OSTRACISM--A FORM OF ELECTION   Soon after their victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians began the practice of ostracism, a form of election designed to curb the power of any rising tyrant.  They were probably inspired at least in part by the fact that their old tyrant Hippias, who had been thrown out years before, accompanied the Persian fleet to Marathon, hoping to be reinstalled in power in Athens once again.  The procedure of ostracism was simple.  Once a year the people would meet in the Agora and take a vote to determine if anyone was becoming too powerful and was in a position to establish a tyranny.  If a simple majority voted yes, they met again in the Agora two months later.  At this second meeting each citizen carried with him an ostrakon (potsherd) on which he had scratched the name of the person he wished ostracized. if at least 6,000 votes were cast, the man with the most votes lost and was exiled for ten years.  http://www.agathe.gr/democracy/practice_of_ostracism.html

Character asks for pencil and paper.  Narrator II  "He then got an unsharpened pencil and the Morning Post; sent them back; got a fountain pen with no ink in it and six reams of brown paper suitable for parcels . . . "  Who is the character?   Find out at https://esirc.emporia.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/2977/Kelly,%20Christine%201968.pdf?sequence=1  HINT:  Click on Web site--then search for unsharp OR morning post.

The Constitution does not require that any federal judges have any particular educational background, but the work of the Court involved complex questions of law--ranging from constitutional law to administrative law to admiralty law--and consequentially, a legal education has become a de facto prerequisite to appointment on the Supreme Court.  Every person who has been nominated to the Court has been an attorney.  Before the advent of modern law schools in the United States, justices, like most attorneys of the time, completed their legal studies by "reading law" (studying under and acting as an apprentice to more experienced attorneys) rather than attend a formal program.  The first Justice to be appointed who had attended an actual law school was Levi Woodbury, appointed to the Court in 1846.  Woodbury had attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, the most prestigious law school in the United States in that day, prior to his admission to the bar in 1812.  However, Woodbury did not earn a law degree.  Woodbury's successor on the Court, Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1832, and was appointed to the Court in 1851, was the first Justice to bear such a credential.  Associate Justice James F. Byrnes, whose short tenure lasted from June 1941 to October 1942, was the last Justice without a law degree to be appointed; Stanley Forman Reed, who served on the Court from 1938 to 1957, was the last sitting Justice from such a background.  In total, of the 112 Justices appointed to the Court, 46 have had law degrees, an additional 18 attended some law school but did not receive a degree, and 47 received their legal education without any law school attendance.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_schools_attended_by_United_States_Supreme_Court_Justices

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS  Explore items digitized from the New York Public Library's collections.  New materials added every day--featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and streaming video  http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

shermanesque  (shur-muh-NESK)  adjective  1.  Unequivocal, especially in refusing to run for an office.  2.  Brutally thorough, especially in defeating someone.  The Union general William Tecumseh Sherman didn’t mince words.  When he was being considered as a presidential candidate, he said, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”  Since then, a categorical statement, especially a denial, is called Shermanesque.  Reporters ask politicians if their announcement not to run for an office is Shermanesque to confirm whether they really mean it.

suffrage  (SUF-rij)  noun  The right to vote; also, the exercise of such a right.  From French suffrage, from Latin suffragium (voting tablet, right to vote).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break), which also gave us break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, irrefragable, and fractious.  Suffrage?  Because a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in the past.  Earliest documented use:  1380.   “Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, was the first woman to run for the US presidency, though she couldn’t even vote for herself on election day, Nov 5, 1872.”  Simon Carswell; She is a Tough Lady.  She is All of Our Hero; Irish Times (Dublin); Jun 9, 2016. 

Reed Farrel Coleman (born 1956) is an American writer of crime fiction and a poet.  Coleman did not consider making writing a career until taking a Brooklyn College detective fiction class.  He is a multiple award winning author, particularly his Moe Prager series.  Also published are series featuring protagonists Gulliver Dowd, Dylan Klein, and Joe Serpe.  The Dowd character was based on a retired police detective that he had met.  The Joe Serpe novels were originally written under the pen name Tony Spinosa, but are now available as Coleman titles.  He has written the stand-alone novels Tower with Ken Bruen, Bronx Reqiem with Det. (ret.) John Roe of the NYPD, and Gun Church, as well as several short stories, essays, and poems.  He considers William Blake, Lawrence Block, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to be early influences.  Later he found significance in the writing of colleagues Peter Blauner, Ken Bruen, Jim Fusilli, S.J. Rozan, and Peter Spiegelman.  He says, though, that his single greatest writing influence was his college poetry professor, David Lehman, who provided "permission to be a writer and . . . the first clues on self-editing.  With a four book contract, Coleman takes over writing Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series with the September 2014 publication of Blind Spot.  He has also been signed to a two book deal featuring retired Suffolk County (NY) cop turned PI Gus Murphy.  He is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University, a former Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America, and a founding member of Mystery Writers of America University.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Farrel_Coleman  See also Hard-Boiled Poet,
the Reed Farrel Coleman Interview conducted by Jack Bludis.  Reed Farrel Coleman has won the Shamus Award three times for Best Private-Eye Novel.  He has also won the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards and has been nominated twice for the Edgar.   http://www.thrillingdetective.com/non_fiction/i002.html

A push poll is an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which an individual or organization attempts to manipulate or alter prospective voters' views/beliefs under the guise of conducting an opinion poll.  In a push poll, large numbers of voters are contacted briefly (often for less than 60 seconds), with little or no effort made to actually collect and analyze voters' response data.   Instead, the push poll is a form oftelemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as an opinion poll. Push polls may rely on innuendo, or information gleaned from opposition research on the political opponent of the interests behind the poll.  Push polls are generally viewed as a form of negative campaigning.   However, in all such polls, the pollster asks leading questions or suggestive questions that "push" the interviewee towards adopting an unfavourable response towards the political candidate in question.  Richard Nixon was one of push polling's pioneers.  In his very first campaign, a successful 1946 run for the U.S. House against Democrat incumbent Jerry Voorhis, Democratic voters throughout the district reported receiving telephone calls that began:  "This is a friend of yours, but I can't tell you who I am.  Did you know that Jerry Voorhis is a communist?" (he wasn't)--at which point the caller hung up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll

Most surveys have an agenda that is apparent in the loaded questions.  Before I decided not to answer any more surveys, I took a call about health care.  Woke me up by the way.  When the questioner asked "Wouldn't you prefer a small hospital to a big hospital", I ended the call.

Gerald So holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hofstra University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Queens College/CUNY.  He and friends Patrick Shawn Bagley, Richie Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone founded THE LINEUP:  POEMS ON CRIME, each having equal say in the selection of new and previously published poetry.  THE LINEUP became an annual chapbook series (2008, '09, '10, and '11), Richie laying out the interiors, his friend John Collis designing the covers.  Sarah Cortez stepped in for Patrick on the last two, Reed Farrel Coleman for Anthony on the last one.  Gerald currently edits THE FIVE-TWO accepting submissions year-round.  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/geraldso

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1511  August 10, 2016  On this date in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000.  On this date in 1954, at Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway was held.