The wicked fairy godmother, a rare figure in fairy tales, is nevertheless among the best-known figures from such tales because of her appearance in one of the most widely known tales, Sleeping Beauty, and in the ballet derived from it.  The oldest version of Sleeping Beauty that has been preserved is Sun, Moon, and Talia from Giambattista Basile's Pentamerone.   This version does not feature any fairy godmothers; Talia's fate is prophesied, but is not caused by witchcraft.  Charles Perrault added the witch to his variant the story of Sleeping Beauty, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" ("La Belle au bois dormant"), published in Histoires ou contes du temps passé 1697; he did not give her a name.  The Brothers Grimm included a version, "Briar Rose", in their collected tales; similarly without a name; in Perrault's version, seven fairies were invited, and she is the eighth, and in the Grimms', twelve were invited and she is the thirteenth.   The figure of the witch appeared before Perrault's tale.  The first known appearance was in the chanson de geste Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux: the elf-king Oberon appears only dwarfish in height, and explains to Huon that an angry fairy cursed him to that size at his christening.  Madame d'Aulnoy had them appear in her fairy tales The Hind in the Wood and The Princess Mayblossom; although their roles in her tales had significant differences from Sleeping Beauty, in The Princess Mayblossom, she receives the name of "Carabosse".  At some point, this name was attached to the wicked fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty; she appears as such in Tchaikovsky's ballet of Sleeping Beauty.  In the Disney animated version of Sleeping Beauty the character of the wicked fairy is personified in Maleficent, a dark sinister being who is the "Mistress of all Evil".   She lays a curse on the princess (called Aurora here, as in Tchaikovsky's ballet) and the fairies plan to take the princess away and hide her to protect her.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_fairy_godmother

Charles Perrault (1628-1703) could have not predicted that his reputation for future generations would rest almost entirely on a slender book published in 1697 containing eight simple stories with the unassuming title:  Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals, with the added title in the frontispiece, Tales of Mother Goose.  Link to the eight tales (first is The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood) at http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault.html

"Once Upon a Dream" is a song based on Tchaikovsky's homonymous ballet The Sleeping Beauty, more specifically the piece "Grande valse villageoise (a.k.a. The Garland Waltz)", that was written in 1959 for the animated musical fantasy film Sleeping Beauty produced by Walt Disney and based on La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault and based also on Little Briar Rose by The Brothers Grimm.  It's the theme of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip and was performed by a chorus as an overture and third-reprise finale.  Mary Costa and Bill Shirley, who were cast in the roles of Princess Aurora and Prince Philip, performed the song as a duet.  The song was covered by the American girl group No Secrets in 2003 for the two-disc DVD release, and by Emily Osment in 2008 for the Platinum Edition release.  "Once Upon a Dream" was covered by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey for the dark fantasy film Maleficent (2014), which serves as a prequel to and reimagining of the original Sleeping Beauty (1959).  The song was released on January 26, 2014; it was made available as a free digital downloadduring its first week of availability by the Google Play Store.  On February 4, the digital download was made available for purchase.  Angelina Jolie, who plays the film's lead role, picked Del Rey herself to perform the song.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Dream_(Sleeping_Beauty_song)  See also http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Dream:_From_Perrault's_Sleeping_Beauty_to_Disney's_Maleficent

When Bette Midler moved to New York from Los Angeles in 1995, she was horrified by the litter strewn across the landscape.  The singer and actress not only launched a one-woman pickup operation, but also founded the enormously successful New York Restoration Project (NYRP) to revitalize neglected green spaces.  Just two decades later, NYRP has acquired 52 community gardens in underserved communities across the five boroughs and redesigned nearly half of them, enlisting residents in all phases of the work, from design to ongoing maintenance.  In addition to gardens, NYRP has expanded its mission to include planting more than 840,000 trees in partnership with the city, with a goal of one million by 2015.  The nonprofit also teamed up with Urban Air Foundation, TEN Arquitectos, and Buro Happold to design low-cost kits for modular casitas that can serve as sun- and rainproof gathering spots and also, by way of roof-mounted photovoltaic energy collectors, provide off-the-grid community nodes where neighbors can charge phones in the wake of a blackout.  And, with support from the Thompson Family Foundation and innovative porous design by architectural firm Bade Stageberg Cox, NYRP will build a boat storage facility and an outdoor classroom and science cove along the Harlem River that will host environmental-education classes.  http://www.architecturaldigest.com/celebrity-homes/2014/bette-midler-new-york-restoration-project-article

Is  throw me down the stairs my shoes a good English sentence?  The answer depends on where you live.  Many people in Newfoundland find that sentence perfectly grammatical.  By taking this quiz, you will be helping train a machine algorithm that is mapping out the differences in English grammar around the world, both in traditionally English-speaking countries and also in countries like Mexico, China, and India.  At the end, you can see the algorithm's best guess as to which English you speak as well as whether your first (native) language is English or something else.  http://www.gameswithwords.org/WhichEnglish/

Brian Gardner saw the pointy green shoots sneaking into his yard from the neighbor’s.  He’ll take care of them when he returns from Florida, he told himself.  Two weeks later, he came home to Park Boulevard in Worthington, Ohio to find a stand of bamboo 10 feet high on his side of the fence.  “It grows a foot a day,” Gardner said.  “You can actually watch it grow.”  The shoots came from next door, where bamboo canes 15 feet tall take up a third of Tena and Tom Singley’s backyard on Loveman Avenue.  The canes send out rhizomes, stems that travel horizontally for several feet just below the surface and send up shoots that sometimes appear as conelike nubs.  They’re also sprouting neighborhood discord.  “I told her to contain it but was ignored,” said Gardner, who lives behind the Singleys in the Colonial Hills neighborhood.  He took his complaint to the Worthington City Council, which is researching an ordinance requiring homeowners to contain running bamboo to their side of the fence.  “There’s no desire to ban it but to produce some regulation to encourage people to maintain it,” said City Manager Matt Greeson.  Connecticut passed a law in 2014 requiring people to plant running bamboo within thick plastic barriers sunk 2 to 3 feet into the ground.  Running bamboo cannot be planted within 40 feet of a neighbor’s property.  Violators face a $100 daily fine.  Earl Rinehart  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/06/18/bamboozled.html

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM does not usually put trash on the wall, but there are exceptions.  Among the nearly 60 rare books, manuscripts and objects on exhibit in “Marks of Genius: Treasures From the Bodleian Library” is a constellation of khaki-colored papyrus scraps retrieved about a century ago from an ancient dump outside the vanished Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus.  Over the years, excavations at the site have yielded census forms, invoices, bureaucratic correspondence and the occasional literary find — in this instance, a fragment of verse by Sappho, inscribed in Greek in the second century A.D., from the first of the nine books of poems she is known to have written.  The Sappho scraps deliver just one of many gee-whiz moments in the exhibition, which runs through September 14, 2014.  The show explores and celebrates the notion of genius as it has evolved through the millenniums, using some of the loftiest texts ever published: Magna Carta, the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, Euclid’s “Elements,” Newton’s “Principia Mathematica.”  Even though the objects on display fit neatly in one compact room, “Marks of Genius” is a wanderer’s exhibition.  A few short steps from Magna Carta, an imposing parchment document with two dangling seals, a small gem awaits: a souvenir score of Felix Mendelssohn’s “Schilflied” (“Reed Song”).  Mendelssohn, an avid amateur artist, notated the song by hand as a gift for a friend, then illustrated it with a romantic watercolor depicting the first lines of the text, by the poet Nikolaus Lenau:  “On the lake’s unruffled surface rests the moon’s fair beams.”  The sheet music falls within a section of the exhibition titled “A Touch of Genius,” which brings the exalted minds on exhibit within close range by personalizing their work.  John Donne, in a small, precise hand, dashes off a verse epistle to two noblewomen.  Elizabeth I, at 11, prepares a presentation volume for her stepmother at the time, Catherine Parr.  William Grimes  See amazing graphics at http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/13/arts/design/marks-of-genius-works-from-the-bodleian-at-the-morgan.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&_r=1  Find hours and location at http://www.themorgan.org/

A book is a version of the world.  If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.  Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)

Salman Rushdie is to be awarded an honorary literary prize for his years of outstanding work, awarded in memory of his friend, the late playwright Harold Pinter.  The author, whose works include Midnight's Children and The Moor's Last Sigh, is the recipient of the 2014 PEN/Pinter prize.  Rushdie, who spent many years under guard in a secret location after receiving death threats forThe Satanic Verses, will be given the prize at a ceremony at the British Library on October 9, 2014.  The prize was established in 2009 by English PEN, the writers' association and freedom of expression charity, and is awarded annually to a writer of outstanding literary merit.  Rushdie follows Tony Harrison, Hanif Kureishi, David Hare, Carol Ann Duffy and Tom Stoppard as a recipient.  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/salman-rushdie-wins-2014-pen-pinter-prize-for-outstanding-literary-achievement-9551303.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1164  June 20, 2014  On this date in 1782, the U.S. Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States.  On this date in 1787, Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.  On this date in 1840, Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph.