Wednesday, October 30, 2013


Benefits of reading [infographic] from the National Reading Campaign in Canada  See outstanding graphics at  http://holykaw.alltop.com/benefits-of-reading-infographic 

loggia,  room, hall, gallery, or porch open to the air on one or more sides; it evolved in the Mediterranean region, where an open sitting room with protection from the sun was desirable.  Ancient Egyptian houses often had a loggia on their roofs or an interior loggia facing upon a court.  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/346169/loggia  See also Missing 500-Years of Loggias, Porticos Described at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112155230.htm and Loggia dei Lanzi at http://www.aviewoncities.com/florence/loggiadeilanzi.htm 

"The Library of Babel" (Spanish: La biblioteca de Babel) is a short story by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), conceiving of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all possible 410-page books of a certain format.  The story was originally published in Spanish in Borges's 1941 collection of stories El Jardín de senderos que se bifurcan (The Garden of Forking Paths).  That entire book was, in turn, included within his much-reprinted Ficciones (1944).  Two English-language translations appeared approximately simultaneously in 1962, one by James E. Irby in a diverse collection of Borges's works titled Labyrinths and the other by Anthony Kerrigan as part of a collaborative translation of the entirety of Ficciones.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel

826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.  826 Valencia was founded in 2002 by author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari.  Read more about the history of the organization.  Dave Eggers also tells the story about 826′s inspiration, early beginnings, and ensuing momentum in a 24:30 TED Talks video (My Wish:  Once Upon a School) at  http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html  Link to history of the organization at https://826valencia.org/about/  826NYC is a similar nonprofit organization located in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 

Site-specific foods
English muffins  During England's Victorian era, servants settled for these muffins, made from leftover bread and biscuit dough scraps and mashed potatoes.  When the elite got taste of the bread, they demanded more for themselves.  Muffin men became so prominent in the streets that they gave way to the popular phrase, "Oh, do you know the muffin man."

Danish  They come from Austria originally.  In 1950, when some of Denmark's bakers went on strike, Austrian ones replaced them, and they caused a frenzy when they began making danishes that swept the nation.  Even after the Danish bakers returned, they were swamped with orders for the sweet delicacy.

French toast  This breakfast dish is older than you might think, going all the way back to Medieval times, long before France was even founded.  Recipes through the ages refer to it as both "Spanish Toast" and "German Toast."  One popular legend states that the "French" in the name doesn't refer to the nation, rather to an innkeeper named Joseph French.

Brazil nuts  While the tree, Bertholletia excelsa, that produces these big nuts can be found in Brazil, it's native to all South American countries, and it's Bolivia that produces the most of them.  The tree grows wild in the Amazon River basin.  How Brazil in particular got attached to the nuts is anyone's guess.

California roll  It was sushi L.A.-based chef Ichiro Mashita of Tokyo Kaikan who first used avocado to replace a type of tuna that was unavailable in that region.  Many credit Mashita for also first sticking the rice on the outside of the roll, what would become typical American-style sushi.

Long Island iced tea  Bob "Rosebud" Butt invented the drink back in the 1970s in the Hamptons in New York, while he was a bartender.  Mr. Butt poured small selections of different alcoholic drinks together, and he said that the drink just took off from there.  http://www.bigstockphoto.com/blog/how-french-toast-and-8-other-site-specific-foods-got-their-names 

Cyril McNeile, MC (born Herman Cyril McNeile; 1888–1937) was a British soldier and author.  During the First World War he wrote short stories based on his experiences in the trenches with the Royal Engineers.  These were published in the Daily Mail under the pseudonym Sapper, the nickname of his regiment, and were later published as collections through Hodder & Stoughton.   McNeile also wrote a series of articles titled The Making of an Officer, which appeared under the initials C. N., in five issues of The Times between 8 and 14 June 1916; these were also subsequently collected together and published.  During the course of the war, McNeile wrote more than 80 collected and uncollected stories.  McNeile continued writing after he left the army in 1919, although he stopped writing war stories and began to publish thrillers.  In 1920 he published Bulldog Drummond, whose eponymous hero became his best-known creation.  The character was based on McNeile himself, his idea of an English gentleman and his friend Gerard Fairlie.  McNeile wrote ten Bulldog Drummond novels, as well as three plays and a screenplay.  McNeile interspersed his Drummond work with other novels and story collections, including two characters who appeared as protagonists in their own works, Jim Maitland and Ronald Standish.  

There's one state highway running through Myrtle, Mo.  It's a sleepy town in the Ozarks, population about 300.  There's no bank or restaurant here, but enormous oak and persimmon trees loom over a small stone building right next to the road.  Half of it is a post office; the other half, a one-room public library.  Rachel Reynolds Luster took over this branch four months ago with the goal of creating a learning hub.  She calls herself a curator, not just a librarian.  Her first task?  Filtering out some of the favorites of the previous librarian.  "It's been interesting working this transition with her," Luster says.  "She was quite upset that the cooking magazines were gone.  But we recycled them all, and we kept some holiday cookie editions."  Luster scanned her shelves for the one book she felt every library must have:  the Greek epic The Odyssey.  "I looked, and we didn't have one — no library in our system had one," she says.  While the Myrtle library receives taxpayer money, it gets only $200 a month for books and supplies.  So Luster has used social media to garner donations from people around the state.  She's already secured about 1,000 new books.  She's one of thousands of rural librarians trying to bring a sense of community, learning and connectedness to their isolated areas.  The Institute of Museum and Library Services estimates that nearly half of America's public libraries are rural, and many of those are staffed by only one or two people.  http://www.npr.org/2013/10/21/235483140/turning-a-page-inside-a-rural-one-room-library?ft=1&f=1008 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123000 libraries and 17500 museums.  The mission of IMLS is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement.  http://www.imls.gov/ 

How to get the most out of library e-books via the right gadget, text to speech, and otherwise bhttp://www.llrx.com/features/ebookstools.htm

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