Birthday party feels like a dinner-buying bait-and-switch (adapted from an online discussion) by Carolyn Hax    I received an Evite from the birthday girl to join her at a restaurant with a hipster bar and, because I love her and want to celebrate, I RSVP’d yes.  Because I am short of money, I planned to buy the b’day girl a drink, stay for an hour, give her a little gift and head out.  The party was not in the bar, but a seated, multi-course dinner, at which the birthday girl ordered lavishly for the table, including bottle after bottle of wine.  When the check came, she was silent, albeit gracious, as the rest of us split it.  Expectations:  I say just ask the host directly:  “Is this a sit-down-for-dinner thing, or a swing-by-the-bar-for-a-cocktail thing?”  That has the benefit of sounding like a concern about the timing/schedule vs. cash.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/carolyn-hax-birthday-party-feels-like-a-dinner-buying-bait-and-switch/2016/06/28/ecbe4c10-34cc-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html

'Badass Librarians' Foil al Qaeda, Save Ancient Manuscripts--scholars used donkey carts, boats, and teenage couriers to smuggle a priceless collection out of Timbuktu by Simon Worrall   Several of the great travelers of the Renaissance, in the 15th-16th centuries, passed through Timbuktu and described it as a thriving commercial center with camel caravans and traders on boats on the Niger River bearing everything from linens and teapots from England to slaves and gold out of the rain forests of Central Africa. At the same time, you had this academic tradition.  So you had a thriving commercial center side by side with a Cambridge/Oxford-like atmosphere of fervent scholastic activity.  Read extensive article about “The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu,” a book by Joshua Hammer and see pictures at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/badass-librarians-joshua-hammer-timbuktu-manuscript-al-qaeda/

"Competition doesn't prohibit cooperation."  " . . . amber waves of grain made for an all-American background."  Silencing Sam, a novel by Julie Kramer

The Surprising History of the Infographic by Clive Thompson   As the 2016 election approaches, we’re hearing a lot about “red states” and “blue states.”  That idiom has become so ingrained that we’ve almost forgotten where it originally came from: a data visualization.  In the 2000 presidential election, the race between Al Gore and George W. Bush was so razor close that broadcasters pored over electoral college maps—which they typically colored red and blue.   America became divided into two colors—data spun into pure metaphor.  Now Americans even talk routinely about “purple” states, a mental visualization of political information.  The idea of visualizing data is old:  After all, that’s what a map is—a representation of geographic information—and we’ve had maps for about 8,000 years.  But it was rare to graph anything other than geography.  Only a few examples exist:  Around the 11th century, a now-anonymous scribe created a chart of how the planets moved through the sky.  By the 18th century, scientists were warming to the idea of arranging knowledge visually.  The British polymath Joseph Priestley produced a “Chart of Biography,” plotting the lives of about 2,000 historical figures on a timeline.  A picture, he argued, conveyed the information “with more exactness, and in much less time, than it [would take] by reading.”  Still, data visualization was rare because data was rare.  That began to change rapidly in the early 19th century, because countries began to collect—and publish—reams of information about their weather, economic activity and population.  An early innovator was the Scottish inventor and economist William Playfair.  As a teenager he apprenticed to James Watt, the Scottish inventor who perfected the steam engine.  Playfair was tasked with drawing up patents, which required him to develop excellent drafting and picture-drawing skills.  After he left Watt’s lab, Playfair became interested in economics and convinced that he could use his facility for illustration to make data come alive.  In one famous chart, he plotted the price of wheat in the United Kingdom against the cost of labor.  People often complained about the high cost of wheat and thought wages were driving the price up.  Playfair’s chart showed this wasn’t true:  Wages were rising much more slowly than the cost of the product.  The next step?  Virtual reality.  Alberto Cairo, a journalism professor at the University of Miami, imagines putting on a VR headset to read a report or watch TV, and watching visualizations swim around in front of him in 3-D.  “How can you superimpose a data image over a real image?” he wonders.  That’ll be the question for the William Playfairs of this century.  Read more and see infographics at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/surprising-history-infographic-180959563/?no-ist

Measuring America:  30-Year-Olds: Then and Now--1975 and 2015   Infographics from the Census Bureau  http://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2016/comm/30-year-olds.html

White Settlement is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, and a northwestern suburb of Fort Worth.  The name of White Settlement originated as a result of there being two settlements in the area:  one occupied predominantly by Native Americans (near where Fort Worth is located today), and the other one being occupied by white settlers.  The latter settlement received the name "White Settlement" as a way to distinguish itself from the Native American settlement.  On October 14, 2005, city leaders announced a plan to have local voters decide on a possible name change for the town from White Settlement to West Settlement.  In the November 8 election, the name change was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 2388 to 219.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Settlement,_Texas  Thank you, Muse reader!  See also http://www.wsmuseum.com/wshist.html

WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas, July 6, 2016  (UPI) -- A Texas city council that voted to evict the local library's beloved cat reversed the decision weeks later, with one councilman blaming Facebook for the controversy.  The White Settlement city council voted unanimously Friday to overturn its June 14 decision to evict Browser the cat from the White Settlement Public Library, where the feline has resided for the past six years.  Mayor Ron White, who opposed the June 14 decision to evict Browser, welcomed the reversal, which followed an international outcry from cat lovers on social media.  White said he received more than 1,500 emails from Browser supporters hailing from all 50 states and countries including Australia, England, France, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Guam and Canada.  White said the library has an air purifier to remove 99 percent of allergens from the air for patrons who are allergic to cats.  "It was a waste of time and money.  It was ridiculous to do that and they did it without thinking ahead," the mayor said of the controversy.  "It was absolutely wrong to begin with."  Councilman Elzie Clements, who initially led the effort to evict Browser, introduced the motion to overturn the decision.  Clements blamed Facebook and social media for turning a local issue into an international controversy.  "If we would just get people out here in this city to stay off of this media, this wouldn't have been this way," Clements said at the meeting.   The councilman elaborated on his thoughts in a phone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article87888437.html  "Without social media, it never would have been more than a local story," he said.  "Things happen inside a city that shouldn't be publicized outside," Clements said.  "There's no need to jump on Facebook.  I think Facebook and the social media [are] a bad thing.  I sure do."    http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2016/07/06/Texas-town-reverses-beloved-library-cats-eviction/9261467816666/

Six standout startups at Summer Fancy Food by Monica Watrous   Among more than 2,670 exhibitors at the Summer Fancy Food Show, a handful of unique brands stood out.  The 62^ndannual event, held June 26-28 in New York, drew more than 47,000 industry professionals to view the latest innovations in specialty foods, spanning the categories of cheese, chocolate and charcuterie, as well as a number of niche product concepts.  Some of these products were featured as part of the New Brands on the Shelf showcase, which this year included 49 participants.  Read more and see pictures at http://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/news_home/Business_News/2016/07/Six_standout_startups_at_Summe.aspx?ID=%7BE7F69AEA-4162-4E43-9D38-C6AC9EB1820F%7D

YACHTS AS ART, THANKS TO JOHN TRUMPY & SONS by Chris Brown   Trumpy yachts are wooden masterpieces, hand crafted and custom-built to perfection by master shipwrights in Annapolis, Maryland.  With a mere glance, knowledgeable boaters quickly spot the distinctive “T” embossed on each Trumpy yacht’s bow and knew they just might want to take a second look at her.  Built for the rich and famous, the yachts enabled a glamorous, comfortable lifestyle.  People like Marilyn Monroe experienced the Trumpy brand both in real life (as President Kennedy’s rumored guest aboard the Trumpy yacht, Sequoia) and on film (when the Trumpy-built Enticer appeared with her in Some Like It Hot).  It seems that folks from every important corner of American society including presidents, media moguls, entertainers and industrialists have owned, enjoyed or been hosted aboard a Trumpy.  The man behind the brand, John Trumpy was born in Norway.  He was the fourth generation of boat builders in his family and, after naval architect training at home and in Germany, Trumpy immigrated to America in 1908.  There he worked at boatyards in New York and New Jersey.  In 1910 he joined Mathis in N.J. as a partner and also became their naval architect.  (Mathis had started the company about 10 years earlier.)  Later Trumpy became Mathis’s general manager and in 1939, following Mathis’s death, became Mathis’s sole owner.  In 1943, he re-named the Mathis Yacht Building Company, John Trumpy & Sons.  He and his family moved the company to Annapolis, Md., in 1947.   Sadly, the business was shuttered in 1973 due to fiberglass’s popularity.

https://www.hagerty.com/articles-videos/articles/2016/05/19/trumpy-yachts  See also http://www.shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/6yachtsmall/trumpynj.htm

A Single Goal:  The Art of Trumpy Yacht Building  May 12, 2016 to July 15, 2016   A major exhibition exploring the detailed process of wooden boat-building as an art form using Trumpy Yachts as its focus.  Models, paintings, photographs, artifacts, vintage signage and original drawings by Naval Architect and yacht designer John Trumpy, Sr., brings the boat-building process to life.  The exhibit explores the craftsmanship of these distinctive yachts including their furnishings and interior finishes; how the yachts were coveted as a status symbol in the 1930s and 40s; and the preservation of the remaining yachts as a historical treasure.  https://www.marylandhall.org/exhibitions/single-goal-art-trumpy-yacht-building

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1493  July 7, 2016  On this date in 1863, the United States began its first military draft.  Exemptions cost $300.  On this date in 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Alaska Statehood Act into law.  Word of the Day  adhocracy noun  (business)  An organizational system designed to be flexible and responsive to the needs of the moment rather than excessively bureaucratic.  Alvin Toffler popularized the word in his book Future Shock (1970).