NAME CHANGES  Actress, dancer and singer Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath 1911)  Singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger, painter, and actor David Bowie (born David Robert Jones 1947)  Singer Engelbert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey 1936)  Singer, songwriter, record producer, and choreographer Bruno Mars (born Peter Gene Hernandez 1985)

NAME CHANGES  President Obama announced on August 30, 2015 that Mount McKinley was being renamed Denali, using his executive power to restore an Alaska Native name with deep cultural significance to the tallest mountain in North America.  The government formally recognized the name McKinley in 1917, and efforts to reverse the move began in Alaska in 1975.  In an awkward compromise struck in 1980, the national park surrounding it was named Denali National Park and Preserve, but the mountain continued to be called Mount McKinley.  The mountain came to be known as Mount McKinley after a gold prospector who had just emerged from exploring the Alaska Range heard that Mr. McKinley had won the Republican presidential nomination, and declared that the tallest peak should be named in his honor as a show of support.  Mr. McKinley was assassinated in 1901, six months into his second term, and never visited Alaska.  Julie Hirschfeld Davis  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/us/mount-mckinley-will-be-renamed-denali.html

NAME CHANGES  About 5,000 years ago, the Mississippi River began depositing its sediments into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a broad delta.  Native Americans called this body of water 'Okwata' meaning 'wide water'.  In 1699, Native Americans led the French settler, Pierre La Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, on a journey through the area.  Iberville renamed Okwata Lake Pontchartrain, after Louis Phélypeaux, known as the chancellor de Pontchartrain, a French politician.

Omakase is the Japanese tradition of letting a chef choose your order.  The word means "I will leave it to you."  Omakase works best at restaurants with daily fresh ingredients such as sushiya.  Any restaurant that offers fresh fish or in season vegetables is likely to be a good omakase bet.  Omakase doesn't work well at chain restaurants, large restaurants or restaurants with limited ingredients such as a noodle shop.  Omakase is for the brave and adventurous.  If you have dietary restrictions that are likely to come up, omakase isn't a good idea.  You can't put down any restrictions.  You can't ask what you'll get.  It's only polite to eat the dishes you're offered.  If you're a picky eater, avoid omakase.  At the end of the meal the restaurant will present you with a non-itemized bill.  This is nothing more than a small stub of paper with a price.  In many cases, your drinks will also not be itemized.  John Spacey  http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/omakase

Five healthy foods that will make their mark on 2016:  matcha, seeds, hemp, sauerkraut and sorghum  Ellie Krieger  See pictures and read descriptions at https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/got-matcha-five-healthy-foods-that-will-make-their-mark-on-2016/2016/01/11/7a92bfca-b3dc-11e5-a76a-0b5145e8679a_story.html

Matcha Morning Muffins or Loaf  Recipe uses sorghum flour and matcha green tea powder.  http://www.triumphdining.com/blog/2014/11/17/matcha-green-tea-triumph-dining/

Everything You Need to Know About How to Eat Hemp Seeds

http://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/hemp-seeds

DO NOT FORWARD mass e-mail messages to other people.  They can pick up viruses as they are transmitted.  You may be sending misinformation, disinformation, unwanted information, hoaxes, legends and scams.  Forwarded e-mails will carry an expanding list of addresses along with it.  Do you want your address given to people you don't know?   

French linguistic purists have voiced online anger at the removal from many words of one of their favourite accents--the pointy little circumflex hat (ˆ) that sits on top of certain vowels. 

Changes to around 2,400 French words to simplify them for schoolchildren, such as allowing the word for onion to be spelled ognon as well as the traditional oignon, have brought accusations the country’s Socialist government is dumbing down the language.  Nothing provokes a Gallic row than changes to the language of Molière, but the storm took officials by surprise as the spelling revisions had been suggested by the Académie Française, watchdogs of the French language, and unanimously accepted by its members as long ago as 1990.  Read more at

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/05/not-the-oignon-fury-france-changes-2000-spellings-ditches-circumflex

Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquesses of Bath.  It is a leading and early example of the Elizabethan prodigy house.  It is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of Warminster and Westbury in Wiltshire and Frome in Somerset.  The house is set in 1,000 acres (400 ha) of parkland landscaped by Capability Brown, with 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of let farmland and 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) of woodland, which includes a Center Parcs holiday village.  It was the first stately home to open to the public, and the Longleat estate includes the first safari park outside Africa.  The house was built by Sir John Thynne and was designed mainly by Robert Smythson, after the original priory was destroyed by fire in 1567.  It took 12 years to complete and is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of Elizabethan architecture in Britain.  Longleat was previously an Augustinian priory.  The name comes from "leat", an artificial waterway or channel such as that which supplies a watermill.  Read more and see graphics at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longleat

The Internet is not 100 percent safe--all great things have risks associated with them," said Larry Magid, co-founder and CEO of ConnectSafely.org and a CBS News technology analyst.  "There are things you have to keep in mind with safety, security, and privacy.  [You] have to be careful how you present yourself, have to be careful to use long passwords and practice security--all of those key points."  One thing that Magid stressed is the importance of being kind online.  "Part of it is respecting yourself and others.  Maintaining your own reputation by not posting something that will haunt you," he said.  "You used to have worries about predators, but now it's more worry over how people treat each other online," Magid said.  Magid added that safety for young people is one of the key themes this year.  From cyber bullying to sexting, he said that young people have to be "empowered" to make the best decisions online.  The recent proliferation of mobile messaging and social media apps has led to increased risks for users young and old--but especially young, since these apps are so popular with teens.  http://www.cbsnews.com/news/online-security-tips-for-safer-internet-day/

In a coda to one of the most notable music copyright lawsuits in years, the Warner Music Group has agreed to pay $14 million to settle claims over “Happy Birthday to You,” after a judge ruled last year that the company’s long-claimed copyright to the famous song was invalid.  Warner Music, through its publishing subsidiary Warner/Chappell, agreed after mediation to pay the settlement to a class of “thousands of people and entities” who had paid licensing fees to use the song since 1949, according to filings in federal court on February 8, 2016.  The terms of the settlement, which are subject to approval by the judge in the case, George H. King of United States District Court in Los Angeles, call for the judge to declare “Happy Birthday” part of the public domain.  The settlement would also grant $4.6 million in fees to the lawyers for the plaintiffs, a group of independent artists and filmmakers who filed separate suits in 2013 that were later combined.  Ben Sisario  http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/10/business/media/details-of-happy-birthday-copyright-settlement-revealed.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1423  February 10, 2016  On this date in 1942, the first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo".  On this date in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against United States intervention in Vietnam.  On this date in 1962,  Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.