Friday, September 6, 2013


nick of time phrase origin
Prior to the 16th century there was another expression used to convey that meaning - 'pudding time'. This relates to the fact that pudding was the dish served first at mediaeval mealtimes.  To arrive at pudding time was to arrive at the start of the meal, just in time to eat.  Pudding was then a savoury dish - a form of sausage or haggis (see also the proof is in the pudding).  Pudding time is first referred to in print in John Heywood's invaluable glossary A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546:  This geare comth euen in puddyng time ryghtly.  That seems a perfectly serviceable idiom, so why did the Tudors change it to 'the nick of time'?  The motivation appears to be the desire to express a finer degree of timing than the vague 'around the beginning of the meal'.  The nick that was being referred to was a notch or small cut and was synonymous with precision.  Such notches were used on 'tally' sticks to measure or keep score.  Also, during the 16th century, pudding began being used as the name of sweet dishes and they were usually served at the end of the meal.  As this trend continued 'pudding time' being used to mean 'in good time' made less and less sense.  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-the-nick-of-time.html 

April 26, 2012  from the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
While John Grisham is best known for his legal thrillers, for the past 10 years he has branched out and written in several additional genres.  He has written a Christmas book (Skipping Christmas), a book about football (Playing for Pizza), and even a children’s series (Theodore Boone).   In his latest book, Calico Joe, Grisham takes his first crack at a novel about baseball.  Grisham got the inspiration for the novel from the story of Ray Chapman; a player for the Cleveland Indians who was killed after being hit by a pitch in a major league baseball game in 1920.  While I recommend Calico Joe as a fun read, there is a book written about the Chapman incident that I consider one of best narrative nonfiction books about baseball that I’ve read.  It is called The Pitch that Killed by Mike Sowell.  Thad Hartman  http://tscpl.org/sports/calico-joe-john-grisham-and-ray-chapman/ 

Walt Dropo (1923-2010), nicknamed "Moose", was an American college basketball standout and a professional baseball first baseman.  During a 13-year career in Major League Baseball, he played for the Boston Red Sox (1949–1952), Detroit Tigers (1952–1954), Chicago White Sox (1955–1958), Cincinnati Redlegs (1958–1959) and Baltimore Orioles (1959–1961).  Read more of his story at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Dropo  Walt Dropo is mentioned in the novel Calico Joe. 

Largest volcano on Earth found, scientists say by Lateef Mungin, CNN  updated 6:09 AM EDT, Fri September 6, 2013    An underwater volcano dubbed Tamu Massif was found some 1,000 miles east of Japan, says William Sager, a professor at the University of Houston, who led a team of scientists in the discovery.  The volcano is about the size of the state of New Mexico and is among the largest in the solar system, Sager says.  Tamu Massif covers an area of about 120,000 square miles. In comparison, the largest active volcano on Earth, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, is about 2,000 square miles, Sager says.  Tamu Massif is believed to be about 145 million years old, and became inactive within a few million years after it was formed.  The volcano was partly named in honor of Texas A&M University, where Sager worked for 29 years before moving to the University of Houston. Tamu is the university's abbreviation while massif is the French word for "massive" and a scientific term for a large mountain mass, according to Sager. 

A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO  Southeast Ohio  August 30 and 31, 2013

Inn at Honey Run, Millersburg  http://www.innathoneyrun.com/  "Nestled in the rolling hills of the Ohio Amish Country, The Inn at Honey Run is a serene oasis of nature and wildlife, comfort and privacy, casual upscale dining and warm hospitality."

German Culture Center, Walnut Creek  http://www.germanculturemuseum.com/  bikes:  wood, carriage cycle (three-wheel) and "eccentric" or "clown" with an off-center wheel;  restored surrey originally belonging to John D. Rockefeller about 1860;  exhibits of old clothes and household items; informational posters and signs

Warther Museum, Dover  http://www.warthers.com/  models of trains carved from ebony (second hardest wood) and ivory, button and arrowhead collections mounted in amazing designs; the home, museum, and a knife factory family-owned since 1902 may be viewed during tours

drives through rolling countryside visiting Winesburg, Sugarcreek and Berlin 

Read Winesburg, Ohio, A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life by Sherwood Anderson at:  http://www.bartleby.com/156/
 
For more Ohioana, read works of Helen Hooven Santmyer, who was born in Cincinnati and raised in its neighboring town of Xenia, Ohio.  Santmyer’s beloved Xenia is ubiquitous in her prose, much of it praising the subtle charms of the southwestern Ohio town.  In fact, the novel that made her famous, …And Ladies of the Club, is named after a formidable organization founded more than a hundred years ago:  The Xenia Woman’s Club.  Although it depicts the fictional Ohio town of Waynesboro (based on Xenia), …And Ladies of the Club weaves the lives of its characters into the real history of Ohio and the nation.  Santmyer’s personal memoir, Ohio Town, was published in 1962.  Her early experiences in Xenia form the basis for this collection of essays.  http://www.ohioana-authors.org/santmyer/ohio_connection.php
 
The Budget, a 123-year-old weekly newspaper, which carries the news of Amish and Mennonite communities, from Diagonal, Iowa to the three Minnesota outposts of Bertha, Clarissa and Lenora. They write about who got married, who went to church, who received dentures—and how 11 chickens went missing when Toby Schrocks of Cisne, Ill., forgot to close the chicken-house door.  While many newspapers are struggling and competing with the Internet, the Budget isn't.  Its 18,000 subscribers for the most part don't text, email, have computers or smartphones.  They use the Budget, which is mailed to their homes, to keep them informed, post notices or exchange helpful hints.  One woman had 400 pounds of beets, which she washed in her wringer washer.  "It worked very well," she reported.  Others ask fellow readers to send get well cards to someone in the hospital or birthday wishes to an aging and lonely widow.  "It's like someone talking over the back fence to a neighbor," says Budget publisher Keith Rathbun.  Mr. Rathbun, who isn't Amish, covered sports and put out an alternative entertainment weekly before coming in 2000 to the Budget.  The paper also includes a small section about goings-on in the village of Sugarcreek, Ohio such as high school sports and council news.  The Budget runs about 500 letters a week on 44 to 46 pages that contain no photos.  It costs $45 a year; newlyweds pay $42.  It does have competition.  Die Botschaft—German for the Message—costs $44 a year, has a circulation of about 12,000 and also consists of letters and reports from contributors.  It's a more conservative alternative to the Budget, which some Amish readers thought was too liberal, say Amish scholars.  Clare Ansberry  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323608504579025273046278380.html?mod=djemITP_h

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