From Amy Dickinson  What I learned from my mother's life-lesson is that when you have a book, you are never alone.  Reading unlocks worlds of imagination and creativity.  Literacy imparts real power, and this is especially important for people who feel powerless.  The magic of literacy can happen at any time, but it is especially important in childhood.  Reading helps a young child's brain develop and mature.  Reading for pleasure is a lifelong gift of entertainment and learning. On Christmas morning (or whatever holiday you celebrate), make sure that each child in your household wakes up to a wrapped book at the foot of their bed.  The gift could be a new book or an old favorite from your own childhood.  If your family celebrates Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, imagine the possibilities for starting each celebratory morning with a story!  After the child unwraps the book, the most important aspect of this gift is unveiled, when the parent sits and shares it with the child.  Starting a celebration morning by reading together will forge an unforgettable intimacy for both the child and the parent.  This year I am partnering with Children's Reading Connection, a new national early literacy initiative founded in my hometown of Ithaca, N.Y.  Their advocacy focuses on the importance of helping families to share books with babies and children.  Even babies too young to talk with tune in, in a deep and abiding way, when they are held and read to.  This is an important prescription for health and success in growing brains--and sharing a book is a wonderful way for families to connect.  Every year I hear from teachers, librarians, parents and grandparents who tell me they have adopted the "book on every bed" tradition in their homes.  I can think of no nicer way to kick off a busy Christmas morning than by snuggling up with a book before opening other gifts.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/askamy/ct-ask-amy-ae-1218-story.html

A tropical tree found in the tropics, sea grape plant (Coccoloba uvifera) is often used in ocean-side landscaping.  Growing sea grapes can be found in sandy soil right on the beach and it produces clusters of fruit that resemble grapes.  The tree tends to branch off into multiple trunks, but can be trained (pruned) to form a single one and its size can be maintained to that of a shrub.  It can grow up to 25-30 feet high when left unchecked.  They are most often utilized to create a windbreak or hedge, although they make attractive specimen plants as well.  They do well in urban environments and have even been used as street trees along boulevards and freeways.  The plant blooms with flowers of ivory to white, which grow in clusters on short stalks.  The resulting fruit also grows in clusters and can be white or purple.  Since the fruit looks so much like grapes, one wonders are sea grapes edible?  Yes, animals enjoy sea grapes and humans can eat them as well, and they are used to make jam.  Read more and see picture at https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/shrubs/sea-grape/seaside-grape-information.htm

Many of you already know about sea beans, which is the newest, trendiest name for salicornia; by most accounts, the “sea bean” moniker is an outgrowth of the restaurant trade.  Salicornia is in no way a bean, but it does have that nice snap like a good green bean.  Do not cook salicornia for more than a few minutes, or it will get flabby, and the crunch (as well as the salty hit) is really what this vegetable is all about.  Once you collect your sea beans, put them in a plastic bag in the fridge with a damp paper towel around them.  They will last more than a week that way.  Once blanched, they freeze well, too.  Hank Shaw  Find recipe for Sea Bean Salad at https://honest-food.net/sea-beans-salicornia-samphire-saltwort/

William Sidney Mount (1807–1868) was an American painter.  William Mount was born in Setauket, Long Island, New York, on November 26, 1807 to Thomas Shepard Mount and his wife, Julia Ann Hawkins.  He trained at the National Academy of Design in New York City, and in 1832 was made a full Academician.  Although he started as a history painter, Mount moved to depicting scenes from everyday life.  The largest collection of his works is located in the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages.  His home and studio, the William Sidney Mount House, is a National Historic Landmark.  One of the local elementary schools in The Three Village Central School District is named in his honor, as is PS 174 elementary school in Rego Park, Queens.  Read more and see many graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidney_Mount

Everybody loves a good #thread.  You know the type:  those long strings of related messages designed to tell a story or make a point that can't be expressed in a single tweet.  They used to be called tweetstorms; now they're just threads.  Threads have never been an official thing.  All you do is reply to your own tweet, and you've got a thread going.  But throw in a few replies from other people, and reading a thread becomes a mess.  So Twitter's making threads easier to create, easier to find, and easier to read.  The threading feature will roll out slowly, so it might not hit your phone immediately.  Once you get it, you'll notice a new plus-sign button when you go to compose a tweet.  Rather than just typing your 280 and hitting "tweet," you can tap the plus and compose another tweet right in the same window.  Once your story's complete, you tap "tweet all," and the entire thread goes out to the world at once.  On the other side, if someone sees your tweet in their timeline, they can hit "show this thread" and go find the whole thing.  Threads have become popular because they allow for more space, which allows for more context and thought than even a 280-character tweet.  Twitter as a service desperately needs ways to give users more space; it has reportedly discussed allowing tweets up to 10,000 characters and has removed many of its limits in order to let people more fully express themselves.  Threads are another means to the same end.  David Pierce  https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-multi-tweet-threads/

December 12, 2017  Television executives seek programs that can run for several seasons, yet 11 of the 50 longest running primetime shows of all time have appeared on the not-for-profit public television channel PBS.  PBS programs are different from shows on for-profit television channels because they are less subject to the uncertainty of the marketplace.  For one, they are allowed more time to develop an audience than shows on broadcast networks that are at the whim of ratings.  They also receive funding from foundations and individuals who believe in the content and mission of public service programs.  Many programs on broadcast and public television have an extended life because they are inexpensive.  Many also have simple formats, often with a charismatic host, or deal with a timeless topic such as gardening or renovating a house.  To determine the longest running primetime TV shows of all time, 24/7 Wall St. developed a list of primetime television shows using the Internet Movie Database and other sources.  Click here to see the full list of the longest running TV shows of all time.  Six PBS programs are among the 10 longest running shows, and together they have logged a total of 231 years on the air.  The science program “Nova” has been on television for 44 years and trails only “60 Minutes” (49 years) in terms of longevity.  Other long-running shows on PBS are “The Victory Garden” (43 years); “This Old House” (39 years); “Nature” (35 years); “Frontline” (35 years); and “Wall Street Week” (35 years).  Of those programs, only “Wall Street Week” is no longer on the air.  John Harrington  http://247wallst.com/special-report/2017/12/12/a-closer-look-why-does-public-television-have-more-longest-running-shows-than-other-channels/

FROM A FAITHFUL MUSE READER   Here are my favorite books from 2017:  Augustus by John Williams, Love For Lydia by H.E. Bates, Confusion by Stefan Zweig, SPQR by Mary Beard, Some Tame Gazelle, Excellent Women, and Jane and Prudence all by Barbara Pym, Malcolm X:  A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser and The Russia House by John Le Carré.  Thank you for your reading list, good reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1814  December 20, 2017  On today’s date in 1738, the 56-year-old Jean-Joseph Mouret composer died.  Mouret would achieve belated fame in 20th century America when the "Rondeau" from his “Symphonies and Fanfares for the King's Supper” was chosen as the theme for the “Masterpiece Theater” TV series on PBS.  Christopher Sarson, the original executive producer of “Masterpiece Theatre,” recalls how this came about.  “In 1962 my future wife and I went to one of the Club Med villages in Italy.  We were in these little straw huts and every morning we were summoned to breakfast by that theme.  It was just magic . . .  I wanted to use it for Masterpiece Theatre but there was no way I could bear to put a FRENCH piece of music on something that was supposed to be English. I went through all kinds of English composers and nothing worked.  So, Mouret became the theme.  Composers Datebook  

Word of the Day  Shangri-La  noun  A place of complete bliss, delight, and peace, especially one seen as an escape from ordinary life; a paradise.  British author James Hilton, who coined the word in his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, died on December 20, 1954.  Wiktionary