Inside The Newly Restored Sculpture Gallery At Philip Johnson's Glass House by Meghan Drueding with photographs by Lane Coder   The 3,650-square sculpture gallery is part of Johnson’s 49-acre estate in New Canaan, Connecticut, a National Trust Historic Site since 2007.  Thousands of visitors per year flock there to see the Glass House itself, a tiny, transparent sensation unveiled by Johnson in 1949.  He beat his sometimes-friend and always-competitor Ludwig Mies van der Rohe by two years:  Mies completed the equally iconic, all-glass Farnsworth House—also a National Trust Historic Site—in 1951, annoyed that Johnson had admittedly borrowed his idea.  Without the Ohio-born Johnson, Modernist architecture might never have taken off in the United States.  He and collaborator Henry-Russell Hitchcock created a groundbreaking 1932 show at the Museum of Modern Art called Modern Architecture: International Exhibition that introduced the American public to the unadorned work of architects such as Mies, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier.  The exhibition kick-started Modernism as the dominant American architectural style for the next half-century.  Over that same period, Johnson became a consummate connector of influential people, especially in New York society circles.  He helped convince heiress Phyllis Lambert to hire Mies to design the Seagram Building in New York (1958), an instant classic.  Along with serving as an associate on the project, Johnson designed the building’s legendary Four Seasons restaurant, holding court from his corner table there for the next several decades.  (In a major loss for preservation, the landmarked restaurant space was disassembled in 2016, and its contents, including furniture by Johnson, Mies, and Eero Saarinen, were auctioned off.)  The most coveted seat of all, though, was in the living room at the Glass House, about 45 miles north of the city, where cultural heavyweights such as Frank Lloyd Wright, John Cage, and Andy Warhol would gather to discuss the issues of the day.  Architecture critic Vincent Scully called the Glass House “the longest-running salon in the history of the United States.”  Restoration began in March of 2015, with the delicate task of boxing up and moving the sculptures.  Two were moved to Da Monsta, a curvy 1995 entry pavilion on the property.  Three works were lent to the traveling exhibition Frank Stella:  A Retrospective, organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the remaining seven were protected in place, sealed tight in structural wooden crates.  Then the construction team, led by Andrew Wilson of Nicholson & Galloway, built a watertight work platform inside the building, under the roof.  It covered the entire area of the gallery, so the crew would be able to replace the skylight and restore the cold-cathode lighting system without disturbing the crated sculptures below.  Read much more at https://savingplaces.org/stories/inside-the-newly-restored-sculpture-gallery-at-philip-johnsons-glass-house#.WH9zg1MrKUk  See also https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-why-some-of-new-york-s-most-significant-historic-interiors-are-in-danger

QUOTE from Seven Days (Benny Griessel Series #3) by Deon Meyer  "That's the problem with having money, you never stop worrying about losing it." 

Deon Meyer was born in the South African town of Paarl in the winelands of the Western Cape in 1958, and grew up in Klerksdorp, in the gold mining region of Northwest Province.  After military duty and studying at the Potchefstroom University, he joined Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper in Bloemfontein as a reporter.  Before becoming a full-time crime author in 2009 he also worked as press liaison, advertising copywriter, creative director, Internet strategist, and brand consultant.  Deon completed an honours degree in History (UFS), and an MA in Creative Writing at the US.  He wrote his first book when he was 14 years old, and bribed and blackmailed his two brothers into reading it. They were not impressed (hey, everybody is a critic . . . )  Heeding their wisdom, he did not write fiction again until he was in his early thirties, when he started publishing short stories in South African magazines.  "I still believe that is the best way to learn the craft of writing. Short stories teach you a lot about story structure--and you have limited space to develop character and plot," says Deon.  In 1994 he published his first Afrikaans novel, which has not been translated, "simply because it was not good enough to compete on the international market.  However, it was a wonderful learning experience".  All later novels have been translated into 27 languages, including English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Russian, Finnish, Czech, Romanian, Slovakian and Bulgarian.  He has written several feature film screenplays based on his short stories, including Jakhalsdans, Die Ballade van Robbie de Wee, and Die Laaste Tango (he also directed the latter), and two series for television--Orion (based on Dead at Daybreak) and Transito.  The film rights of Thirteen Hours have been sold to an international production company, and most of his other novels have been optioned for movies.  http://www.deonmeyer.com/bio.html

Channel Islands, French Îles Normandes or Anglo-Normandes, archipelago in the English Channel, west of the Cotentin peninsula of France, at the entrance to the Gulf of Saint-Malo, 80 miles (130 km) south of the English coast.  The islands are dependencies of the British crown (and not strictly part of the United Kingdom), having been so attached since the Norman Conquest of 1066, when they formed part of the duchy of Normandy.  They comprise four main islands, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark, with lesser islets and a labyrinth of rocks and reefs.  They are administered according to local laws and customs, being grouped into two distinct bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey, with differing constitutions.  Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Lihou, and Brecqhou are Guernsey’s dependencies, and the Ecrehous rocks and Les Minquiers are Jersey’s.  The last two were the source of long-standing dispute between England and France until 1953, when the International Court of Justice confirmed British sovereignty.  In the late 20th century the dispute revived, as sovereignty of these islands determines allocation of rights to economic development (specifically, petroleum) of the continental shelf.  The islands were the only British territory to endure German occupation during World War II.  Anticipating invasion, some 30,000 of the islands’ then 104,000 residents evacuated before the arrival of German forces at the end of June and beginning of July 1940.  The islands’ occupiers surrendered in May 1945.  Fine scenery, flowering vegetation, and a mild maritime climate have made the Channel Islands popular resort areas.  The islands are famous for their breeds of cattle and for the export of fruit, flowers, tomatoes, and early potatoes.  They enjoy tax sovereignty, and their exports are protected by British tariff barriers. English and French are commonly spoken (though use of the latter is declining), and a Norman-French patois survives.  St. Helier, on Jersey, and St. Peter Port, on Guernsey, are the islands’ main population centres.  Area 75 square miles (194 square km).  Pop. (2001) 149,878.  https://www.britannica.com/place/Channel-Islands-English-Channel  Find more information and many pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Islands

Some 10,000 years ago as the last Ice Age melted away, new bodies of water formed including the English Channel and Irish Sea.  Great Britain and Ireland were now islands.  The Roman Legions (40,000 strong) crossed the English Channel in 43 AD.  Literally undefended, the Romans named this wild new province, Britannia, and for some 350 years they controlled and influenced it, until their own Empire collapsed upon itself in 410 AD.  The English Channel is a part of the Atlantic Ocean, and it separates the island of Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.  It is today one of the busiest shipping lanes on the planet.  It's approximately 350 miles long, and at its narrowest in the Strait of Dover.  It's somewhat shallow, with an average depth of less than 50 meters between Dover and Calais.  http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/englishchannel.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1689  February 7, 2017  On this date in 1497, the Bonfire of the Vanities occurred, during which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burned cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.  On this date in 1812, an earthquake struck New Madrid, Missouri.  New Madrid was destroyed.  In St. Louis, Missouri, many houses were severely damaged, and their chimneys were toppled.  This shock was definitively attributed to the Reelfoot Fault by Johnston and Schweig.  Uplift along a segment of this reverse fault created temporary waterfalls on the Mississippi at Kentucky Bend, created waves that propagated upstream, and caused the formation of Reelfoot Lake by obstructing streams in what is now Lake County, Tennessee.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%9312_New_Madrid_earthquakes