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 elocution. http://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/
Seven things
I came across this week that are worth reading by Mathew Ingram
"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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