The largest ever Vancouver Writers Fest is happening this fall with authors ranging from the international — including Norway’s Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ireland’s Eimear McBride and Iceland’s Sjon — to the hyper local — such as Steven Galloway, Caroline Adderson and Ian Weir.  “For me, this is a very international festival,” said Hal Wake, festival artistic director.  This national and international lineup reaffirms our role at the Writers Fest to introduce some of the most significant writers in the world to readers who may only have had a passing knowledge of them.  We love to present authors who have achieved success alongside brilliant new writers who are about to become the buzz of the literary world.”  More than 100 authors will be in Vancouver participating in about 86 events Oct. 21 to 26, 2014 including panel discussions, readings, a literary cabaret and other events.  Other notable authors include Colm Toibin, who will appear in conversation in the event’s finale with author Jane Smiley.  Tracy Sherlock  http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/Vancouver+Writers+Fest+This+year+writing+writ+large/10121665/story.html

The female name of Marion is a diminutive form for Mary--the word "marionette" means "little Mary".  Puppets have been traced back to 2000 BC Egypt, as well as dolls found in tombs dating back to Greek and Roman times.  Japan and India also have a history of early puppetry.  More modern locations famous for puppetry include the Czech Republic and Austria.

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/From-Puppets-to-Muppets-345646.html

The curtain rises in a quaint theater in Prague's tourist hub to reveal a sly libertine nobleman, Don Giovanni, trying to carry off Donna Anna, the Commandant's daughter.  Anna resists, and Giovanni emerges from the Commandant's palace, pursued by Anna, who wants him punished.  Her father rushes to help and is killed by Giovanni.  This is the first of many dramatic and comical scenes in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni, composed as a gift to Prague.  When Mozart wrote the tale of the incorrigible lothario, chances are he envisioned a grandiose production filled with dramatic effects, impassioned scenes and larger-than-life characters.  He probably did not expect those larger-than-life characters to be a mere 2 feet tall and carved from wood — marionettes, to be exact.  I caught this absurdist and amusing production of Don Giovanni at the National Marionette Theater in Prague, which staged the city's first marionette version of the Mozart opera in 1991 and has since performed it 3,000 times.  Marionette operas and theater are a prominent part of Prague's contemporary arts and culture scene, but they are also rooted in a long tradition going back to the 12th century, when marionettes were used in religious ceremonies and folk customs.  Today they're part of the city's tourist industry too. You can barely wander down a street without encountering wooden stringed puppets beckoning you to watch them dance or take them home as a pricey souvenir.  These marionettes, waiting to be brought to life at nearly every corner, also add to the visitor's sense that Prague is a fairy tale come to life, with its castles, romantic bridges, cobblestoned streets and the sounds of Vivaldi ringing out from church courtyards.  "Puppets are to Prague what pizza is to Rome," says puppeteer Vlad Brodsky.  Apparently Rome, or rather Italy, played a part in forming Prague's puppetry history.  In the 16th century, traveling comedians from Germany and Austria began performing puppet shows at Czech markets and in houses of the nobility.  A century later, Italian string marionettes also migrated here and started appearing in theaters.  Charmaine Noronha  http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-10-27-prague-puppet-shows_N.htm?csp=34

There is a National Marionette Theatre in the United States owned and operated by the Syrotiak family of Brattleboro, Vermont.  Read about it and see pictures at http://www.nmtshow.com/aboutus.html

Reader feedback:  Don't know if you've ever covered "hyperpalatables."  "These foods are deliberately engineered in such a way that they surpass the reward properties of traditional foods, such as vegetables, fruits, and nuts.  Food chemists achieve this by suffusing products with increased levels of fat, sugar, flavors, and food additives."

Here are some foods deliberately designed to hook you at the first whiff or taste:  1. Soft drinks  2. Cured Meats  3. Microwave Popcorn  4. Salty, Roasted Snacks  5. All Fast Food  Extracted from article by Martha Rosenberg originally appearing on AlterNet http://www.salon.com/2014/06/07/5_unhealthy_foods_engineered_to_be_addictive_partner/  See also How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/health/23well.html

Most Americans know nothing of Francis Scott Key, except for the story of how he came to write our national anthem.  Much of his prominence during his life, however, came from his work as a lawyer.  He served as U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. from 1833-1841, practiced in the federal courts, and argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.  He enjoyed the respect of peers and those in high public office.  President Andrew Jackson, for example, called upon him to travel to Alabama to negotiate a land dispute.  Francis Scott Key also had a sense of humor, and some of his poems contain humorous rhymes and puns, as illustrated in the lines below, from a poem addressed to a judge.

“May it please your honor to hear the petition
Of a poor old mare in a miserable condition,
Who has come this cold night to beg that your honor
Will consider her ease and take pity upon her.
Her master has turned her out in the street,
And the stones are too hard to lie down on, or eat;
Entertainment for horses she sees every where,
But, alas! there is none, as it seems, for a mare.
She has wandered about, cold, hungry, and weary,
And can’t even get in the Penitentiary.”

from Petition for a Habeas Corpus
to the Honorable James Sewall Morsell…

http://baltimoreauthors.ubalt.edu/writers/fscottkey.htm  See also http://www.legallanguage.com/resources/poems/starspangledbanner/

Royal and Ancient Golf Club Votes to Admit Female Members by Karen Crouse  As evening descended here, on the same day Scots voted on whether to declare independence from the United Kingdom, Peter Dawson, the secretary of the club, announced the results of a postal balloting of the club’s 2,400 male members, many of whom were on site in matching blue jackets and patterned blue ties.  About three-quarters of the members participated in the voting, he said, with 85 percent of them opting to accept women.  The policy will take effect immediately, and the club said some women would be put on a fast track for membership to avoid languishing on the long waiting list.  The decision carries powerful symbolism.  The Royal and Ancient Golf Club is a 260-year-old institution that calls itself the spiritual home of golf.  The separate governing body it created in 2004, called the R & A, is entrusted with running the British Open and helping adjudicate the game’s rules, making it one of the sport’s primary seats of power.  But the male-only membership had increasingly become an anachronism that cast the club in an unfavorable light with fans, golfers and tournament sponsors.  It also undermined one of the main mandates of the R & A, which is to expand the game.  The R & A still has three male-only clubs in the Open rotation — Muirfield, Royal St. George’s and Royal Troon — meaning the debate over membership policy could continue in Britain despite the change in policy at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.  From a pragmatic standpoint, the club’s gender bias had undercut the ability of Louise Richardson, the St. Andrews University principal, to conduct business. She could not take visiting donors for a meal at the clubhouse.  In an interview with The New York Times in May, Richardson discussed what she saw as the difference between socializing with like-minded individuals and discriminatory policies.  “What’s different is when people are excluded from access to something unique by a category to which they’re assigned or have no control,” she said.  “That’s access to a unique set of privileges, and that’s different than going for a drink with your buddies.”  Richardson said she had not been wholly excluded from the club.  “People have said, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll take you to lunch,’ ” she said.  “But I’ve said, ‘I’m not eating in the clubhouse until women can enter.’ ”  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/sports/golf/royal-and-ancient-golf-club-votes-to-admit-women.html?_r=0

Scottish voters rejected a heated bid for independence, providing a narrow escape for a British government that scrambled to dole out promises of new local powers for Edinburgh to head off the breakup of a 307-year-old union.  Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond said early Friday, Sept. 19, 2014 he had accepted that the majority of Scottish voters had decided not to become an independent country.  The tally at around 6:30 a.m. local time, which included results from 31 of the 32 districts in Scotland, showed 55% of voters rejecting the independence question and 45% favoring it.  About 3.5 million votes had been  counted. More than four million people were registered to vote in the election.  The Wall Street Journal  September 19, 2014

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1193  September 19, 2014  On this date in 1879, the Blackpool Illuminations were switched on for the first time.  On this date in 1893, in New Zealand, the Electoral Act of 1893 gave all women in New Zealand the right to vote.