Monday, June 16, 2014

diction  (1)  The choice and use of words in speech or writing.  (2)  A way of speaking, usually judged in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocutionhttp://grammar.about.com/od/d/g/disctionterm.htm   "Is your food tasting OK?"  Is this proper diction?  "You are tasting" is listed as present indicative at http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/English/taste.html  So this expression seems proper.  We are conditioned to be polite and to answer the question in a positive way.  However, the phrase is awkward, overused and annoying to many.  OK is a wishy-washy word--it can mean good or not so good.   Thank you, muse reader.

'Do' verbs can be divided into 'transitive' verbs requiring direct objects (make, have, etc.) and 'intransitive' verbs (swim, cry, etc.) that don't take objects and 'ditransitive' verbs that can go either way. (eat, play, etc.)  Taste, smell and feel are examples of verbs that can be both 'be' verbs AND 'do' verbs.  

Umami is one of the five basic tastes (together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty).  A loanword from the Japanese umami can be translated as "pleasant savory taste".  This particular writing was chosen by Professor Kikunae Ikeda from umai "delicious" and mi "taste".  Scientists have debated whether umami was a basic taste since Kikunae Ikeda first proposed its existence in 1908.  In 1985, the term umami was recognized as the scientific term to describe the taste of glutamates and nucleotides at the first Umami International Symposium in Hawaii.  Umami represents the taste of the amino acid L-glutamate and 5’-ribonucleotides such as guanosine monophosphate (GMP) and inosine monophosphate (IMP).  It can be described as a pleasant "brothy" or "meaty" taste with a long lasting, mouthwatering and coating sensation over the tongue.  Its effect is to balance taste and round out the overall flavor of a dish.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami  See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate

Paintings mentioned in Donna Tartt's novel, The Goldfinch 
Young Man Handling a Skull (Vanitas) was painted by Frans Hals between 1626 and 1628.  "His right hand reaches towards us as he gestures.  The artist has skillfully foreshortened his hand in such a way that it seems to be bursting out of the canvas towards us.  In his left hand is the skull, glowing in comparison to the darkness of the boy’s palm and clothes.  The light comes from the left hand side of the painting causing a dark shadow on one side of the boy’s face."
The Anatomy lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp  Rembrandt painted this group portrait of seven surgeons and the physician Nicolaes Tulp in 1632.  The painting is one of a series of group portraits that were made for the board room of the Guild of Surgeons, the earliest of which dates from 1603.  An anatomy piece of this kind has a central motif, an anatomy lesson, and a protagonist, the praelector or reader.  This painting was occasioned by the anatomy lesson that Tulp gave in January 1632.   http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/en/rembrandt/belangrijkste-werken/de-anatomische-les-van-dr-nicolaes-tulp  
The Goldfinch, 1654 by Carel Fabritius  In the early 1640s Fabritius had been the pupil of Rembrandt, and it must have been the master's chiaroscuro, employed as a subtle method of defining form through the inflection of light which impressed him most deeply.  Rembrandt's chiaroscuro was basically tonal, using intensities of light on a scale varying from very dark to very bright.  The paintings of Fabritius, of which The Goldfinch is a brilliant example, maintain an overall brightness, a golden glow; yet within the strong light, light is still more inflected--not by toning it down or intensifying it but by tingeing it with subtle hues of colour.  It has been suggested that this painting, rather than fitting in a cabinet or interior window, may have served as a house sign for a family in The Hague whose name, De Putter, is Dutch for goldfinch.  http://www.wga.hu/html_m/f/fabritiu/carel/goldfinc.html

June 12, 2014  Illinois may have a budding celebrity chef — or politician — on its hands.  Between the two careers, Tess Boghossian, a 12-year-old girl from Palatine and the state's winner in first lady Michelle Obama's annual Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, would prefer to be a chef.  But Tess' fondness for the kitchen is well matched by her love of books and American history, especially presidents .  Based on the description of her room, covered in pictures of Abe Lincoln, and her last birthday celebration visiting Lincoln's home and museum, it's not hard to tell who her favorite is.  Just check out her winning dish: Lincoln's inaugural soup.  It earned her a seat at the presidential dinner table with Obama and the 53 other winners, one from each state, three territories and the District of Columbia, on July 18.  Winners were announced this week.  "(Tess' recipe) stood out right off the bat because it was so creative, had historical, presidential and local ties, and was healthy and delicious to boot," Tanya Steel, creator of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge and a special projects contributor for Epicurious, wrote in an email.  After learning about Epicurious' and the first lady's annual contest searching for delicious and healthy recipes created by kids ages 8 to 11, Tess (who was 11 at the time of the contest) set out to make a dish even Honest Abe would appreciate.  Researching food that sat on the 16th president's plate, she discovered a vegetable-based brunoise soup served at his inauguration.  In a matter of days, the young cook with the help of her mother, Debbie Boghossian, had perfected her own interpretation with onion, carrots, quinoa, asparagus, green beans, chicken, white beans, chicken broth and parsnip, her favorite vegetable.  Debbie said they wanted to pay tribute to Lincoln's inauguration, but incorporate more nutritional value by adding whole grains and lean protein.  Lindsay Friedman  http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/ct-food-0618-obama-healthy-challenge-20140617,0,2754705.story

June 13, 2014  Rejecting government fears of a “crime-friendly Internet,” the Supreme Court of Canada said anonymity is vital to personal privacy in the digital era.  It told police they need a judge’s permission before asking Internet providers for basic information that would identify their customers – such as a suspected child pornographer at the heart of a 2007 Saskatchewan investigation.  Legal observers called the unanimous ruling a privacy landmark, with implications for everything from child porn investigations to snooping by national security agencies to police powers under the Conservative government’s cyberbullying bill.  David Fraser, a Halifax privacy lawyer, said that "the message to police is 'Come back with a warrant;' customers' names and addresses are not as innocuous as police might think, or want us to believe."  The Conservative government would not say whether it would amend proposed laws that expand the sharing of that kind of private information.  Sean Fine  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/supreme-court-privacy/article19155295/

What was fake on the Internet this week, 15th installment   Japan’s soccer team did not arrive at the World Cup in a Pokemon-plastered plane.  The Amazonian rainforest was not defaced for England’s World Cup team.  Paddy Power, the Irish bookmaker that’s become a household name thanks to a series of controversial viral marketing stunts, released a photo last weekend of a supportive message by England’s World Cup team … carved into the Amazon.  U.S. stores will still take coupons after July 1.   Read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/13/what-was-fake-on-the-internet-this-week-turing-tests-pokemon-planes-and-angry-stingrays/ 

"Inspired by my friend Om’s regular series of “Seven stories to read this weekend” posts, I thought I would collect some of the pieces of writing that have impressed me and/or made me think this week . . . "  Thank you, muse reader, for reminding us of http://gigaom.com/2014/06/14/seven-things-i-came-across-this-week-that-are-worth-reading/?utm_source=GeneralUsers&utm_campaign=6459615572-c:tec,cld,apl,dta,mdad:06-15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1dd83065c6-6459615572-99283785


http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1162  June 16, 2014  On this date in 1816, Lord Byron read Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori.  His challenge that each guest write a ghost story culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.  On this date in 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.

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