Wednesday, April 19, 2017

The March for Science has been scheduled for Saturday, April 22 in Washington, D.C.  A growing constellation of marches are also scheduled for that day in cities across the U.S.  What began as a Reddit conversation has grown into a movement of scientists and science lovers standing up for evidenced-based policy making and inclusivity in the science community.  The date of the march isn’t just an average Saturday. April 22 is Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970.  The original Earth Day is seen by many as a turning point in the environmental movement.  The year itself also marks a major turning point for the U.S. government and environmental policy.  In 1970, Richard Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Agency into existence and it began operating that December.  Brian Kahn

The amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) includes the previously separate family of the beets and spinaches, the Chenopodiaceae.  Amaranth is not related to the Graminae, the real grains.  Compared to other grains amaranth seeds have a much higher content of the minerals calcium, magnesium, iron and of the amino acid Lysine.  Amaranth seeds are also high in potassium, zinc, Vitamin B and E and can contain over 20% protein (depending on the variety).  You can find amaranth grain in health food stores in the form of amaranth flour and the popped seeds as amaranth cereal.  http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/amaranth-plant.html  Find a list of vegetable families, including umbellifers, goosefoot/beetroot and poaceae/grasses at

A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín ("littlest ridge"), first recorded in 1833, and in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine.  Read more and find examples of drumlins in Europe, North America, Asia, South American and Antarctica at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drumlin  See also http://www.landforms.eu/Lothian/drumlin.htm

Known as the world’s secondhand book capital, Hay-on-Wye is home to over 30 used and antiquarian bookshops as well as the internationally acclaimed Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts.  A medieval market town on the English-Welsh border, Hay-on-Wye lies just north of the Black Mountains on the east bank of the River Wye.  Its literary aspirations began in 1961, when eccentric bookseller Richard Booth opened his first secondhand bookshop in town.  Founded in 1987 and described by former US president Bill Clinton as “the Woodstock of the mind,” the Hay Festival is an annual 10-day literary event with workshops, readings, guest speakers, and book signings.  It’s held from late May to early June.  Read more and see wonderful pictures at http://europeupclose.com/article/browsing-hay-on-wye-wales/

paparazzo (pah-puh-RAHT-so) noun  A photographer who follows famous people to take their pictures for publication.  From Paparazzo, the name of a photographer in Federico Fellini’s 1959 film La Dolce Vita.  Fellini got the name via scriptwriter Ennio Flaiano who picked it from the 1901 travel book By the Ionian Sea.  The book mentions a hotel owner named Coriolano Paparazzo.  Fellini claimed at another time that the name Paparazzo suggested to him “a buzzing insect, hovering, darting, stinging”.  Earliest documented use:  1961.  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

In the March 2017 edition of BookPage, I saw "Feed your TBR!"  Not knowing what that meant, I did a search on Google, and the featured definition was "To Be Real."  Later I found 56 definitions in an acronym finder, and it's probably the second meaning ("To Be Read") in the list.  Doesn't make much sense, however.  http://www.acronymfinder.com/TBR.html

Other paths to "It's raining cats and dogs"  Il pleut des cordes  Literally “It’s raining ropes,” this way of describing a heavy downpour in French evokes the image of rain pouring from rooftops when it literally forms long “ropes” of raindrops stretching to the ground.  The most common English equivalent is probably “It’s raining cats and dogs.”  Il pleut des hallebardes  This is another expression you’ll hear when it’s pouring rain outside.  The literal meaning is “It’s raining halberds” (a halberd being an ax-like weapon that dates back to the 14th century).  The English equivalent of this expression could be “It’s pouring buckets” or “It’s bucketing down” in UK English.  Also keep in mind that the s in des is silent, since hallebardes starts with an aspirated hhttp://www.fluentu.com/french/blog/french-weather-expressions/  Thank you, Muse reader!

From 1897-1968, the Boston Marathon was held on Patriots' Day, April 19, a holiday commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War and recognized only in Massachusetts and Maine.  If the 19th fell on a Sunday, the race was held on the following day.  Roberta Gibb was the first woman to run the full Boston Marathon in 1966.  She did not run with an official number from 1966-1968.  In 1967, Katherine Switzer, did not clearly identify herself as a female on the race application and was issued a bib number.  Marathon officials tried unsuccessfully to physically remove Switzer from the race.  When women were allowed entry in the fall of 1971, Nina Kuscsik's 1972 victory made her the first official female champion of the Boston Marathon.  http://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/boston-marathon-history.aspx

April 18, 2017 – Patricia Spears Jones is the eleventh winner of the Jackson Poetry Prize.  Poets & Writers, the New York­­–based service organization for creative writers, annually awards the Jackson Poetry Prize to an American poet of exceptional talent who deserves wider recognition.  The $50,000 prize is among the most substantial given to an American poet and is designed to provide what all poets need:  time and encouragement to write.  Patricia Spears Jones is a Brooklyn-based African American poet.  Her most recent collection of poems, A Lucent  Fire:  New and Selected Poems, published by White Pine Press in 2015, was a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s 2016 William Carlos Williams Prize, as well as for the Paterson Poetry Prize.  Her earlier books include Painkiller (Tia Chucha Press, 2010), Femme du Monde (Tia Chucha Press, 2006), and The Weather That Kills (Coffee House Press, 1995).  Previous honors include a 2016 Pushcart Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, and awards from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Goethe-Institut, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and the New York Community Trust.  The Jackson Poetry Prize is endowed by a gift from the Liana Foundation and is named for the John and Susan Jackson family.  There is no application process; poets are nominated by a panel of their peers who remain anonymous.  Previous recipients of the Jackson Poetry Prize are Will Alexander (2016), X. J. Kennedy (2015), Claudia Rankine (2014), Arthur Sze (2013), Henri Cole (2012), James Richardson (2011), Harryette Mullen (2010), Linda Gregg (2009), Tony Hoagland (2008), and Elizabeth Alexander (2007).  Read more at https://www.pw.org/about-us/news-releases/patricia_spears_jones_wins_50000_jackson_poetry_prize


http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1695  April 19, 2017  On this date in 1986, Zhou Mi, Chinese singer-songwriter and actor, was born.  On this date in 1986,  Candace Parker, American basketball player, was born.  Thought for Today  There is a beauty in discovery.  There is mathematics in music, a kinship of science and poetry in the description of nature, and exquisite form in a molecule. - Glenn T. Seaborg, scientist, Nobel laureate (19 Apr 1912-1999)  Word of the Day  syllabub noun  A drink dating back to the 16th century consisting primarily of milk curdled with an alcoholic beverage or some acid such as lemon juice, which is usually then sweetened and spiced.  Also everlasting syllabub or solid syllabub:  dessert pudding derived from the drink.  (figuratively) Something lacking substance; something frothy, insubstantial, or lightweight.

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