Dried peas belong to the same family as beans and lentils, and they are usually distinguished as a separate group because of the ways in which they are prepared.  The different types of peas are all spherical, a feature that also sets them apart from beans and lentils.  Dried peas are produced by harvesting the peapods when they are fully mature and then drying them.  Once they are dried and the skins removed, they split naturally.  http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=56  Parker's Split Pea Soup courtesy of Ina Garten  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/parkers-split-pea-soup-recipe.html

Black-eyed peas, also known as cowpeas, are actually beans, not peas.  Beans are types of legumes, which have edible seeds sandwiched inside a double-seamed pod.  Since black-eyed peas swell up when prepared, people often eat them on New Year's Day to symbolize an increase in wealth.  Beans, such as black-eyed peas, are high in carbs, have a moderate amount of protein and are low in fat.  A one-cup serving of cooked peas contains about 33.5 grams of carbs, just over 5 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of fat.  One cup of black eyed peas contains 160 calories.  These carbs are digested at a slow pace, which gives you extended and balanced energy levels.  http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/nutrient-black-eyed-peas-2334.html  See black-eyed peas recipes at http://m.allrecipes.com/recipes/16984/fruits-and-vegetables/beans-and-peas/black-eyed-peas/?mxt=t06rda

The chickpea or chick pea (Cicer arietinum) is a legume of the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae.  It is also known as gram, or Bengal gram, garbanzo or garbanzo bean and sometimes known as Egyptian pea, ceci, cece or chana or Kabuli Chana (particularly in northern India).  Its seeds are high in protein.  It is one of the earliest cultivated legumes:  7,500-year-old remains have been found in the Middle East.  The word garbanzo came first to American English as garvance in the 17th century, from an alteration of the Old Spanish word arvanço (presumably influenced by garroba), being gradually anglicized to calavance, though it came to refer to a variety of other beans.  The current form garbanzo comes directly from modern Spanish.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickpea  Garbanzo bean recipes http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ingredient/garbanzo_bean/

French, Spanish, and Latin infinitives cannot be split because they are expressed by one word.  There’s no point in forbidding English speakers to place a modifier between the “to” and the verb that follows it.  They can do it, so they will.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/what-is-a-split-infinitive/

Actor Peter Falk wrote: “My idea of heaven is to wake up, have a good breakfast and spend the rest of the day drawing.”  Falk discovered life drawing in 1971 while acting on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.”  His schedule left him free in the mornings with nothing to do.  On a whim one day, he walked into the Art Students League on West 57th Street in Manhattan, opened a classroom door and was transfixed.  “There she was on a platform with a skylight over her,” he said, sketching a nude model in words.  “The light was gleaming on her hair, her weight was on her right hip, her breasts were thrust forward, and she was buck naked, and I said to myself, ‘This is where I’m coming every day!’ ”  Falk became a regular, sitting on a folding wooden chair with a big pad of newsprint paper propped in front of him and a stick of charcoal in his hand.  Along with classmates, he warmed up with quick sketches of poses that lasted only a few minutes and then worked on more finished drawings of poses that lasted an hour or more.  Everyone knew a famous actor was in class, but no one bugged him. Steven Litt  See Peter Falk's sketch of himself in his most famous role at http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2011/06/my_interview_with_peter_falk.html  See also http://www.bairdjones.com/Celebrity_Art/3FP/Peter_Falk.aspx

Tyre, modern Arabic Ṣūr, French Tyr or Sour, Latin Tyrus, Hebrew Zor or Tsor, is a town on the Mediterranean coast of southern Lebanon, located 12 miles (19 km) north of the modern border with Israel and 25 miles (40 km) south of Sidon (modern Ṣaydā).  It was a major Phoenician seaport from about 2000 bc through the Roman period.  Tyre, built on an island and on the neighbouring mainland, was probably originally founded as a colony of Sidon.   Mentioned in Egyptian records of the 14th century bc as being subject to Egypt, Tyre became independent when Egyptian influence in Phoenicia declined.  It later surpassed Sidon as a trade centre, developing commercial relations with all parts of the Mediterranean world.  In the 9th century bc colonists from Tyre founded the North African city of Carthage, which later became Rome’s principal rival in the West.  Probably the best-known episode in the history of Tyre was its resistance to the army of the Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, who took it after a seven-month siege in 332.  He completely destroyed the mainland portion of the town and used its rubble to build an immense causeway (some 2,600 feet [800 metres] long and 600–900 feet [180–270 metres] wide) to gain access to the island section.  After the town’s capture, 10,000 inhabitants were put to death, and 30,000 were sold into slavery.  Alexander’s causeway, which was never removed, converted the island into a peninsula.  Tyre was subsequently under the influence of Ptolemaic Egypt and in 200 became part of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom.  It came under Roman rule in 64 bc and was renowned in Roman times for its textiles and for a purple dye extracted from sea snails of the genus Murex (the dye was said to be worth more than its weight in gold, and purple cloth became a symbol of wealth and of royalty).  Excavations have uncovered remains of the Greco-Roman, Crusader, Arab, and Byzantine civilizations, but most of the remains of the Phoenician period lie beneath the present town.  Areas of archaeological note include the ruins of a Crusader church, a street with a 2nd-century mosaic pavement and a double colonnade of white green-veined marble, Roman baths, the ruins of a Roman-Byzantine necropolis, and the largest Roman hippodrome ever discovered.  Built in the 2nd century, the hippodrome hosted chariot races with a capacity of 20,000 spectators.  In 1984 UNESCO designated the historic town a World Heritage site.  In the late 20th century the ruins were damaged by bombardment, most notably in 1982 and 1996 during Israeli offensives in southern Lebanon.  The site is threatened by urban growth, looting, and the decay of stone because of airborne pollution.  In 1998 UNESCO created a special fund for the preservation and archaeological excavation of the ancient treasures of Tyre.  See pictures at http://www.britannica.com/place/Tyre

Wiregrass, also called pineland threeawn, is one of the most common grasses in the southern pine flatwoods and upland sandhills.  It is a favorite food of gopher tortoises and quail and provides valuable cover for many birds, reptiles, and small mammals. The young plants may also be used as a forage by livestock.  http://eol.org/pages/1114766/details  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiregrass.

Wiregrass Lake is the newest Toledo Metropark to open and has a variety of dragonflies  unmatched anywhere else in Ohio.  http://www.metroparkstoledo.com/metro/parksandplaces/index.asp?page_id=747 

Of all insects there are few that capture our attention and interest the way dragonflies do.  They have, perhaps, the coolest, most evocative name of any group of insects:  Dragonfly.  In English there are a great number of other common categorical names:  Devil’s Darning Needle, Snake Doctor, and Ear Cutter among others.  Many European cultures viewed dragonflies as sinister creatures, servants of the devil, in league with other evils such as snakes and bats.  Other cultures, often more agrarian ones, had a far more benign view of dragonflies, based, perhaps, on the recognition of their fundamental role in controlling populations of pest insects of all sorts.   An archaic name for the Japanese Islands is Akitsushima (秋津島), the Dragonfly Islands, where dragonflies symbolized courage, strength, and happiness.  For some native American tribes dragonflies symbolized clean, pure water, swiftness, and agility.  In the modern world dragonflies are good indicators of environmental heath, indicating a robustly functioning ecosystem.  Dragonflies and their close relatives, Damselflies, come in a dazzling array of colors and patterns, ranging in size from less than  an inch long up to the South American Megaloprepus caerulatuswith a wingspan of over 7 inches.  The largest dragonfly we know of is from the 300 million year old fossil Meganeura that had a wingspan of over 2 feet. 

https://writingfornature.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/the-mighty-dragonfly/  See also http://www.earthtimes.org/nature/dragonflies-indicator-species-environmental-health/2033/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1345  August 28, 2015  On this date in 1915, Tasha Tudor, American author and illustrator, was born.  On this date in 1930, Ben Gazzara, American actor, singer, and director, was born.