What's the origin of the phrase 'Helter-skelter'?   Those of a certain age might remember The Beatles' song from the 1968 White Album - Helter Skelter.  If so, the song's lyrics may also evoke memories of clinging on to hessian mats and spiralling down fairground slides.  These slides began appearing at British fairs around the turn of the 20th century.  In 1906, the UK newspaper The Westmorland Gazette included this:  "The World's Manufacturing Company, examples of whose 'helter-skelter' lighthouses are at Earl's Court, Blackpool, Southport, and other places."  But, beyond the fairground, what is helter-skelter?  The term long pre-dates the fairground ride and has been used to mean disorderly haste or confusion since at least the 16th century.  Thomas Nashe used it that way in his 'Four letters confuted', 1592:  "Helter skelter, feare no colours, course him, trounce him."  Helter-skelter has been in common use in England for the past 400 years and has been known in the USA since the 1820s.  Neither helter nor skelter had any meaning in themselves.  Like many word pairs of this sort (called rhyming reduplications), they only exist as part of the pair--although skelter was used alone later, but only as a shortened form of helter-skelter.  Another reduplication with a similar meaning is pell-mell (a confused throng or, in disordered haste). This originated around the same time--the first recorded use dates from 1579.  Others which came later, but which are in shouting distance in terms of meaning, are harum-scarum (reckless rowdiness) and hurly-burly (commotion and confusion).  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/helter-skelter.html 

Galax, the wandplant, wandflower, or beetleweed, is a genus in the flowering plant family Diapensiaceae, containing a single species, Galax urceolata (syn. G. rotundifolia, G. aphylla).  It is native to the southeastern United States from Massachusetts and New York south to northern Alabama, growing mainly in the Appalachian Mountains at altitudes of up to 1,500 m, where it grows in shaded places in forests.  The leaves are often harvested for the floristry industry; concern has been expressed over excessive exploitation, and collection is now restricted in many areas.  It has also been used in herbalism to treat cuts and kidney ailments.  The independent city of Galax, Virginia, is named after this plant.  See picture of the galax plant at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galax

The phrase get down to brass tacks is an Americanism dating from the 19th century.  In the idiom, brass tacks means (1) the essentials, or (2) the basic facts, so to get down to brass tacks is to focus on the essentials.  The phrase’s exact derivation is unknown, though there are a few theories.  One is that the expression is inspired by the centrality of actual brass tacks in furniture and upholstery.  Another is that brass tacks is simply a bit of rhyming wordplay derived from facts.  In any case, the phrase was widespread in its modern sense by the early 20th century.   http://grammarist.com/usage/get-down-to-brass-tacks/

April is National Poetry Month. 

Arizona's first poet laureate, Alberto Ríos, was appointed by Governor Brewer on August 19, 2013.  His term started January 20, 2014.  https://www.loc.gov/rr/main/poets/arizona.html

Alberto Rios’ 2015 poem “The Border:  A Double Sonnet,” 28 lines, each, he says, its own mini-poem, and a doubled format that represents the two sides of a place often depicted in terms of conflict.  In the words of Alberto Rios, "We seem to live in a world of maps, but, in truth, we live in a world made not of paper and ink, but of people.  Those lines are our lives.  Together, let us turn the map, until we see clearly the border is what joins us, not what separates us."  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/to-arizonas-first-poet-laureate-the-border-is-what-joins-us  Read The Border:  A Double Sonnet and if desired, sign up for a poem a day in your inbox at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/border-double-sonnet

Edmund John Millington Synge (1871-1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, prose writer, travel writer and collector of folklore.  He was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival and was one of the cofounders of the Abbey Theatre.  He is best known for his play The Playboy of the Western World, which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey Theatre.  Although he came from an Anglo-Irish background, Synge's writings are mainly concerned with the world of the Roman Catholic peasants of rural Ireland and with what he saw as the essential paganism of their world view.  Link to poems of Synge at https://www.poemhunter.com/john-millington-synge/

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967) is one of Ireland's best-loved poets:  when the Irish Times compiled a list of favourite Irish poems in 2000, ten of Kavanagh's were in the top fifty, with only Yeats's name appearing more frequently.  Kavanagh rose to such literary pre-eminence from the humblest of backgrounds.  Born in Inniskeen parish, Co. Monaghan, his father was a cobbler and a farmer of sixteen acres.  Kavanagh left school at twelve to apprentice as a cobbler himself, but having no aptitude for shoe-making, he helped instead on the family farm.  So for the first 27 years of his life, Kavanagh lived the life of rural Ireland, the life of "fairs and football matches, of mass-going and dance-going."  (Seamus Heaney, The Sense of Place, a lecture given in the Ulster Museum, 1977).  At the same time, despite this entirely unbookish background, Kavanagh was drawn to writing poems, his first appearing in the local papers in 1928.  As he said of his early poetic development, "I dabbled in verse and it became my life."  His poems began to appear further afield and this prompted Kavanagh to leave home in 1931 and walk to Dublin, where his brother was already a teacher, to try and further his literary aspirations. To an extent he was successful, his first collection, Ploughman and Other Poems, appearing in 1936.  In a 1963 recording, Kavanagh wryly says "every potential employer said I was a genius and therefore unemployable."  Nevertheless, he continue to publish including, in 1942, his long poem 'The Great Hunger' which chronicles the privations--mental, spiritual and physical--of the rural life he knew so intimately.  This was followed by a loosely autobiographical novel, Tarry Flynn (1948), which was briefly banned.  https://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/patrick-kavanagh

Iman Budhi Santosa (born 28 March 1948), commonly known as IBS, is an Indonesian author based in Yogyakarta.  Born in Magetan, East Java, IBS was educated in agriculture but drawn to literature from a young age.  In 1969, he helped establish the Persada Studi Klub, later publishing numerous works, including poetry collections, novels, and short stories.  His poetry has been considered to have strong Javanese cultural influences.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iman_Budhi_Santosa

From the World Sojourner:  Hong Kong has a great public transportation system, as do all world-class cities.  There is an underground metro system, and also these double-decker trams on rails and powered by overhead lines.  In addition to the fast ferries pointed out earlier, there is the Star Ferry running its old-fashioned and slow double-ended ferries, and a ride at its leisurely pace was lots of fun.  It runs between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and was established—when else—in 1888.  Being double-ended, they never have to back up; they just use the propeller and rudder at what was the bow and has now become the stern.  One key point from a story in Yachting magazine when I was in high school:  A crew member has to go to what was the bow and hook the rudder to the rudder cables and pull out a big pin that was holding the rudder straight ahead—now the bow has become the stern and can maneuver the ship.  Another crew member has to go to what was the stern, and will now be the bow, and unhook the rudder cables and put in a pin to hold the rudder dead amidships.  In the article, the author, in his youth, forgot the pin.  The ferry left the terminal, built up some speed, and then the rudder at what was then the bow clanged all the way over.  The ferry heeled hard over, throwing passengers to the deck, and nearly capsized.  To quote Governor Perry, "Oops."  Fortunately, no such drama in Hong Kong for me.  In Hong Kong, three entities can print currency.  The Hong Kong government, the Bank of China, and Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation.  How curious that a non-governmental bank, HSBC, can issue legal tender.  However, HSBC, but not Bank of China, is required to set aside gold bullion on a dollar-for-dollar basis for the currency it issues.  Feng Shui is alive in China and is more than simply a way of arranging furniture in a house.   HSBC built its headquarters in Hong Kong, and then Bank of China built a taller building that was designed by I. M. Pei and had a knife-edge corner pointed at HSBC’s building.  Bad Feng Shui for HSBC, so HSBC added the two cannons to the top of its building, aimed at BoC’s building, to overcome the effect of this knife.  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1865  March 28, 2018