Vinland, the land of wild grapes in North America that was visited and named by Leif Eriksson about the year 1000 CE.  Its exact location is not known, but it was probably the area surrounding the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in what is now eastern Canada.  The most detailed information about Viking visits to Vinland is contained in two Norse sagas, Grænlendinga saga (“Saga of the Greenlanders”) and Eiríks saga rauða (“Erik the Red’s Saga”).  These two accounts differ somewhat.  According to the Grænlendinga saga, Bjarni Herjólfsson became the first European to sight mainland North America when his Greenland-bound ship was blown westward off course about 985.  He apparently sailed along the Atlantic coastline of eastern Canada and from there returned to Greenland.  About 1000 a crew of 35 men led by Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red, set out to try to find the land sighted by Bjarni. Leif’s expedition came first to an icy barren land that he called Helluland (“Land of Flat Rocks”); sailing southward, they encountered a flat wooded land, which Leif named Markland (“Land of Forests”).  Again they set sail southward and came to the warmer, more-hospitable area where they decided to stay and build a base, Leifsbúðir (“Leif’s Camp”).  Exploring from there, they found fine lumber and wild grapes, which led them to name the land Vinland (“Land of Wine”).  Birgitta Wallace  https://www.britannica.com/place/Vinland

Kamut is a type of specialty grain derived from an ancient Egyptian variety of wheat.  Consisting of large kernels that can be ground into flour, processed into flakes or cooked in the same manner as rice or barley, kamut can be substituted for wheat flour in baked goods or added to soups, pilafs or stews.  It is low in fat, cholesterol-free and higher in protein than wheat, with a 1-cup serving of cooked kamut providing 22 percent of the recommended daily allowance of protein for the average adult.  Kamut is also rich in nutrients that are essential for good health, including dietary fiber, manganese, magnesium and niacin.  http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/benefits-kamut-7394.html

KOA TREE  Common Names:  Koa, Hawaiian Koa  Scientific Name:  Acacia Koa  Color/Appearance:  Color can be highly variable, but tends to be medium golden or reddish brown, similar to Mahogany.  There are usually contrasting bands of color in the growth rings, and it is not uncommon to see boards with ribbon-like streaks of color.  Common Uses:  Veneer, furniture, cabinetry, musical instruments (especially guitars and ukuleles), canoes, gunstocks, carvings, bowls, and other turned/specialty wood objects.  Comments:  Although Koa is naturally quite abundant on the islands of Hawaii, most Koa forests have been cleared for grazing pastures; and since young Koa seedlings are edible for grazing animals, most new trees are prevented from growing to lumber-harvestable size.  As a result, mature Koa trees are either scarce, or in hard-to-access mountainous locations, and the price of Koa is likely to only increase further in the future.  Visually, Koa has been compared to Mahogany, while in terms of working and mechanical properties, it has been compared to Walnut.  Because of its nearly equal tangential and radial shrinkage, (its T/R Ratio is only 1.1), Koa tends to be quite stable regarding environmental changes in humidity.  Link to wood articles at http://www.wood-database.com/koa/

Michael Kidd (1915–2007) was an American film and stage choreographer, dancer and actor, whose career spanned five decades, and staged some of the leading Broadway and film musicals of the 1940s and 1950s.  Kidd, who was strongly influenced by Charlie Chaplin and Léonide Massine, was an innovator in what came to be known as the "integrated musical", in which dance movements are integral to the plot.  He was probably best known for his athletic dance numbers in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a 1954 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical, and for choreographing Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in the "Girl Hunt Ballet" and "Dancing in the Dark" numbers in the 1953 musical film The Band Wagon.  Film critic Stephanie Zacharek called the barn-raising sequence in Seven Brides "one of the most rousing dance numbers ever put on screen".  He was the first choreographer to win five Tony Awards, and was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for advancing dance in film.  Kidd was born Milton Greenwald in New York City on the Lower East Side, the son of Abraham Greenwald, a barber, and his wife Lillian, who were Jewish refugees from Czarist Russia.  He moved to Brooklyn with his family and attended New Utrecht High School.  He became interested in dance after attending a modern dance performance, and went on to study under Blanche Evan, a dancer and choreographer.  He studied chemical engineering at the City College of New York, in 1936 and 1937, but left after being granted a scholarship to the School of American Ballet.  He toured the country as a member of the corps de ballet of Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Caravan, and performed in roles that included the lead in Billy the Kid, choreographed by Eugene Loring, which featured an orchestral arrangement by Aaron Copland.  He adopted the name "Michael Kidd" in 1942.  At the time he was performing with Ballet Caravan and all the dancers were urged to adopt "American" names.  He chose Kidd because it was short, easy to remember, and evocative of the pirate, Captain Kidd.  In 1941, Kidd became a soloist and assistant to Loring in his Dance Players.  He moved on to become a soloist for Ballet Theater, later known as the American Ballet Theater.  His performances there included Fancy Free (1944) choreographed by Jerome Robbins and with music by Leonard Bernstein, in which he played one of the three sailors.  While at the ABT, he created his own ballet, On Stage! (1945).  Although the play and his performance were well received, and the New York Times observed that Kidd was "hailed as one of the great hopes of postwar American ballet," he left Loring's company for Broadway in 1947 and never again worked in ballet.  Read more and see film and Broadway credits at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kidd

Barn Raising Dance (7 Brides for 7 Brothers) - MGM Studio Orchestra (HD)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TygmMPbwfjA  6:33 

Michael Kidd on "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd2pGMgrAkM  4:51

The source material for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was Stephen Vincent Benet's short story The Sobbin' Women originally published in the November 1938 issue of Argosy.  The Sobbin' Women was itself a parody of an ancient Greek story as taken from Plutarch's Life of Romulus about the Sabine Women, who were abducted by Roman soldiers to be their brides.  Benet's story updated the setting to the Oregon frontier of the 1850s and substituted the Roman men with seven rural brothers.  Bringing the tale of The Sobbin' Women to the big screen had long been producer Jack Cummings' pet project. Cummings, the nephew of Louis B. Mayer, had produced several successful musicals for MGM including Easy to Wed (1946) and Kiss Me Kate (1953).  Famed Broadway director Joshua Logan had already optioned the rights to Benet's story, however, with the intention of turning it into a stage musical.  After five years passed and Logan had not made progress with The Sobbin' Women, his option was up and MGM quickly snapped up the rights to the story on Cummings' behalf for $40,000.  Cummings immediately began to assemble a top rate team to work on the film version of The Sobbin' Women. He brought the husband and wife writing team of Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich along with Dorothy Kingsley to adapt the story into a workable screenplay.  He then asked Stanley Donen to direct.  MGM didn't want to spend any money for original songs to use in The Sobbin' Women.  The studio management thought the film could use already existing American folk songs for musical numbers.  Stanley Donen fought hard to get an original musical score and new songs for the film, which MGM finally conceded.  Johnny Mercer was brought on board to write song lyrics.  At first composer Harold Arlen was to collaborate with Mercer on the music, but Mercer rejected working with Arlen.  "He's too picky about the words that go with his music," he explained.  Eventually Mercer partnered successfully with Gene de Paul, and together they came up with several new inspired songs for the film including "Bless Your Beautiful Hide," "June Bride," and "Sobbin' Women."  Showing on TCM Thursday February 23, 2017 at 8:00 p.m., Sunday March 12, 2017 at 4:00 p.m., and Thursday April 13, 2017 at 4:00 p.m.   http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/191150%7C0/The-Big-Idea-Seven-Brides-for-Seven-Brothers.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1692  February 13, 2017  On this date in1741, Andrew Bradford published the first issue of the American Magazine, the first magazine to be published in America.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Bradford  On this date in 1867, work began on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.  On this date in 1914, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers was established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.