Wednesday, February 21, 2018


Every country in the British Isles has its own fruit cake whether for celebrations or for tea time treats.  In Ireland, the fruit cake of choice is a Barmbrack.  This lovely moreish cake is also known as Barm Brack or sometimes, simply as Brack, everyone knows what it means as it is one of their most famous bakery products.  The Gaelic name is báirín breac, or ‘speckled loaf’ referring to the speckles of fruit in the cake.  Traditionally, Brack is eaten at Halloween and as part of your St Patrick's Day celebrations.  At Halloween, a custom has it to bake small objects into the cake, acting as a kind of fortune telling.  Nowadays, more often than not it will be a ring, the finding of which delights the unmarried as it purports they will be the next to walk down the aisle.  Brack is also eaten year-round simply as a delicious treat at tea time when it is served with lovely, salty Irish butter and Brack a few days old is also lovely toasted.  Elaine Lemm  Find recipe at https://www.thespruce.com/real-irish-barmbrack-recipe-435038

moreish  adjective  British  informal  So pleasant to eat that one wants more.  https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/moreish
                                                 
The phrase 'just deserts' means that which is deserved.   A reward for what has been done--good or bad.  Deserts, in the sense of 'things deserved' has been used in English since at least the 13th century.  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/just-deserts.html

Desert in philosophy is the condition of being deserving of something, whether good or bad.  The word is related to justicerevengeblamepunishment and many topics central to moral philosophy, also "moral desert".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_(philosophy)  See also Desert at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/desert/  

 “Nothing is certain except for death and taxes.”  This is usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote in a 1789 letter that “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”  However, The Yale Book of Quotations quotes “‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,” from Christopher Bullock, The Cobler of Preston (1716).  The YBQ also quotes “Death and Taxes, they are certain,” from Edward WardThe Dancing Devils (1724).

"A lot of people tried to get in Johnny Sausage last night for the 2 4 1 pizza deal but didn't quite make it . . . they are losers, a total disaster . . . it's true."  "It'll be great, the best pizza God ever created, and the Art of the Deal will be . . . buy two pizzas but only pay for one . . . that's right . . . Mexico will pay for the other one."  part of a sign in Johnny Sausage, NY-inspired eatery serving bagels, pizza, shakes, beer & wine in Christchurch , New Zealand.  Thank you, Muse reader and World Sojourner! 

Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format which was designed to supersede the DVD format.  It is the latest advancement in the world of optical discs.  This format is considered as a notch high above the other discs, because of its better quality and more storage capacity.  The Digital Versatile or the Digital Video Disc, popularly known as DVD is an optical disc that can be played using a DVD player on a computer or a television set.  See a comparison table between Blu-Ray and DVD at http://www.differencebetween.info/difference-between-blu-ray-and-dvd  See also http://www.toptenreviews.com/electronics/articles/the-difference-between-dvd-and-blu-ray/

What's the Difference Between Laws and Regulations?  Laws are the products of written statutes, passed by either the U.S. Congress or state legislatures.  The legislatures create bills that, when passed by a vote, become statutory law.  Regulations, on the other hand, are standards and rules adopted by administrative agencies that govern how laws will be enforced.  Like laws, regulations are codified and published so that parties are on notice regarding what is and isn't legal.  And regulations often have the same force as laws, since, without them, regulatory agencies wouldn't be able to enforce laws.  Christopher Coble  http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2015/10/whats-the-difference-between-laws-and-regulations.html

"Our world is saturated with noise.  Unless we live in isolation or on a desert island, all of us seek some refuge from the distortions and the bombast."  "Silence is much more central to our well-being than we know . . . "  Don E. Saliers  The American Organist magazine  February 2018 

"Who do we want as our neighbour?"  These words are almost like a rhetoric slogan or a mantra within the prison walls of Halden Fengsel.  Even prisoners use these words when talking about the humaneness of Halden Fengsel.  Norway´s newest prison holds approximately 250 prisoners.  Nearly half have committed violent crimes like murder, assault or rape.  A third are convicted for selling or smuggling drugs.  Bringing them back to society as better human beings is a major ambition.  Sometimes referred to as the world´s most humane prison, Halden Fengsel does look a bit different from most other prisons. Built in the middle of the woods the architects wanted to keep much nature within the prison walls; there are many trees, uneven grounds, blueberries and adders.  It would be easy to run and hide, but nobody does.  The cells have a bed, a small fridge, a bookshelf, TV, desk and a chair, plus a private bathroom including a shower, toilet and a sink.  In the school building there is also a grocery store named “Justisen” (The Justice) where inmates can buy whatever they need to cook for themselves and each other.  There is also a well equipped music studio –“Criminal Records”, a garden, a holy room, a gym, training room, library, computer room, family visiting house and more.  The school offers prisoners an opportunity to get a proper education while serving their sentence.  During the day guards often socialize with the prisoners  It could be over waffles and coffee, dinner, volleyball or just casual conversations.  Many areas have no surveillance cameras, and prisoners can to some extent move around freely.  Many have suggested the prison is too luxurious, that being in a prison like this is not a proper punishment.  Warden Are Høidal says that revenge alone does not provide any good results.  Rehabilitation is key.  Finding proper housing and a steady income even before the prisoners are released is believed to contribute to lower recidivism rates.  http://www.thestoryinstitute.com/halden/

On any given day, in one of the world’s busiest urban library systems, 50,000 people come through the doors of the Toronto Public Library’s 100 branches, while 85,000 make an online visit.  The walk-ins bring their coffee and their lunches; they talk and watch TV while charging their phones; they do their homework, often via thousands of computer sessions; they make videos or create objects with 3D printers; take classes in computer coding or yoga; attend author talks or listen to experts offer advice for those looking after elderly relatives; access video tutorials on everything from website design to small business management from Lynda.com (an American online education giant that offers 3,600 courses taught by industry experts).  Together with their online fellows, they borrow musical instruments, passes to the city’s art galleries and museums, WiFi hotspots, lamps that battle seasonal affective disorder, Raspberry Pis (small, single-board computers primarily used for coding training), DVDs, more than 12,000 ebooks and—of course—plain old print-and-ink books, a good 90,000 of them every day.  All at no cost.  Brian Bethune  Read much more at http://www.macleans.ca/society/how-public-libraries-are-reinventing-themselves-for-the-21st-century/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1846  February 21, 2018  American composer Henry Cowell wrote Suite for Woodwind Quintet, in the early 1930s for the great French flute virtuoso Georges Barrère, who commissioned and premiered many new works involving his instrument.  In 1934, Barrère even made a recording of the Suite for New Music Quarterly, a publishing venture bankrolled by none other than the retired insurance executive and part-time composer Charles Ives.  The music didn’t surface again until 1947, when it was discovered among the late musician’s collection of scores.  On February 21, 1948, Cowell’s Woodwind Suite received its first concert performance at Columbia University in New York City, and quickly established itself as one of Cowell’s most popular works.  Composers Datebook
Word of the Day  isogloss  noun  line on a map indicating the geographical boundaries of a linguistic feature.  February 21 is International Mother Language Day, recognized by the United Nations to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.  Wiktionary