The Diary of a Nobody is an English comic novel
written by the brothers George and Weedon
Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in Punch
magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book form, with extended text and
added illustrations, in 1892. The Diary
records the daily events in the lives of a London clerk, Charles
Pooter, his wife Carrie, his son Lupin, and numerous friends and acquaintances
over a period of 15 months. Before their collaboration on the Diary, the brothers each pursued
successful careers on the stage. George
originated nine of the principal comedian roles in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas over 12 years from
1877 to 1889. He also established a
national reputation as a piano sketch
entertainer and wrote a large number of songs and comic pieces. Weedon, before embarking on his stage career,
had worked as an artist and illustrator. The Diary was the brothers' only mature
collaboration. Most of its humour
derives from Charles Pooter's unconscious and unwarranted sense of his own
importance, and the frequency with which this delusion is punctured by gaffes
and minor social humiliations. In an era
of rising expectations within the lower-middle classes, the daily routines and
modest ambitions described in the Diary were instantly recognised by its
contemporary readers, and provided later generations with a glimpse of the past
that it became fashionable to imitate. Although
its initial public reception was muted, the Diary came to be recognised
by critics as a classic work of humour, and it has never been out of print. It helped to establish a genre of humorous
popular fiction based on lower or lower-middle class aspirations, and was the
forerunner of numerous fictitious diary novels in the later 20th century. The Diary has been the subject of
several stage and screen adaptations, including Ken Russell's
"silent film" treatment of 1964, a four-part TV film scripted by Andrew Davies in 2007, and a widely praised
stage version in 2011, in which an all-male cast of three played all the parts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Nobody
Names of U.S. states with connection to England
#1 Delaware named
to honor Thomas West, 3rd (or 12th) baron,
often named in history books simply as Lord
Delaware or Lord De la Warr. He
served as governor of the Jamestown
Colony, and the Delaware Bay was named after him.
#2 Pennsylvania named
to honor Admiral William Penn and his son, William Penn,
Pennsylvania's founder.
#3 New Jersey James.
Duke of York, named the colony New
Jersey to honor Sir George Carteret, who had been the Governor of Jersey, a
British island in the English Channel.
#4 Georgia named
to honor King George II of England.#7 Maryland named to honor the Queen consort Henrietta Maria (1609-1669), the wife of Britain's King Charles I
#8 South Carolina named to honor King Charles I (Carolus is Latin for Charles).
#9 New Hampshire named for Hampshire, England, by Captain John Mason.
#10 Virginia named for Queen Elizabeth I of England (she was known as the Virgin Queen).
#11 New York The English took over of the area that had been called "New Netherland" in 1664, and renamed it New York to honor the Duke of York (York is a city in England).
#12 North Carolina North Carolina was named to honor King Charles I (Carolus is Latin for Charles).
#35 West Virginia West Virginia was named for Queen Elizabeth I of England (she was known as the Virgin Queen). Sir Walter Raleigh may have suggested this name around 1584.
The Constitution of the
United States of America: Analysis and
Interpretation (popularly known as the Constitution Annotated) and including analysis of Supreme Court
cases decided through June 26, 2013 contains legal analysis and
interpretation of the United States Constitution, based primarily on Supreme
Court case law. This regularly updated
resource is especially useful when researching the constitutional implications
of a specific issue or topic. The Featured
Topics and Cases page highlights recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that
demonstrate pivotal interpretations of the Constitution's provisions. http://beta.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/
Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading
and daydreaming,
a lecture explaining why using our
imaginations, and providing for others to use theirs, is an obligation for all
citizens Fiction
has two uses. Firstly, it's a gateway
drug to reading. The drive to know what
happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it's
hard, because someone's in trouble and you have to know how it's all going to
end … that's a very real drive. And it
forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is
pleasurable. Once you learn that, you're
on the road to reading everything. And
reading is key. Fiction can show you a
different world. It can take you
somewhere you've never been. Once you've
visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely
content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented
people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them
different. I worry that here in the 21st century
people misunderstand what libraries are and the purpose of them. If you perceive a library as a shelf of books,
it may seem antiquated or outdated in a world in which most, but not all, books
in print exist digitally. But that is to
miss the point fundamentally. I think it has to do with
nature of information. Information has
value, and the right information has enormous value. For all of human history, we have lived in a
time of information scarcity, and having the needed information was always
important, and always worth something: when to plant crops, where to find things,
maps and histories and stories – they were always good for a meal and company. Information was a valuable thing, and those
who had it or could obtain it could charge for that service. In the last few years, we've moved from an
information-scarce economy to one driven by an information glut. Read the entire lecture at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming
'Rip and tuck'--something
akin to 'fast and loose'--is first found in James Kirke Paulding's Westward
ho!, 1832: "There we were at
rip and tuck, up one tree and down another." The first known usage of 'nip and tuck' comes from an 1845 edition of The American Whig
Review: "The boys used to
say, it was nip and tuck between Jack... and Castro, who would do the most
foolhardy things." I have found the
expression in print a little earlier than that, although just as a name rather
than an expression that implies the 'close result' meaning. That is is the Milwaukie Sentinel,
September 1843. The paper reported on
the suggestion that various adjoining mineworkings in the Wisconsin goldfields
should be merged. One of the sub-fields
was call 'Nip and Tuck'. Why 'nip' and
why 'tuck'? There are several meanings
of both words but none of them suggests anything that relates directly to any
sort of close race or result. The phrase
is somewhat similar to 'neck and neck', which has virtually the same meaning. It is possible, although I'd admit, entirely
speculative, that 'nip and tuck' is a deliberately garbled version of 'neck and
neck'. The phrase was later appropriated
as the name of the minor cosmetic surgery 'skin-tightening'. Gary Martin
At first glance
— and even, quite frankly, after extended contemplation — there is little to
hint that the quince is one of the most delicious of fall's fruits. It is rough-hewn and blocky in appearance,
like someone's first woodworking project gone horribly wrong. And should you make the mistake of taking a
bite of it raw, that's kind of how it tastes too. But you know about judging things on first
impressions. Take that same quince, give
it a little careful tending and you'll find a fruit that is utterly
transformed. Cook quince — slowly and
gently, bathed in just a little bit of sugar syrup — and the flesh that was
once wooden and tannic turns a lovely rose hue, with a silky texture and a subtly
sweet, spicy flavor that recalls apples and pears baked with cinnamon and
clove. The traditional way to cook a
quince is by poaching it in spiced simple syrup. That's easy enough, but I've come to favor a
slightly different technique from my old friend Deborah Madison's cookbook
"Seasonal Fruit Desserts." She
bakes them in a syrup made partly with white wine and spiced with cinnamon,
clove and cardamom along with tangerine or orange zest. It seems to me when baked this way, quince
takes less time to cook through, and it achieves that perfect rosy color more
reliably. Plus, there's that nice little
bit of caramelization that the edges pick up. Mmmm, caramelized quince syrup. Russ Parsons
Link to recipe for candied quince and find tips for using cooked quince
at: http://www.latimes.com/food/la-fo-calcook-20131012,0,4350326.story
Party affiliations, 2004-2013 Are you a Republican
or a Democrat, or an independent? If you
are an independent, do you lean towards Republicans or Democrats? See Gallup poll results and link to Gallup
news stories at http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
Some books
are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and
digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read,
but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and
attention. Sir
Francis Bacon English author, courtier, & philosopher
(1561-1626) http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2856.html
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