Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing--often called "The Black National Anthem"--was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) in 1899.  It was first performed in public in the Johnsons' hometown of Jacksonville, Florida as part of a celebration of Lincoln's Birthday on February 12, 1900 by a choir of 500 schoolchildren at the segregated Stanton School, where James Weldon Johnson was principal.  http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history-lift-evry-voice-and-sing  See also http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/james-weldon-johnson-composer-black-national-anthem

The Banker horse is a breed of feral horse (Equus ferus caballus) living on barrier islands in North Carolina's Outer Banks.  It is small, hardy, and has a docile temperament.  Descended from domesticated Spanish horses and possibly brought to the Americas in the 16th century, the ancestral foundation bloodstock may have become feral after surviving shipwrecks or being abandoned on the islands by one of the exploratory expeditions led by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón or Sir Richard Grenville.  Populations are found on Ocracoke Island, Shackleford Banks, Currituck Banks, and in the Rachel Carson Estuarine Sanctuary.  Although they can trample plants and ground-nesting animals and are not considered to be indigenous to the islands, Bankers are allowed to remain due to their historical significance.  They survive by grazing on marsh grasses, which supply them with water as well as food, supplemented by temporary freshwater pools.  To prevent overpopulation and inbreeding, and to protect their habitat from being overgrazed, the horses are managed by the National Park Service, the state of North Carolina, and several private organizations.  Island populations are limited by adoptions and by birth control.  Bankers taken from the wild and trained have been used for trail riding, driving, and occasionally for mounted patrols.  The typical Banker is relatively small, standing between 13.0 and 14.3 hands (52 and 59 inches, 132 and 150 cm) high at the withers and weighing 800 to 1,000 pounds (360 to 450 kg). The forehead is broad and the facial profile tends to be straight or slightly convex.  Bankers have long-strided gaits and many are able to pace and amble.  They are easy keepers and are hardy, friendly, and docile.  Several of the Bankers' characteristics indicate that they share ancestry with other Colonial Spanish horse breeds.  Since they are free-roaming, Bankers are often referred to as "wild" horses; however, because they descend from domesticated ancestors, they are feral horses.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banker_horse

"As a child growing up in a challenging environment, books were a means of escape, a portal to another world.  I owe that refuge to libraries and the librarians who showed me the door." - Virginia Boecker  See also http://www.virginiaboecker.com/about

wistful  adj.  Full of wishful yearning.  adj.  Pensively sad; melancholy.  From obsolete wistly, intently.  American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

Emoji and emoticons are not the same thing.  In the New York Times, under the headline “At Silk Road Trial, Lawyers Fight to Include Evidence They Call Vital: Emoji”, the two were treated as interchangeable.  “At issue” in the court’s debates “was a piece of information that [the Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht’s] lawyer suggested was critically important, yet was omitted by federal prosecutors: an emoji.  “And not just any emoji, or emoticon, as the symbol is sometimes called—it was the gold standard.  A version of a smiley face.”  And on the BBC, under the headline “Emoticons in texts can rack up huge bills” is a news story which exclusively discusses emoji.  An emoticon is a typographic display of a facial representation, used to convey emotion in a text only medium.  Like so:  ;-)  Invented multiple times over human history, its internet-era genesis is widely considered to have occurred in September 1982, when computer scientist Scott Fahlman suggested to the Carnegie Mellon University message board that :-) and :-( could be used to distinguish jokes from serious statements online.  Shortly thereafter came the name, a portmanteau of the phrase “emotion icon”.  In contrast to the grassroots creation of the emoticon, emoji were created in the late 1990s by NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese communications firm.  The name is a contraction of the words e and moji, which roughly translates to pictograph.  Unlike emoticons, emoji are actual pictures.  And where emoticons were invented to portray emotion in environments where nothing but basic text is available, emoji are actually extensions to the character set used by most operating systems today, Unicode.  http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/06/difference-between-emoji-and-emoticons-explained

One of the number of main rooms of Downton Abbey on the ground floor, the library has a collection of thousands of books and has its own librarian.  The library is also where Lord Grantham spends much of this time writing letters at his desk while Lady Granthan and other family members may sit opposite one another on the red sofas on either side of the fireplace.  http://downtonabbey.wikia.com/wiki/Library  Find a description of state rooms in Highclere Castle (setting for Downton Abbey on PBS), including:  The double library was in its heyday during the late Victorian period.  At this time, it was used by the 4th Earl of Carnarvon as a "withdrawing" room.  There are over 5,650 books, the earliest dating from the 16th century.  The library is as much used by the family today as in the past, and is a focal meeting point for drinks and conversation both before and after lunch and dinner.

http://www.highclerecastle.co.uk/state-rooms

Letters dropped:  We usually drop the 'e' at the end of words when adding an ending that begins with a vowel suffix (-ing, -ed, -er, -able, -ous,).  http://www.howtospell.co.uk/droptheerule.php

Letters added:  If the noun ends with a consonant plus -y, make the plural by changing -y to -ies:  If the noun ends with -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, add -es to form the plural.  With nouns that end in a consonant or a single vowel plus -f or -fe, change the -f or -fe to -ves.  Find more examples including words of Latin, Greek, French and Italian origin at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/plurals-of-nouns

"Throughout history, the library has been a symbol of knowledge, advancement, light.  It continues to be so today, especially for teens looking for answers, eager to move ahead, in need of a torch to guide their way." - Victoria Aveyard   See also http://www.harpercollins.com/cr-111684/victoria-aveyard

U.S. vehicle safety regulators have said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward ultimately winning approval for autonomous vehicles on the roads.  The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told Google of its decision in a previously unreported February 4, 2016  letter.  "NHTSA will interpret 'driver' in the context of Google's described motor vehicle design as referring to the (self-driving system), and not to any of the vehicle occupants," NHTSA's letter said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-autos-selfdriving-exclusive-idUSKCN0VJ00H  Find NHSTA letter at http://isearch.nhtsa.gov/files/Google%20--%20compiled%20response%20to%2012%20Nov%20%2015%20interp%20request%20--%204%20Feb%2016%20final.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1424  February 11, 2016   On this date in 1916, a 33,677-acre site in New Mexico was designated by President Woodrow Wilson as Bandelier National Monument, named for Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-American anthropologist who researched the cultures of the area.  See striking pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandelier_National_Monument  On this date in 1929, the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, was signed.  It recognized the Vatican as an independent state, with Prime Minister Benito Mussolini agreeing to give the church financial support in return for public support from the pope at the time.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Treaty