On January 26, 2016, Landmark Theatres, which owns the E Street, Bethesda Row, Atlantic Plumbing and West End cinemas, filed a suit in federal court against Regal Cinemas, accusing Regal of monopolizing first-run films in the Washington area and harming Landmark’s business.  At specific issue is Regal’s theater at Gallery Place, which Landmark alleges has been scooping up movies that Landmark sought to book at its Atlantic Plumbing theater, at Eighth and V streets NW.  Although Landmark is primarily known for showing independent, foreign-language and documentary films, when the company opened its newest boutique location, in October, the intention was to show more mainstream movies in a sophisticated, intimate atmosphere.  It didn’t turn out that way.  Rather than book such commercial titles as “The Hunger Games” and “Spectre,” Atlantic Plumbing found itself shut out of those titles, and instead hanging on to “Steve Jobs” in all six of its auditoriums for several weeks.  The reason for its limited bookings, Landmark contends, is that Regal strong-armed the movies’ distributors out of showing their titles at Atlantic Plumbing.  “Regal has used its national circuit power, its dominant presence in the greater D.C. area, and its monopoly power in the relevant markets to coerce film distributors to deprive Landmark . . . of fair competitive access to commercial films,” the complaint reads, adding that Regal is “insulating itself from competition on the merits.”  Clearances were initially instituted as a useful way for theaters to balance out their programming and avoid oversaturating markets with a small number of movies.  But in several instances, clearances have had the opposite effect, drastically limiting the choice of which films theater owners can book, and which their customers can see.  As that contradiction has become more pronounced, clearance practices have increasingly come under scrutiny as unfair, anti-competitive and possibly illegal.”  Exhibitors—especially big chains, which can sometimes be the only theatrical option in smaller cities—routinely use their market clout to persuade (or threaten) studios to play only at their theaters.  Whether tacit or explicit, the implication is clear:  If the distributors don’t play ball this time, they might have trouble booking their wares in the same chain’s theaters down the line.  Over the past several months, more bookers, exhibitors and distribution professionals have begun to come forward with information on the industry’s most cutthroat practices:  The Department of Justice’s antitrust division launched an investigation last year into whether clearance practices at the nation’s biggest chains (Regal, AMC and Cinemark) violate federal law.  Lawsuits similar to Landmark’s have been filed against Regal and AMC in Texas, Georgia, California and New York.  Ann Hornaday  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-nasty-world-of-theater-clearances-and-why-it-matters-to-filmgoers/2016/01/29/5bc6a540-c5d2-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html

chain mail  armor made up of many tiny metal rings linked together

scale mail  armor made of overlapping metal plates, resembling the scales of a fish--worn by horses and warriors--today used for jewelry and clothing  See http://metalsmithing.wonderhowto.com/how-to/weave-suit-medieval-scale-mail-405367/

snail mail  mail delivered by a postal system

stale mail  e-mail that's old that by the time you get around to it

In many countries, white chocolate is not classified as chocolate at all, as it contains no cocoa solids, which gives it the smooth ivory or beige color.  White "chocolate" is the most fragile form of all chocolates and close attention must be paid to it while heating or melting as it will burn and seize very easily unless heated very slowly.  White chocolate originates from the cocoa (cacao) plant but lacks "chocolate" flavor due to the absence of the chocolate liquor which is what gives dark and milk chocolate their intense, bitter flavor and color.  White chocolate contains cocoa butter, milk solids, sugar, lecithin and flavorings (usually including vanilla).  Cocoa butter is the fat from cocoa beans, extracted from the cocoa beans during the process of making chocolate and cocoa powder.  How to select:  Look for a brand that contains cocoa  butter.  There are cheaper versions that don't contain any cocoa butter, and their flavor is inferior.  Link to many recipes at http://www.food.com/about/white-chocolate-225

The Man Who Fell to Earth is a 1963 science fiction novel by American author Walter Tevis, about an extraterrestrial who lands on Earth seeking a way to ferry his people to Earth from his home planet, which is suffering from a severe drought.  The novel served as the basis for the 1976 film by Nicolas Roeg, The Man Who Fell to Earth, as well as a 1987 television adaptation.  Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth seeking to construct a spaceship to ferry others from his home planet, Anthea, to Earth.  Anthea is experiencing a terrible drought after many nuclear wars, and the population has dwindled to less than 300.  Their own starships are unusable for lack of fuel and 500 years of neglect.  The Antheans have no water, an abundance of food that is slowly dwindling, and feeble solar power.  Like all Antheans, Newton is super-intelligent, but he has been selected for this mission because he has the physical strength necessary to function in Earth's hotter climate and higher gravity.  Arriving at Earth in a lifeboat, Newton first lands in the state of Kentucky.  He quickly becomes familiar with the environment and forms a plan.  Using advanced technology from his home planet, Newton patents many inventions, and amasses incredible wealth as the head of a technology-based conglomerate.  He plans to use this wealth to construct space vehicles for the rest of the Anthean population.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Fell_to_Earth_(novel)

Walter Stone Tevis (1928–1984) was an American novelist and short story writer.  Three of his six novels were adapted into major films:  The Hustler, The Color of Money and The Man Who Fell to Earth.  His books have been translated into at least 18 languages.  Tevis was born in San Francisco, California and grew up in the Sunset District, near the Pacific Ocean and Golden Gate Park.  When he was ten years old, his parents placed him in the Stanford Children's Convalescent home for a year while they returned to Kentucky, where the family had been given a grant of land in Madison County.  At the age of 11, Tevis traveled across country alone on a train to rejoin his family.  Near the end of World War II, the 17-year-old Tevis served in the Pacific Theater as a Navy carpenter's mate on board the USS Hamilton.  After his discharge, he graduated from Model Laboratory School in 1945 and entered the University of Kentucky, where he received B.A. (1949) and M.A. (1954) degrees in English literature and studied with A.B. Guthrie, Jr., the author of The Big Sky.  While a student there, Tevis worked in a pool hall and published a story about pool written for Guthrie's class. He later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he received a M.F.A. in creative writing in 1960.  Tevis taught English literature and creative writing at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio from 1965 to 1978, where he was named University Professor.  A member of the Authors Guild, he spent his last years in New York City as a full-time writer.  Tevis wrote more than two dozen short stories for a variety of magazines. "The Big Hustle", his pool hall story for Collier's (August 5, 1955), was illustrated by Denver Gillen.  It was followed by short stories in The American Magazine, Bluebook, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Galaxy Science Fiction,Playboy, Redbook and The Saturday Evening Post.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Tevis

Michael Lewis, a financial journalist, published in October 2010 in Vanity Fair http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010  an article about the Greek financial crisis.  Quote from the article:  “This is the secret of success for anywhere in the world, not just the monastery,” he says, and then goes on to describe pretty much word for word the first rule of improvisational comedy, or for that matter any successful collaborative enterprise.  Take whatever is thrown at you and build upon it.  “Yes … and” rather than “No … but.”  “The idiot is bound by his pride,” he says.  “It always has to be his way.  This is also true of the person who is deceptive or doing things wrong:  he always tries to justify himself.  A person who is bright in regard to his spiritual life is humble.  He accepts what others tell him—criticism, ideas—and he works with them.” New York columnist David Brooks choose this article as the best essay of 2010 (The Sidney Award).  It is called:  beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds.  In the words of Brooks:  “His specific subject is Greece, a country that plundered its public institutions while spoiling and atomizing itself.  Lewis’s genius was to show how the moral breakdown spread into one of the most remote institutions on earth, a 1,000-year-old monastery cut off by water, culture and theology that, nonetheless, managed to put itself at the center of the great plundering.”  Lewis visits Vatopedi monastery and informs us about his meetings with Father Arsenios and Father Ephraim, the abbot of Vatopedi.  He quotes Father Arsenios:  “There is more of a spiritual thirst today,” he says when I ask him why his monastery has attracted so many important business and political people.  “Twenty or 30 years ago they taught that science will solve all problems.  There are so many material things and they are not satisfying.  People have gotten tired of material pleasures.  Of material things.  And they realize they cannot really find success in these things.”  Father Arsenios points to his slogan he has tacked up on one of his cabinets:  the smart person accepts, the idiot insists.  http://athosweblog.com/2011/01/10/1163-the-smart-person-accepts-the-idiot-insists/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1418  February 1, 2016    On this date in 1884, the first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.  Quote of the Day    "I like to work, read, learn, and understand life." -  Langston Hughes, poet and novelist (1 Feb 1902-1967)