What's the meaning of the phrase 'Before you could
say Jack Robinson'? In a very short
time; suddenly. It is known that the
phrase was in circulation by the end of the 18th century as Mme. Frances
D'Arblay (Fanny Burney) used it then in her romantic novel Evelina, or
the history of a young lady's entrance into the world in 1778. The lexicographer Francis Grose had the
advantage of working around the time that the phrase appears to have been
coined and he believed that the derivation related to an actual person. Grose's 1811 edition of the Dictionary
of the Vulgar Tongue defines 'Jack Robinson' thus: "Before one could say Jack Robinson; a
saying to express a very short time, originating from a very volatile gentleman
of that appellation, who would call on his neighbours, and be gone before his name
could be announced." https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/jack-robinson.html
From BookPage April 2018: Tony
Hillerman's daughter, Anne, inherited the Leaphorn-Chee franchise, and has
brought female characters to the forefront in the Navaho-influenced
mysteries. * Honoring the centenary of Mickey Spillane's
birth, The Last Stand contains one of Spillane's earliest unpublished novellas,
completed by Max Alan Collins, paired with Spillane's last completed
novel. *
For National Poetry Month, we pick a quartet of new poetry
collections--Not Here by Hieu Minh Nguyen, Wade in the Water by U.S. Poet
Laureate Tracy K. Smith, Blue Rose by California Poet Laureate Carol
Muske-Dukes, and Night School by Carl Dennis.
Cauliflower Raita (Cauliflower in Yogurt)
Cook cauliflower until
tender in salted water. Drain and
chill. Mix with yogurt, and sprinkle
cumin over top. Thinly sliced cucumbers
and onions may be substituted for cauliflower.
April is National Poetry Month
Robert Seymour Bridges was born on October 23, 1844, in Walmer, Kent,
England. He enrolled in Eton College in
1854 and started writing poetry. In
1863, he enrolled at Corpus Christi College at Oxford University, where he
met Gerard Manley Hopkins, who he would remain
friends with until Hopkins’s death in 1889. Bridges would also become Hopkins’s literary
executor, collecting and editing his friend’s poems for publication after his
death. In 1869, Bridges registered as a
student at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. After he initially failed his medical exams in
1873, Bridges spent part of his summer studying medicine in Dublin. That same year, he published his first book of
poems, Poems (Pickering,
1873), and he received his MB the following year. Bridges continued working at St. Bartholomew’s
and other hospitals until 1881, when he retired after contracting a case of
pneumonia. He spent the rest of his life
in nearly unbroken domestic seclusion, devoting himself to the writing and
studying of poetry. During his prolific period
of domestic seclusion, Bridges published several long poems, dramas, and poetry
collections, some of which contained his experiments using a meter based on
syllables rather than accents. Many of
his most popular verses are collected in The
Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges (George Bell & Sons,
1890). In 1913, Bridges was named poet
laureate of England, a position he held until his death. He also helped found the Society for Pure
English, an organization of literary figures and linguistic scholars who sought
to preserve the “purity” of the English language. Bridges remained a bestselling poet throughout
the 1920s. Bridges died in his home in
Boars Hill, England, on April 21, 1930. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/robert-bridges Robert Seymour Bridges was Britain's poet
laureate from 1913 to 1930.
The whimsical world of Lewis Carroll may be best known through his
novels Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, but his poetry is infused
with the same clever word play and imagination for which his novels are
regarded. Lewis Carroll was born Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832 in the parsonage of Daresbury in Cheshire, England. The third of eleven children of
Charles Dodgson and Frances Jane Lutwidge, young Charles was the oldest
boy. A precocious student, young Charles
applied himself especially well to mathematics, eventually winning the Christ
Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he was able to hold for the following twenty-six
years. As Charles Dodgson, he wrote many
books and articles about mathematics. It
was poetry, however, that Charles was drawn to even more than mathematics. He published his first poem, “Solitude” in
1856 under the pseudonym he would become famous for--“Lewis Carroll.” His arrival at his pseudonym belied the
talent that Lewis Carroll would be known for; Lewis is an English version of
the name Ludovicus (Latin for Lutwidge), whereas Carroll is an English version
of Carolus, which is Latin for Charles.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass have become
classics. Although not books of poetry,
both books did feature poetry. Link to poems at https://mypoeticside.com/poets/lewis-carroll-poems
In November 2017, best-selling writer Brian Michael Bendis
set tongues to wagging in the comic book world when he announced that he would
be joining DC Entertainment as part of a “multifaceted” deal. Bendis’ first DC story will be with
fan-favorite artist Jim Lee in ACTION COMICS #1000 (on sale April 18, 2018),
but this is only the beginning when it comes to his relationship with Krypton’s
Last Son. On May 30, Bendis debuts MAN OF
STEEL, a six-issue weekly miniseries.
Featuring six interconnected covers by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado, this
series will shake up the classic story of Krypton’s final days and Kal-El’s
path to becoming an iconic hero, introducing a new villain that knows a
terrifying secret behind the destruction of Superman’s homeworld. https://www.supermanhomepage.com/brian-michael-bendis-taking-over-action-com
Sitting among an eclectic
assortment of art while listening to poets reading from their chapbooks is the
atmosphere that founder Jonie McIntire desired for Art &
Soul. Founded in July 2017, the
once-a-month event has featured accomplished poets from Toledo, Detroit and
Columbus. The unique venue provides an
intimate setting where poets are treated as true performers and audience
members enjoy a night of enrichment. Art
& Soul became a new addition to Cricket West in Toledo last summer. A local gallery, full of art available for
purchase, McIntire, a local writer, noticed the new neighborhood addition and
saw an opportunity. The owners of Art
& Soul loved the idea of hosting events and now the series has grown to
attract 20 or more people each month. A
goal of the Art & Soul series is to treat poetry readings like true performances. “What
differentiates this event is that it is not an open-mic. We want it to be a nice, intimate setting,
where poets get 30 minutes each and it feels like you’ve gone to a show,”
McIntire said. McIntire has had a hand in
creating other series’, like the Uncloistered Series,
which occurs on the second Sunday of every month at Calvino’s restaurant. “The Uncloistered Series features four or
five poets and then transitions to an open-mic night,” she said. This series regularly attracts 40 or so
people and has featured poets from other parts of Ohio, as well as Michigan,
Georgia and Texas.
On
a shelf just behind the reference desk
at the Harmon branch of the Phoenix
Public Library, are small pouches of seeds.
Like the books and DVDs, they’re available to check out. The library allows visitors to take a few
packets of the vegetable and flower seeds home for free just by showing their
library card. “It’s innovative, it’s
different, it’s another way for people to interact with the library,” says Lee
Franklin, the library’s spokesperson.
“It’s been really well received.”
The Phoenix Public Library first put seeds on the shelves at one of its
branches in 2014. Franklin says they
were immediately in high demand. Now the
library distributes an average of 1,000 seed packets per month across nine of
its 17 branches. Franklin says the
program has proven to be sustainable with minimal costs—around $300-$500 to
bring a seed-sharing program to a new branch of the library. And, Franklin says, the organizational tasks
of offering seeds fit seamlessly with the library’s existing cataloguing
system. The Phoenix Public Library is
not alone. Hundreds of public libraries
around the U.S. have adopted similar initiatives to offer free seeds to
library-goers. Seed-sharing programs aim
to expand access to crops and educate the public, while also protecting scarce
agricultural resources. Katherine
Davis-Young https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/public-seed-library
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1868
April 3, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment