The origin of the saying 'Tom, Dick
and Harry' is dated
back to the sixteenth century when the names were used generically in
Elizabethan times in England. In 1555,
Shakespeare referred to the names, also in the 17th-century English theologian
John Owen used the very names at Oxford University. The phrases are used as 'every Tom, Dick and
Harry', to mean everyone whereas 'any Tom, Dick or Harry', to mean anyone. http://www.ask.com/question/where-did-the-saying-tom-dick-and-harry-come-from The
phrase is a rhetorical device known as a tricolon,
the most common form of tricolon in English is an ascending tricolon and as
such the names are always said in order of ascending syllable length. Other examples of this gradation include
"tall, dark and handsome", "hook, line and sinker",
"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly";
and so on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom,_Dick_and_Harry
The snowy egret is a small, delicate white heron
with a slender black bill, black legs, and yellow feet. http://birds.audubon.org/birds/snowy-egret
See pictures and descriptions of the
great egret, snowy egret, cattle egret and little blue heron at http://sdakotabirds.com/diffids/white_egrets.htm
Read A White Heron
by Sarah Orne Jewett, see Jewett's comments, and find notes including a link to
more information at http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/awh/heron.htm
In 2014 and 2015 there are no major holidays in
March (Easter falls in April) and August.
In 2016 there are no major holidays in April (Easter falls in March) and
August.
Between 1990 and 2020, Easter
falls 24 times in April and 7 times in March.
See table at
In 325CE the Council of Nicaea established
that Easter would be held on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring
on or after the vernal equinox. From
that point forward, the Easter date depended on the ecclesiastical
approximation of March 21 for the vernal equinox. Easter is delayed one week if the full moon is
on Sunday, which decreases the chances of it falling on the same day as the
Jewish Passover. Earliest
Easter dates in the Gregorian calendar:
March 22 in the years 1761, 1818, 2285 and 2353. Latest Easter dates in the Gregorian
calendar: April 25 in the years 1886,
1943 and 2038. There have
been a number of suggested reforms for the Easter date. For example, in 1997 the World Council of
Churches proposed a reform of the Easter calculation to replace an equation-based
method of calculating Easter with direct astronomical observation. This would have solved the Easter date
difference between churches that observe the Gregorian calendar and those that
observe the Julian calendar. The reform
was proposed to be implemented in 2001, but it is not yet adopted. Another example of a proposed reform occurred
in the United Kingdom, where the Easter Act 1928 was
established to allow the Easter date to be fixed as the first Sunday after the
second Saturday in April. However, this
law was not implemented, although it remains on the UK Statute Law Database.
Worldwide, sorghum is a food grain for humans. In the United
States, sorghum is used primarily as a feed grain for livestock. Feed value of grain sorghum is similar to
corn. The grain has more protein and fat
than corn, but is lower in vitamin A. Farmers
on the hot, dry plains from Texas to South Dakota grow and use grain sorghum
like Corn Belt farmers use corn. Large
acreages of grain sorghum are also grown in Africa and Asia in areas where the
climate is too hot and dry for corn. During
the past 25 years, the grain sorghum acreage in the U.S. has ranged from 15 to
18 million acres per year. Grain sorghum
acreage is somewhat greater than acreages for oats and barley, but considerably
less than the land area planted to corn, wheat, and soybeans. In cooler, more humid
regions, corn is usually a better choice than grain sorghum, but renewed
interest in grain sorghum occurs whenever hotter and drier than normal growing
seasons are experienced. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/sorghum.html
Sorghum: June
Grain of the Month Sorghum, a cereal grain, is the fifth
most important cereal crop in the world, largely because of its natural drought
tolerance and versatility as food, feed and fuel. In Africa and parts of Asia, sorghum is
primarily a human food product, while in the United States it is used mainly
for livestock feed and in a growing number of ethanol plants. However, the United States also has seen food
usage on the rise, thanks to the gluten-free benefits of sorghum for those with
celiac disease. You can substitute sorghum in your existing recipes. Start with recipes that use relatively small
amounts of wheat flour, such as brownies or pancakes. Substituting sorghum takes some experimenting
and patience. In the
Mideast, sorghum is made into cous-cous and flatbread; in Bangladesh it's
boiled like rice, to produce kichuri; and in Honduras, sorghum tortillas are
common. Broomcorn is a variety of sorghum introduced to the U.S. by Ben
Franklin for – you guessed it – making brooms.
Some
starches used for adhesives and papermaking are derived from sorghum. Link to recipes at http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/sorghum-june-grain-of-the-month
Fire
whirls, also known
as fire
devils, fire
tornadoes or firenadoes,
are whirlwinds of flame that may occur when intense heat and
turbulent wind conditions combine to form whirling eddies of air. These
eddies can tighten into a tornado-like structure that sucks in burning debris and
combustible gases. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firenado
Dust whirl
(Also called dancing dervish, dancing devil, devil,
satan, shaitan; and, over desert areas,
desert devil, sand auger, sand devil.) A
rapidly rotating column of air (whirlwind) over a dry and dusty or shady area,
carrying dust, leaves, and other light material picked up from the
ground. When well developed it is known
as a dust devil. Dust whirls typically form as the result of
strong convection during
sunny, hot, calm summer
afternoons. This type is generally
several meters in diameter at the base, narrowing for a short distance upward
and then expanding again, like two cones apex to apex. Their height varies; normally it is only
30–100 m, but in hot desert country
it may be as high as 1 km. Rotation may
be either clockwise or counterclockwise.
http://glossary.ametsoc.org/wiki/Dust_whirl
May 30,
2014 As many as 227 million Americans may be compelled to disclose
intimate details of their families and financial lives -- including their Social Security numbers
-- in a new national database being assembled by two federal agencies. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and
the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau posted
an April 16 Federal Register notice of
an expansion of their joint National Mortgage Database Program to include
personally identifiable information that reveals actual users, a reversal of
previously stated policy. FHFA will
manage the database and share it with CFPB. A CFPB internal planning document for 2013-17
describes the bureau as monitoring 95 percent of all mortgage transactions. FHFA officials claim the database is
essential to conducting a monthly mortgage survey required by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act
of 2008 and
to help it prepare an annual report for Congress.
Richard Pollock http://washingtonexaminer.com/new-federal-database-will-track-americans-credit-ratings-other-financial-information/article/2549064
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1156
June 2, 2014 On this date in 1835, P. T. Barnum and
his circus started their first tour of the United States.
On this date in 1896, Guglielmo Marconi applied for a patent for
his newest invention, the radio.
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