Tuesday, April 3, 2018


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  *  Honoring the centenary of Mickey Spillane's birth, The Last Stand contains one of Spillane's earliest unpublished novellas, completed by Max Alan Collins, paired with Spillane's last completed novel.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.  AUDREY BLAUFUSS 

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 

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