cockle  A bivalve shellfish, with ribbed, grey to brown, pink or even dark blue, almost circular shell from 2.5 to 10 cm diameter found on most sea coasts and with over 200 varieties worldwide.

Publishing--a bump or wrinkle on the edge of a sheet of paper caused by damp.

The cockle is related etymologically to another mollusc, the conch: they both began life in Greek kónkhē – which meant ‘mussel’ as well as ‘conch’.  From this was formed the diminutive konkhúlion ‘small variety of conch’ – hence ‘cockle’.  The Greek word subsequently became reduced to kokhúlion, whose plural passed into medieval Latin as *cochilia. next in the chain was Old French coquille, source of the English word.  The origin of the phrase cockles of one’s heart (first recorded in the mid 17th century) are not clear:  some have claimed that the heart resembles a cockle shell, or more specifically that the fibres of the heart muscle spiral like the lines on a cockle shell, while others note a supposed resemblance of cockle to corculum, a Latin diminutive of cor ‘heart’, and others again point out that the scientific name for the cockle is Cardium, from Greek kardíā ‘heart’, but none of these explanations really carries conviction.

http://www.dictionarycentral.com/definition/cockle.html 

A cottage is, typically, a small house.  The word comes from England where it originally was a house that has a ground floor, with a first, lower storey of bedrooms which fit within the roofspace.  In many places the word cottage is used to mean a small old-fashioned house.  In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location.  In the United Kingdom the term cottage denotes small rural dwellings of traditional build, although it can also be applied to dwellings of modern construction which are designed to resemble traditional ones ("mock cottages").  Originally in the Middle Ages, cottages housed agricultural workers and their friends and families.  The term cottage denoted the dwelling of a cotter.  Thus, cottages were smaller peasant units (larger peasant units being called messuages).  In that early period, a documentary reference to a cottage would most often mean, not a small stand-alone dwelling as today, but a complete farmhouse and yard (albeit a small one).  Thus, in the Middle Ages, the word cottage (MLat cotagium) denoted not just a dwelling, but included at least a dwelling (domus) and a barn (grangia), as well as, usually, a fenced yard or piece of land enclosed by a gate (portum).  The word is probably a blend of Old English cot, cote "hut" and Old French cot "hut, cottage", from Old Norse kot "hut" and related to Middle Low German kotten (cottage, hut) .  In England and Wales the legal definition of a cottage is a small house or habitation without land.  However, originally under an Elizabethan statute, the cottage had to be built with at least 4 acres (0.02 km²; 0.01 sq mi) of land.  Traditionally the owner of the cottage and small holding would be known as a cottager.  In the Domesday Book they were referred to as Coterelli.  In Welsh a cottage is known as bwthyn and its inhabitant preswlydd.  In Scotland and parts of Northern England the equivalent to cottager would be the crofter and the term for the building and its land would be croft.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottage#Notable_cottages 

Read Conch Cottage Revival  (Carey and Jane Winfrey, self-professed old-house people, take a rickety Key West home from the 19th century into the 21st) by Jeff Book at http://www.coastalliving.com/homes/decorating/conch-cottage-revival-00400000000930/ 

July 2, 1993  Cottages Whether They Are Located In New England Or Key West, These Small, One-story Houses Evoke A Simpler Lifestyle In Which Unmatched Furniture Is Chic by Charlyne Varkonyi   Mary Emmerling`s American Country Cottages is small--a 7 1/2-by- 8-inch coffee-table book.  The fascinating collection of 23 cottages, shown in 325 color photographs, was a collaboration of friends and antiques dealers who sent Emmerling photographs of potential candidates.  They fit all categories -- lakeside to ocean view, upscale to downhome,  Mediterranean to saltbox.  Emmerling, who owned a conch cottage in Key West for a decade, says the difference between a cottage in Key West and one in New England has to do with approaches to color, light and air.  The patchwork quilts and the pine furniture in New England translate into mosquito netting and bright white furnishings in Key West.  http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-07-02/features/9301220009_1_cottages-coffee-table-mary-emmerling 

Glee is a TV series featuring students attending or graduated from the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio.  There is an actual school in Honolulu called President William McKinley High School, and usually  referred to as McKinley High School.   

Shmoop is a digital publishing company.  Find links to online test prep guides, literature guides, learning guides and Shmoop Tube at http://www.shmoop.com/ 

In its natural habitat of Central America, the poinsettia is a stiff, open shrub that can easily reach a height of 10 feet, blooming sporadically between November and March.  Like other members of the Spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), including Crown of Thorns, Castor bean, true Rubber trees and Cassava (from which we get tapioca), the poinsettia contains milky latex that discourages plant-eating animals.  The poinsettia has come a long way since Joel Poinsett, the first United States ambassador to Mexico, introduced it into our country in 1825.  Plant breeders have produced a plant that is significantly better suited to the indoors in comparison to the original types.  The poinsettia stays in “bloom” so long because the showy “flowers” are not really flowers at all, but are modified leaves called bracts found just below the small, inconspicuous yellow flowers.  Leaves are more long-lived than flowers, and can persist on the plant for many months.  http://faculty.ucc.edu/biology-ombrello/pow/poinsettia.htm 

Smithson Tennant FRS (1761-1815) was an English chemist.  Tennant is best known for his discovery of the elements iridium and osmium, which he found in the residues from the solution of platinum ores in 1803.  He also contributed to the proof of the identity of diamond and charcoal.  The mineral tennantite is named after him.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithson_Tennant

January 8, 2014   According to e-mails released under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Bergen Record and just now published, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s top deputies shut down lanes on the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee who had declined to endorse Christie’s reelection bid.  “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” Bridget Anne Kelly, one of Christie’s deputies, wrote to David Wildstein, a top Christie appointee at the Port Authority, on Aug. 14.  “Got it,” was his reply.  What resulted was a week of traffic jams that held up emergency vehicles, buses filled with school children, and thousands of innocent commuters.  http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-01-08/fort-lee-bridge-closing-scandal-shatters-chris-christies-nice-guy-image-imperils-his-presidential-campaign 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1095  January 10, 2014  On this day in 49 BC,  Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.