Tuesday, April 10, 2018


Marilyn Pauline "KimNovak (born February 13, 1933) is a retired American film and television actress, currently engaged as a visual artist.  She began her film career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures.  There, she became a successful actress, starring in a string of movies, among them the critically acclaimed Picnic (1955).  She later starred in such popular successes as The Man with the Golden Arm (1955) and Pal Joey (1957).  However, she is perhaps best known today for her performance as Madeline Elster/Judy Barton in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller Vertigo (1958) with James Stewart.  While stopping by Los Angeles, Novak was crowned "Miss Deepfreeze" by the refrigerator company.  While there, she and two other models stood in line to be extras in two RKO films:  The French Line (1954), starring Jane Russell and Son of Sinbad (filmed in 1953, not released until 1955).  It was here that she was discovered by an agent, who signed her to a long-term contract with Columbia Pictures.  From the beginning of her career, she wanted to be an original and not another stereotype.  Therefore, she fought with Columbia's chief, Harry Cohn, over the changing of her name.  He suggested the name "Kit Marlowe," arguing that "Nobody's gonna go see a girl with a Polack name!"  But she insisted on keeping her name, saying, "I'm Czech, but Polish, Czech, no matter, it's my name!"  The two sides eventually settled on the name "Kim Novak" as a compromise.  In 2013, she was recognized as the guest of honor by the Cannes Film Festival and attended the 2013 Festival where she introduced a new restored version of Vertigo.  In 2014, she appeared at the TCM Classic Film Festival where she unveiled her painting Vertigo / Vortex of Delusion commissioned by the TCM network as part of their 20th anniversary.   Novak also introduced a screening of her 1958 movie, Bell Book and Candle, during the Festival.  Also in 2014, Novak was invited by Cunard Line to be a speaker onboard during a New York-to-London cruise on RMS Queen Mary 2.  She introduced screenings of Vertigo and Bell, Book and Candle, and did a Q&A session with Hollywood expert Sue Cameron, who is also her manager.  That same year, Novak appeared with both of her art mentors, Harley Brown and Richard McKinley, for a solo show of her paintings at the Butler Institute of American Art.   

Once a decade Sight & Sound asks critics to select the Greatest Films of All Time.  The 2012 poll placed Vertigo at the top of the list.  See the list at http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/critics

Quite literally, grammar used to be glamour.  The two words were variant spellings of a word meaning “learning.”  Our current “alluring charm” meaning of glamour derives from its medieval sense, “learning about magic.”  Whether or not you consider grammar glamorous, your early mastering of English in its astounding complexity is nonetheless your greatest intellectual accomplishment.  https://www.sfu.ca/continuing-studies/courses/scfc/2013/01/glamour-in-grammar.html

The origins of horseradish are obscure.  Native to Mediterranean lands, by the sixteenth century it was reported growing wild in Britain where it was referred to a “red cole”.  Horseradish is one of the bitter herbs, eaten during the Jewish Passover as a reminder of the bitterness of their enslavement by the Egyptians.  It has long been valued for its medicinal properties and is still popular with natural therapists to help relieve respiratory congestion.  Horseradish is a long, rough, tapering root, not unlike a parsnip, with rings, and tiny roots sprouting from the main root.  Horseradish is sold fresh, but is more often available grated.  Dried, flaked and powdered horseradish is also sold and this retains its pungency more fully than the grated form which is stored in vinegar.  The best fresh roots are thick and well grown; thin and insubstantial roots, apart from being hard to use, are inferior in pungency.  Read about preparation and storage at http://theepicentre.com/spice/horseradish/
           
How to Freeze Fresh Ground Horseradish by M.H. Dyer https://oureverydaylife.com/freeze-fresh-ground-horseradish-30950.html


Preserving Fresh Horseradish:  freezer or olive oil but please, not vinegar

"Catch and kill" is a phrase meaning a publisher purchases a story in order to bury it.

LIFE IS A CABERNET to Gregory Yadley, it's all about balance  Published in 2009 Florida Super Lawyers — June 2009 Legend has it that, back in the 1660s, Benedictine monk Dom Pérignon was the first to taste the bubbly beverage we now know as champagne.  Astonished, he exclaimed to his fellow monks, "Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!"  Three hundred years later, the region of Champagne and its head-spinning libation were no less a revelation for college student and future attorney Gregory Yadley.  Not only did he study in France, he was lucky enough to work at Ruinart, the oldest champagne house of them all.  It changed his life. Young Yadley loved everything about France, soaking up the savoir-vivre philosophy of life the way a baguette absorbs cream sauce.  Back in the U.S., he pleaded with his vacationing parents to bring back a particular bottle that Ruinart was saving for him ... neglecting to mention that it was a salmanazar, a single bottle that holds the equivalent of an entire case of wine.  Long empty, it stands in his office at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick in downtown Tampa, where the senior partner chairs the corporate practice group, dealing with corporate law, securities and mergers and acquisitions.  Though he attended Dartmouth, an acknowledged party school, "I did not spend my freshman year drinking," he notes.  It was the academic year in Strasbourg that ignited his passion for wine and for France.  "There's no distance between art and life in Europe," he says, "or between gastronomy and wine."  https://www.superlawyers.com/florida/article/life-is-a-cabernet/948ba596-6ce7-4c04-b3b8-b341f07f4afe.html

100 All-Time Greatest Popular Science Books from Open Education Database  http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/100-all-time-greatest-popular-science-books/

More than a quarter--26 percent--of American adults admit to not having read even part of a book within the last year.  That's according to statistics coming out of the Pew Research Center.  If you're part of this group, know that science supports the idea that reading is good for you on several levels.  Reading fiction can help you be more open-minded and creative.  According to research conducted at the University of Toronto, study participants who read short story fiction experienced far less need for "cognitive closure" compared with counterparts who read non-fiction essays.  People who read books live longer.  That's according to Yale researchers who studied 3,635 people older than 50 and found that those who read books for 30 minutes daily lived an average of 23 months longer than non-readers or magazine readers.  Reading 50 books a year is something you can actually accomplish.  While about a book a week might sound daunting, it's probably doable by even the busiest of people.  Writer Stephanie Huston says her thinking that she didn't have enough time turned out to be a lame excuse.  Now that she has made a goal to read 50 books in a year, she says that she has traded wasted time on her phone for flipping pages in bed, on trains, during meal breaks and while waiting in line.  Two months into her challenge she reports having more peace, satisfaction, improved sleep while learning more than she thought possible.  Christina DesMarais  https://www.inc.com/christina-desmarais/why-reading-books-should-be-your-priority-according-to-science.html
           
Waterford by its very location on the southern seaboard has always been the first port of call for visitors to Ireland and it was no different with the Vikings, many centuries ago.  The name Waterford is thought to come from an Old Norse word Vedrarfjiordr, derived from either Fjord of the Rams, probably a reference to the export of sheep from the area, or more prosaically, from windy fjord.  We know a lot about the Vikings in Waterford from sources such as the annals and from more recent archaeological excavations at several sites in and near the city.  From this we can tell that they were soon to become significant players in the fate of local and national events.  Through alliance, intermarriage and trade their presence endured and made Waterford the renowned port-city it is today.  According to the evidence of Viking activity in the south east of Ireland in the Irish annals, the Vikings arrived in Waterford around 853, and a settlement was established here by Sitric from Norway.  http://www.battleofclontarf.net/viking-places-to-visit-in-waterford/viking-waterford/3538

In 1783, when Beethoven was publishing his first works and the world’s first hot air balloon launched in Paris, in Waterford City the Penrose brothers, George and William, petitioned Parliament for aid to establish the manufacture of flint glass in their Waterford Glass House.  They were successful and established an extensive glass manufactory in Waterford City on the 3rd October 1783.  By the following year the factory was in full swing and the Penroses made all kinds of useful and ornamental flint glass of “as fine a quality as any in Europe”.  They had gathered a large number of the best craftsmen, blowers, cutters and engravers, by which they could supply every article in the most elegant style.  It cost the Penroses £10,000 to build and equip the factory, which at first employed 50 to 70 workers.  Read much more and see graphics at https://www.waterfordvisitorcentre.com/content/history-waterford-crystal

Hungarian Nokedli (Dumplings)  Place large pot filled with salted water and bring to boil.  Combine eggs, salt, and water, beating well with whisk.  Add flour, a little at a time.  Add only enough flour to make a soft, sticky dough.  Let mixture rest for about 10 minutes.  Find the whole recipe at  http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/hungarian-nokedli-dumplings-54823

"Nokedli are fluffy Hungarian egg noodle dumplings that are commonly used when making one of the country’s favorite dishes, Chicken Paprikash.  The dumplings are also often used in German cuisine where they are known as spaetzle or “Spätzle.”  The primitive shape of these homemade Hungarian dumplings give an idea of how long they have been around (with origins dating back into the 17th century).  Since they are still commonly made now gives an indication of how good they taste!  My favorite way to make them to toast them in a little extra butter and then toss them with fresh herbs.  They can be used as a base for any dish where egg noodles would commonly be used (such as in soups or slow cooked meats in gravy) or eaten plain as a side dish."  https://www.venturists.net/hungarian-egg-noodle-dumplings-nokedli/ 

Authentic Hungarian Chicken Paprikash  Find recipe and link to other Hungarian recipes at https://www.venturists.net/chicken-paprikash/

By the 14th century, the Norman invasion of Ireland was struggling.  Too many Normans had "gone native" and assimilated into Irish life.  The remaining settlers had retreated to just four eastern counties:  Louth, Meath, Dublin, and Kildare.  These four "obedient shires" were the only part of Ireland still under the control of the English crown.  The king's perimeter was marked with wooden fence posts pounded into the Irish turf.  These were called "pales," from the Latin palus, meaning "stake."  Over the following centuries, the English settlement fortified its boundaries by turning the fenceline into an impressive barrier:  a ten-foot-deep ditch surrounded by eight-foot banks on each side and ringed by a thorny hedge.  These ramparts were never meant to be an impregnable wall, but they did provide a daunting obstacle to raiders stealing across the borders for English cattle.  Within the Pale ditch, settlers lived under the protection of the crown.  But once you passed "the Pale," you were outside the authority and safety of English law, and subject to all the savageries of rural Ireland.  "Beyond the pale" then became a colloquial phrase meaning "outside the limits of acceptable behavior or judgment."  The English made every attempt not to succumb to the culture "beyond the pale."  Settlers were forbidden to intermarry with the Irish, and it was illegal to speak Gaelic.  The woolen mantles worn by Irish peasants had to be exchanged for good English cloaks, and the "glib" was banned as well.  Glibs were the fashionable Irish hairstyle of the day: hair cropped very short up top and in the back, with long, fringe-y bangs around the face.  Ken Jennings   https://www.cntraveler.com/story/what-beyond-the-pale-actually-means

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1872  April 10, 2018 

No comments: