Julia Child told viewers of Boston’s public-television program The French Chef that “eggs can be your best friend,” and she especially loved the sophistication of shirred eggs.  By baking eggs with a little cream in small, individual cups at a relatively low temperature—just until the whites have set but the yolks remain fluid and golden—you can have a simple yet elegant brunch classic with minimal effort.  The word shirred refers to the flat-bottomed dish, or shirrer, in which the eggs were traditionally cooked, similar to the French oeufs en cocotte, or “eggs in a pot.”  Ramekins or custard cups are today’s most common cocottes for individual baked eggs, but muffin tins are a handy alternative for shirring en masse if cupboard space is at a premium.  Thanks to their simplicity, shirred eggs also lend themselves nicely to improvisation.  Some adventurous midcentury recipes call for baking the eggs on beds of deviled ham, pork and beans, or even kippers—but more mainstream versions suggest cracking them into spicy tomato sauce or nests of buttered breadcrumbs, shredded hash-browns, or crisp bacon.  No matter which variation you choose, armed with little more than a handful of eggs, a few spoonfuls of heavy cream, and a waiting oven, you’re just moments away from baked-egg heaven, so what are you waiting for?  Take Julia’s advice and “give them the right break.”  Aimee Tucker  Link to recipes at https://newengland.com/yankee-magazine/food/breakfast-brunch/eggs/shirred-eggs/

Additions to baked eggs  Try adding chopped cooked mushrooms, meats, herbs or vegetables.  Put small round of toast in bottom covered with Gruyère cheese.  Cover with cheese or tomato sauce before baking.  Joy of Cooking, 6th ed.

ON ALL FOURS as an expression and as a legal term is interpreted.  Orin Kerr cites Michael Quinion's World Wide Words, which offers this explanation:  In the eighteenth century, people started to use to run on all four as a figurative expression to describe some proposition or circumstance that was fair or equitable, well-founded, sturdily able to stand by itself.  To be on all four or to stand on all four meant to be on a level with another, to present an exact analogy or comparison with something else (presumably the image is of two animals standing together, both on all four legs, hence in closely similar situations).  But Orin tracks the phrase back in American legal contexts as far as 1798, and discovers that the early uses are all of the form "run on all fours", not "stand on all fours", and suggests that the context suggests that the visual image is more an animal running alongside the observer than two animals standing next to each other.  If an animal is running on all four legs beside you, the thinking might be, it means that it remains close to you and goes where you go.  The OED (it's always a mistake not to check the OED) notes the 19th-century s-addition, [formerly all four, sc. extremities.  The -s was added prob. during the 19th century; not in Johnson 1808.] invokes a metaphor of the form "not limping = fair or even, not lame", and gives an earlier citation, from a British legal context, which also involves running, and is applied to a comparison.  Lawyer Susan M. Harrelson suggests "I think the phrase refers to four corners, rather than to four-legged animals, or four-wheeled vehicles, since the concept being described is congruence, rather than stability."  http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003944.html  posted by Mark Liberman

INTIMATE  verb  (IN-ti-mayt, rhymes with motivate)  To imply, hint, suggest, indicate indirectly, communicate obscurely or remotely.  Word Workout:  Building a Muscular Vocabulary in 10 Easy Steps by Charles Harrington Elster https://books.google.com/books?id=ZPSyAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=verb+intimate+hint+suggest&source=bl&ots=vG5waZ3DIc&sig=bkqoSbtOxyTjStT6xMLWbw6dwy4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNlubFoefYAhUlT98KHYQTCfk4ChDoAQgmMAA#v=onepage&q=verb%20intimate%20hint%20suggest&f=false

Ethiopian manuscripts are known to have reached Europe as early as the fifteenth century, perhaps even earlier, through Egypt, Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land and through members of the Ethiopian monastery of St Stephen of the Abyssinians in Rome.  Subsequently, travellers, missionaries, military personnel and scholars contributed to the development of collections outside Ethiopia.  In Europe, the three biggest collections of Ethiopian manuscripts are in Rome (Biblioteca Apostolica Vatican), in Paris (Bibliothèque nationale de France) and in London (British Library).  These three organisations together hold about 2,700 manuscripts.  Oriental collections of nearly all significant European libraries also have Ethiopian material, with some still pursuing a policy of acquisition.  Monasteries and modern institutions in Ethiopia have, meanwhile, maintained extensive collections and in some cases are still centres of manuscript production.  Parchment (berānnā) was used for Ethiopian manuscripts from the time of the Four Gospels books of Abbā Garimā.  Apart from Islamic manuscripts, paper only came into general use twentieth century.  There are eighty eight languages in Ethiopia according to Ethnologue, but not all support manuscript cultures.  The majority of manuscripts are in Ge'ez, the ancient liturgical language of Ethiopia.  See graphics and a list of 20 institutions holding Ethiopian manuscripts at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_manuscript_collections

Ethiopia, (official name:  Ityop'iya Federalawi Demokrasiyawi Ripeblik), was formerly known as Abyssinia.  Ethiopia is a landlocked country on the Horn of Africa, in the east of the continent  It is bordered by Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Somaliland (Somalia).  Ethiopia covers an area of 1,126,829 km², this is about twice the size of France or the U.S. state of Texas.  Highest elevation is Mount Ras Dashen with 4620 m.  A population of more than 90 million inhabitants makes the country the second-most populous nation in Africa.  http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/ethiopia.htm. 

Tranches are portions of debt or securities that are structured to divide risk or group characteristics in ways that are marketable to various investors.  Each portion, or tranche, is one of several related securities offered at the same time but with different risks, rewards and maturities to appeal to different types of investors.  Tranches in structured finance are a fairly recent development, spurred by the increased use of securitization to divide up sometimes-risky financial products with steady cash flows to then sell these divisions to other investors.  The word "tranche" comes from the French word for slice.  The discrete tranches of a larger asset pool are usually defined in transaction documentation and assigned different classes of notes, each with a different bond credit rating.  More senior-rated tranches typically have higher credit ratings than the lower-rated tranches.  Examples of financial products that can be divided into tranches include loans, insurance policies, mortgages and other debts.  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/tranches.asp?lgl=myfinance-layout-no-ads

Reduplicatives:  repeating, rhyming and vowel change  Find a list of terms with meanings, including namby-pamby, shilly-shally and willy-nilly at https://www.dailywritingtips.com/reduplicatives-and-their-meanings/

Pesce, the Italian word for fish, is being associated with people who add aquatic animals to a vegetarian diet.  Pescetarians (sometimes called pesco-vegetarians) eat freshwater and saltwater fish and shellfish in addition to the fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, eggs, and dairy vegetarians typically consume.  "The pescetarian diet is similar to the traditional Mediterranean diet:  plant-based, with fish serving as the primary animal protein," says Sharon Palmer, RDN, nutrition editor of Today's Dietitian and author of Plant-Powered for Life.  Like a Mediterranean eating pattern, a healthful pescetarian diet is loaded with fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and legumes.  Judith C. Thalheimer  http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/040715p32.shtml

Pescetarian Recipes  https://www.tastemade.com/recipes/pescetarian

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1843  February 16, 2018  On this date in 1630, Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck captured Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.  On this date in 1899, Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, was founded.  Today, John Corigliano Jr. who has been awarded the Grawmeyer Award, five Grammys for recordings of his music, an Oscar for “Best Film Score,” and the Pulitzer Prize, is celebrating his 80th birthday.  Thought for Today  There are two ways to slice easily through life; to believe everything or to doubt everything.  Both ways save us from thinking.  Alfred Korzybski, Polish-American linguist (1879-1950)