided with a ceiling radiant system.  They cost about $10,000 - not including the lot.  The homes were shipped on a flatbed and required 350 man hours to assemble.  Most were built on a concrete base.  The porcelain coated exterior panels came in four colors:  'Maize Yellow', 'Dove gray' 'Surf Blue' and 'Desert Tan'.  The durable steel homes have survived well into the 21st Century with minimal maintenance.  All interior and exterior panels were of porcelainized steel construction.  They were designed for indefinite service without painting.  The roof shingles are porcelain-coated steel as well.  Carl Strandlund, an engineer noted for his war time metal working innovations, was the creator of Lustron Homes.  http://www.lustronconnection.org/home.html  See also:  http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/lustron.htm

Only about 3,000 of the steel-paneled ranch-style houses were made between 1948 and 1950, when the company went bankrupt amid a financial scandal and the sudden calling of a $12.5 million government loan.  But in the 18 months that Lustron operated, 32 houses were built in Toledo, according to company records.  http://www.toledoblade.com/Real-Estate/2004/07/04/Toledo-area-boasts-large-group-of-all-steel-Lustron-homes.html 

NOTE that my son and his family lived in one of these houses. 

A Lustron home is being assembled inside the Ohio History Center in Columbus and will become the focal point of a new exhibit, 1950s:  Building the American Dream beginning July 13, 2013.  http://www.ohiohistory.org/exhibits/upcoming-exhibits/1950s

Claire’s Day is Northwest Ohio’s largest free family book festival.  It is held annually in honor of Claire Lynsey Rubini, who passed away from a heart condition in 2000, when she was just ten years old.  Claire’s Day embraces all of her favorite activities, including telling stories, dancing, making crafts, but most of all, reading.  Saturday, May 18, 2013  Maumee Branch Library, 501 River Road, Maumee, Ohio  Read all about it at:  http://www.clairesday.org/

Galician Literature Day is observed in Galicia, Spain on May 17.  In the year 1991 Galician Literature Day was declared a public holiday in all Galicia.  The first celebration took place in 1963 to commemorate the centenary of Cantares gallegos, the first work written in the Galician language by Rosalía de Castro (1837–1885), who later became one of the most important poets in the history of Galicia.  Cantares gallegos was first published on May 17, 1863.

See list of Galician authors honored at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_Literature_Day

Bloomberg reporters have been monitoring how subscribers use their Bloomberg terminals, the ubiquitous computer system financial players rely on to "execute trades with vast sums of money at stake."  All the reporters had to do was "hit the 'Z' function" to see which employees of Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase — or government officials like Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke — had logged on, and even how often "they checked out corporate bond trades or equities indices."  These intrusions allowed Bloomberg reporters to tell when a beleaguered trader or partner "had gone silent on the terminal" — perhaps because he'd been fired.  http://theweek.com/article/index/244335/bloombergs-spying-scandal-is-stalking-part-of-the-companys-culture