Scott Kenemore is the author of four horror novels:  Zombie, Ohio (2011) [a Barnes & Noble Top 20 Zombie Novel of the Decade] Zombie, Illinois (2012) [a Reboot Illinois Noteworthy Book set in Illinois] Zombie, Indiana (2014) [a CWA Book of the Year nominee] The Grand Hotel (2014) and four zombie-themed satires:  The Zen of Zombie (2007) Z.E.O. (2009) The Art of Zombie Warfare (2010) The Code of the Zombie Pirate (2010) and one unclassifiable, found-document, epistolary thing (which Heeb Magazine nonetheless named a Best Book of 2011):  Zombies Vs. Nazis (2011) and \, with Franco Mercado, a war memoir:  Fallujah Heat (2012)  http://scottkenemore.com/about/  Born in New York in 1977 and raised in Indianapolis, Scott Kenemore is a graduate of Kenyon College and Columbia University.  A member of the Zombie Research Society and the Horror Writers Association, Scott lives in Chicago where he is the drummer for the musical band The Blissters.

from the novel Zombie, Indiana by Scott Kenemore

sit rep (situation report)   f-word  (the Feds)   z-word (zombie)

"Mighty Ohio.  Stalwart.  Friendly,  And yet ... it simply could not make up its mind.  What did Ohio want to be, exactly?  It didn't know.  It couldn't tell you."  "Out west--way out west--was Iowa.  'Idiots Out Walking Around' was what that stood for."  "Every time Illinois or Ohio passed another tax increase, billboards went up in Chicago and Cleveland.  They said things like:  'Come on IN:  for lower taxes, business, and housing costs' or 'Illinoyed by high taxes?' and had a big ol' picture of Indiana right below it."  "It was the twenty-first century, and it was going to be the century of the Hoosier."

A buttery-rich scone is nothing more than a glorified biscuit—made even more delicious with sweet and savory twists.  http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/best-ever-scones  See also http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-scones/ and http://www.food.com/recipe/simple-sweet-scones-66409

April 25, 1859  At Port Said, Egypt, ground is broken for the Suez Canal, an artificial waterway intended to stretch 101 miles across the isthmus of Suez and connect the Mediterranean and the Red seas.  Ferdinand de Lesseps, the French diplomat who organized the colossal undertaking, delivered the pickax blow that inaugurated construction.  Artificial canals have been built on the Suez region, which connects the continents of Asia and Africa, since ancient times.  Under the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt, a channel connected the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea, and a canal reached northward from Lake Timsah as far as the Nile River.  These canals fell into disrepair or were intentionally destroyed for military reasons.  As early as the 15th century, Europeans speculated about building a canal across the Suez, which would allow traders to sail from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea, rather than having to sail the great distance around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.  The first serious survey of the isthmus occurred during the French occupation of Egypt at the end of the 18th century, and General Napoleon Bonaparte personally inspected the remains of an ancient canal.  France made further studies for a canal, and in 1854 Ferdinand de Lesseps, the former French consul to Cairo, secured an agreement with the Ottoman governor of Egypt to build a canal. An international team of engineers drew up a construction plan, and in 1856 the Suez Canal Company was formed and granted the right to operate the canal for 99 years after completion of the work.  Construction began in April 1859, and at first digging was done by hand with picks and shovels wielded by forced laborers.  Later, European workers with dredgers and steam shovels arrived.  Labor disputes and a cholera epidemic slowed construction, and the Suez Canal was not completed until 1869–four years behind schedule.  On November 17, 1869, the Suez Canal was officially inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony attended by French Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. Ferdinand de Lesseps would later attempt, unsuccessfully, to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama.  When it opened, the Suez Canal was only 25 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at the surface.  Consequently, fewer than 500 ships navigated it in its first full year of operation.  Major improvements began in 1876, however, and the canal soon grew into the one of the world’s most heavily traveled shipping lanes.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/ground-broken-for-suez-canal

The public library is the only civic institution in my community that is uncompromisingly successful.  The public library is an indispensable institution that somehow manages to get taken completely for granted.  Small towns can do without movie houses and fancy restaurants and stores that sell 50 kinds of balsamic vinegar.  They can even do without bookstores.  But small towns cannot do without a public library.  Cannot, cannot, cannot.  The public library serves many functions in a community.  It is an adjunct to the public schools, a place where kids can do their homework.  It is a day care center of sorts, where small children gather for story hour.  It is a safe haven where senior citizens can pass the time in the company of others, where the unemployed can look for work.  It is a place where the lonely can be less lonely, the bored less bored, the dejected less dejected, and the ignorant more enlightened.  The public library has features that make it different from any other institution.  It is public, in the true democratic sense of the word, and it is free.  The value of being free cannot be overestimated.  Libraries are both aspirational and inspirational.  I love going into a library and watching little kids do their homework.  I love to watch retirees devouring newspapers and magazines, refusing to recede from life just because they are no longer working.  Anyone can read in the privacy of their own homes, but there is something joyous about watching people reading or studying or researching or exploring in public.  Time spent in a library is time not spent in front of a television.  That in itself makes the public library the most valuable institution a society could possibly imagine.  Joe Queenan   http://therotarianmagazine.com/in-praise-of-libraries/

As the 2015 Major League Baseball season dawns, the lords of baseball are asking for our forgiveness.  They want a second chance, and to get it they are making changes that could shake the game to its foundations.  This isn’t about tinkering with the playoffs to make a few extra dollars from the television networks. The 30 team owners have ordered the new commissioner to modernize baseball and make it appeal to an audience that is increasingly weary of the game’s slow pace.  There will of course be cries of sacrilege from traditionalists about putting the national pastime on a clock.  Many players are resisting, too.  But they are unlikely to slow the transformation.  If all goes as planned, 2015 will become the year baseball finally realized it needed to change fundamentally to survive as a major sport.  What drove these wealthy titans over the edge were moments like these:  David Ortiz at the plate, endlessly rubbing his hands and adjusting his batting gloves; or David Price, the game’s most deliberate hurler, taking his usual 27 seconds between each pitch.  Read extensive article by Matthew Futterman at http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-plan-to-speed-up-baseball-1427996693  If the previous link doesn't work, search using words speed baseball.

April 3, 2015  In a tumultuous week that included Big Business flexing its political muscles, lawmakers in Indiana and Arkansas walked a tightrope seeking balance between two core American values:  religious freedom and protection from discrimination.  The governors of Indiana and Arkansas signed revised versions of their religious freedom laws, hoping to quiet critics who said the measures could allow discrimination.  Is this the first time this type of conflict has taken place?  No.   According to Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the ACLU, religion has been invoked during times when discrimination was an issue.  For example, religion was invoked by Christian schools that continued to bar African Americans during the civil rights era, arguing that Scripture called for separation of the races.  Some landlords in the past century used religion to justify not renting apartments to unmarried heterosexuals.  “Pivotal moments of change often see claims involving religious objections,” she said.  So why are religion freedom laws passed?  There do not appear to be any examples of religious persecution that would have been prevented by the laws, attorneys on both sides agree. But proponents of the law argue that no examples are needed because protecting religious rights serves the interest of democracy.  But wasn’t there a federal law signed by President Clinton in 1993?  Yes.  But that law, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, doesn’t protect individual rights.  That law is designed to deal with actions by governments, said John Pippa, a professor and former dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock law school.  Where are religious freedom laws found?  Including Indiana and Arkansas, there are 21 states with religious freedom laws.  More than 20 states have laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.  ust four states have both.  There are some municipalities that have anti-discrimination ordinances that include sexual orientation.  Michael Muskal  http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-religious-freedom-law-20150402-story.html

On Saturday morning, April 4, 2015, early risers from Asia, Australia and the Americas will wake up to witness a phenomenal, albeit short-lived, even:  a very shy total lunar eclipse that will last no longer than four minutes and 43 seconds.  The moon’s time to shine might be rather short, but its red shade will make for some spectacular images.  Due to the fact that the light shining on the moon passes through Earth’s atmosphere, absorbing almost all the blue light, only the red one reaches the natural satellite’s surface.  The British population, however, will have to resort only to watching the eclipse online, since the phenomenon surprises them in the middle of the day, from 10.16am GMT to 1.45pm GMT.  If they could watch it in real time, they would witness a partial eclipse, with the earth only partly blocking the sun as seen from the moon.  But they have had their share of celestial events, as only two weeks ago, millions of Brits have been witnesses to the nation’s first total solar eclipse since 1999.  They had almost the best “seats in the house”, with up to 98% of the sun blocked out by the moon in northern Scotland; unfortunately, a lot of enthusiast visitors were disappointed by the cloud-blanketed London.  If you miss this lunar eclipse, you’re in luck – September 28 will bring us the second blood-red moon of the year – and you’ll have plenty of time to catch it in its one hour and 20 minutes timeframe.  Justin Mills  http://www.wallstreetotc.com/blink-and-miss-it-april-4th-marks-a-four-minute-total-lunar-eclipse/217163/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1279  April 3, 2015  On this date in 1885, Gottlieb Daimler was granted a German patent for his engine design.  On this date in 1895, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Italian-American composer, was born.