Known to Native Americans as the Shining Mountains and the Backbone of the World, Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys in the Rocky Mountains.  Evidence of human use in this area dates back to over 10,000 years.  Read more and see pictures at http://www.legendsofamerica.com/mt-glacierpark.html

The Many Glacier Hotel, known as the “Gem of the West,” was constructed in 1914 and 1915 during a flurry of construction in the years after Glacier National Park was created.  The hotel was one of a series of structures built inside the park by the Great Northern Railway, which was trying to market Glacier as the “American Alps” to attract passengers to its trains.  Great Northern’s president at the time, Louis Hill, took a great deal of pride in developing the park and personally headed up numerous projects, including selecting the locations of the hotels and chalets.  In order to capitalize on that alpine theme, the Many Glacier Hotel and numerous other structures were built in the style of a Swiss chalet.  According to a 2002 National Park Service structure report, the “stylistic unity” at Glacier distinguished it from the development at Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon and other western parks.  The Many Glacier Hotel complex was first added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and became a National Historic Landmark about a decade later.   Glacier Park spokesperson Denise Germann said the park service has been looking at restoring the spiral staircase for a decade but that funding has always been an issue.  http://flatheadbeacon.com/2015/05/04/glacier-park-to-restore-historic-many-glacier-staircase/

Glacier National Park's 'case of the missing staircase' will be solved this year by Vince Devlin   When the National Park Service announced $26 million in Centennial Challenge Projects it had approved for 2016, there were loads of them associated with improved trails. 

But only one will replace a missing staircase.  Magnificent Many Glacier Hotel in Glacier National Park will see the return of a double-helix staircase that was torn out in the 1950s.  The staircase used to circle from Many Glacier’s grand lobby down to the hotel’s “lakeside level.”  The double-helix staircase at the Many Glacier Hotel was removed 60-some years ago, apparently to make room for a gift shop in the lobby.  At the center of staircase was a fountain containing fish.  Some 35,000 guests stay at Many Glacier Hotel each summer.  Seasonal rangers who lead tours of the historic five-story hotel tell about the missing staircase, and how workers who tore it out in the 1950s discovered it was packed tight with bars of hotel soap.  Packrats had squirreled the stolen soaps away inside the staircase.  http://missoulian.com/news/local/glacier-national-park-s-case-of-the-missing-staircase-will/article_f3fe5436-6764-5167-9a59-01154974c2c5.html?mobile_touch=true

Poetry of the palate:  food—sweet or savory—is a source of inspiration by Mary Bileyu  Read poems about food and drink and see recipes at

http://www.toledoblade.com/Food/2016/07/05/Poetry-of-the-palate-Food-sweet-or-savory-is-a-source-of-inspiration.html

Within the highly automated folds of Amazon’s online bookstore, there’s a small team of literary types whose main job is rather old school.  They read books, write about them and rank the works according to their qualities, helping readers sift through thousands of offerings while also planting the tech juggernaut’s flag in the world of literary culture.  In an engineer-driven company ruled by algorithms and metrics, the Amazon book editors are rare birds.  Once in a while, they’re misunderstood by authors and publishers who retain a deep suspicion of Amazon.com after years of clashes over the book industry’s future.  The editors produce Amazon Book Review, an online offering similar to literary supplements newspapers have been putting out for more than a century.  They also put together frequent lists of recommendations prominently displayed on Amazon’s bookstore.  In June 2016, after four intense meetings and a lot of hallway discussions, the team of editors picked “Lab Girl,” Hope Jahren’s memoir on becoming a plant biologist, as the best book of the year so far, an honor that some publishing experts say could help boost recognition and sales.  The current team was assembled by Amazon editorial director Sara Nelson, a renowned publishing veteran.  Nelson, however, is leaving after a four-year stint to become executive editor and vice president at HarperCollins, one of the big New York publishers.  “We’re not choosing books that are going to be in the canon,” Nelson said in an interview before her departure was announced.  “We’re choosing books that we think are going to connect with our readers.”  Ángel González  http://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/how-amazons-team-of-old-school-book-reviewers-influences-what-we-read/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  Many animals have given their names to colors in the English language. 

vermeil  (VUHR-mil, -mayl)  noun  1. Vermilion color: bright orange-red.  2. Metal, such as silver, bronze, or copper that has been gilded.  adjective  Bright red in color.  The word is coined after insects (of genus Kermes) that are used to make red dye.  From Latin vermiculus (little worm, kermes), diminutive of vermis (worm).

teal  (teel)  noun  1.  Any of the various species of small dabbling ducks.  2.  Greenish blue color.  adjective  Of greenish blue color.  From Middle English tele.  The color is named after the patches of this shade on the teal.

taupe  (toap, rhymes with rope)   noun  A brownish gray, similar to the color of moleskin.  adjective  Of a brownish gray color.  From French taupe (mole), from Latin talpa (mole).

sepia  (SEE-pee-uh)  noun  1.  A reddish brown color.  2.  A brown pigment originally made from the cuttlefish ink.  3.  A drawing made with this pigment.  4.  A monochrome photograph in this color.  adjective  Of a reddish-brown color.  From Latin sepia (cuttlefish), from Greek sepia (cuttlefish).

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

From:  Ellen Blackstone  Subject:  teal  I can never think of teal--the ducks--without recalling the collective noun for a group of teal. It is “spring” and it suggests both the sound and the action of several teal taking flight--a spring of teal!  More such collective nouns can be found at http://birdnote.org/show/murder-party-stare-or-siege.

From:  Nicholas Clifford   Subject:  taupe  For what it’s worth, the Prompter (a tenor role) in Richard Strauss’s marvelous opera Capriccio, is identified as Monsieur Taupe, and at least in the DVD version that I own, is portrayed by a small man who spends much of his time blinking--like a mole, of course.

From:  Juliet Ezeilo  Subject:  Sepia  Thanks for today’s word, sepia! Always reminds me of Wole Soyinka’s Telephone Conversation at http://allpoetry.com/poem/10379451-Telephone-Conversation-by-Wole-Soyinka

From:  Dennis Lynch  Subject:  Cuttlefish  Ah yes, the cuttlefish.  “A ten-armed marine mollusk differing from a squid in that it has an internal calcified shell.”  Fifty years ago in high school Latin we had to memorize that definition.  We were reading some of Pliny’s letters and the teacher went to the topic of the ink the Romans used when writing on papyrus.  Whenever I read the word cuttlefish, this definition immediately and automatically comes to mind.  And, yes, it did show up on a quiz.

From:  Bob Wilson  Subject:  sepia  Sepia in connection with photography has additional meaning beyond just being a color.  In traditional monochrome photography the “print” image consists of metallic silver (where there is a dark region, finely divided silver appears black) suspended in a coating on paper.  But, although silver is much more stable than the dyes making up a color image, it can fade as it is affected by chemicals in the air, on fingerprints, etc., such as sulfur compounds.  Sepia is used not as a dye but as a chemical that converts part or all of the silver chemically to silver sulfide, which has the color we associate with sepia toned prints.  That is even longer lasting than plain silver, so many of the very old photographs we still can enjoy are ones that were sepia toned.

ICE CREAM AND BOOK PAIRINGS FOR HOT SUMMER DAYS by ASHLEY BOWEN-MURPHY   There’s nothing better than reading outside on a warm, summer day.  Oh wait, yes there is!  Reading outside on a warm, summer day with ice cream.  I’m generally the sort of person who is happy to eat almost any ice cream flavor with just about any book.  That said, sometimes I enjoy matching my treat to the book I’ve got in front of me.  If you’re looking to sweeten your next reading session, or for a bookish way to celebrate National Ice Cream Month, find suggested ice cream and book pairings at http://bookriot.com/2016/07/12/ice-cream-and-book-pairings-for-hot-summer-days/  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1500  July 20, 2016  On this date in 1903, the Ford Motor Company shipped its first car.  On this date in 1940,  California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.  On this date in 2015, the United States and Cuba resumed full diplomatic relations after five decades.  Word of the Day  Earth-grazing adjective  (astronomy) (About a meteoroid) Entering the Earth's atmosphere and leaving into space again.  (astronomy) Approaching the Earth closely.