Tomfoolery often
turns up in print as Tom foolery or tom-foolery or Tom-foolery.
It is sometimes claimed that the
original Tom Fool was Thomas Skelton. He
was a jester, a fool, for the Pennington family at Muncaster Castle in Cumbria.
This was probably about 1600—he is said
to be the model for the jester in Shakespeare’s King Lear of 1606. He starts appearing in
the historical record early in the 1300s in the Latinate form Thomas fatuus. The
first part served even then as a generic term for any ordinary person, as it
still does in phrases like Tom, Dick or Harry.
The second word means stupid or foolish
in Latin and has bequeathed us fatuous and infatuate, among other words. By 1356 Thomas
fatuus had become Tom
Fool. Around the seventeenth
century, the character of Tom Fool shifted somewhat from the epitome of a
stupid or half-witted person to that of a fool or buffoon. He became a character who accompanied
morris-dancers or formed part of the cast of various British mummers’ plays
performed at Christmas, Easter or All Souls’ Day. A tom-fool was
more emphatically foolish than an unadorned fool. Tomfoolery was similarly worse than foolery, the state of acting foolishly, which had been
in English since the sixteenth century. Perhaps oddly, it took until about 1800
for tomfoolery to appear. It had been preceded by the verb to tom-fool, to play the fool. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tom2.htm
The praline
(originally "prasline", pronounced "prah-leen") is believed
to have been named after the French diplomat and sugar industrialist
"Marèchal du Plessis-Praslin (1598-1675), whose cook, Clement Lassagne
reportedly invented pralines at the Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte. The cook, after retiring, established the
"Maison de la Praline", a confectioner's shop that still exists today
in Montargis, France, approximately 110 km south of Paris. Pralines are confections made chiefly from
nuts and sugar. In France, almonds are
individually coated in delicately caramelized sugar. The French pralines found their way to New
Orleans in the 1800's. http://www.rosemaryspecanpralines.com/history/
The rules of 7-on-7 football
are simple: Games are 20 minutes, with
seven players on each side of the ball, starting at each team’s 40-yard
line. There is no tackling, there are no
linemen, and players dress in skintight shirts and shorts with soft-shell headgear. Quarterbacks have only four seconds to throw
to a receiver, while defenders match up with pass-catchers in coverage, putting
each athlete to the test in one-on-one scenarios. The varying opinions on 7-on-7, however, are
more complicated, with critics—often while making the AAU comparison—primarily
pointing to two factors as being problematic:
a “me-first” culture that promotes individual players far more than high
school football’s traditional team-first approach, and an increased influence
of some 7-on-7 coaches in the college recruitment of top players. Another factor that raises
eyebrows is the involvement of apparel companies. Adidas, Under Armour and Battle provide
equipment to select teams, while Adidas runs some of its own events, such as
the Adidas 7-on-7 National Championships.
But many say the comparison of apparel companies’ role in 7-on-7 to that
in AAU basketball, which has been scrutinized amid the FBI’s investigation, is
unfair. Samantha Pell Read much more and see pictures at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/06/11/feature/as-7-on-7-football-gains-popularity-some-high-school-coaches-want-it-banned/?utm_term=.0cc75af3c1a0 See also OFFICIAL USA FOOTBALL 7ON7 RULES at https://assets.usafootball.com/7on7/RulesandScoring.pdf
Escape of the invasives: Top six invasive plant species in the United
States by Emily Grebenstein Non-native
plant species pose a significant threat to the natural ecosystems of the United
States. Many of these invasive plants
are escapees from gardens and landscapes where they were originally
planted. Purchased at local nurseries,
wholesale suppliers and elsewhere, these plants have the potential of taking
over large areas, affecting native plants and animals and negatively changing
the ecosystem. In recent years
an increase in travel and international trade has rapidly
introduced many new non-native species to the United States. “While not all non-native plants are bad,
some imported species are bullies that crowd out native plants and damage the
diverse ecosystems that many living things depend on,” said James Gagliardi, a
horticulturist with Smithsonian Gardens.
Plants with the highest invasive potential are prolific seeders and
vigorous growers which have the ability to adapt well to a variety of
conditions. Native species have not
evolved alongside these plants and have trouble competing. With few predators and little competition for
resources, these new plants can displace native flora, reducing plant diversity
until a landscape is no longer able to support longstanding native plant,
animal, and insect communities. Here is
James Gagliardi’s top six list of the most prolific plant invaders in the
U.S. 1. Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum
salicaria) 2. Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) 3. Japanese Barberry (Berberis
thunbergii) 4. Norway Maple (Acer platanoides) 5. English Ivy (Hedera helix) 6. Kudzu (Pueraria montana var. lobata) See
article at https://insider.si.edu/2013/04/top-six-invasive-plant-species-in-the-united-states/
to find suggestions for native stand-ins to plant in your garden. See also https://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/databases.shtml#invpl
Beef Stew with Red Wine &
Carrots (Daube de Boeuf aux Carottes) by Molly Stevens Very
simply, a daube (pronounced dohb) is a red-wine-based beef or lamb stew. This type of dish has countless flavor
permutations, of course, but the most famous (and my favorite) is the Provençal
daube, seasoned with local herbs and a bit of orange zest. The orange was originally the bitter Seville
orange, but you can make a fine daube with a few strips of navel orange (add a
strip of lemon, too, if you want to sharpen the flavor). Find recipe serving six at https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/beef-stew-with-red-wine-carrots-daube-de-boeuf-aux-carottes
The American Solar
Challenge is governed by the Innovators
Educational Foundation.
Originally called Sunrayce USA, the first race was organized
and sponsored by General Motors in 1990 in an effort
to promote automotive engineering and solar energy among college students. At the time, GM had just won the
inaugural World Solar Challenge in Australia in
1987; rather than continue actively racing, it instead opted to sponsor
collegiate events. Subsequent races were
held in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999 under the name Sunrayce [year] (e.g. Sunrayce 93). In 2001, the race was renamed American Solar
Challenge and was sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and
the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. Beginning in 2005, its
name changed again to North American Solar Challenge, in order to
reflect the border crossing into Canada and the addition of co-sponsor Natural Resources Canada. The name was changed back to ASC in 2010. After the 2005 race, the U.S. Department of
Energy discontinued its sponsorship, resulting in no scheduled race for
2007. Sponsorship was taken over for
NASC 2008 by Toyota.
The 2018 American Solar Challenge will be the first to include a
Cruiser Class, featuring more practical multi-occupant Solar Vehicles. The event will run 9 days from Omaha, Nebraska to Bend, Oregon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Solar_Challenge
To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has
no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by
how productive he or she is. Taken
individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of
government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the
disadvantaged. - Norman Mailer, author (31 Jan 1923-2007)
More than 900 new words, senses, and subentries have
been added to the Oxford English Dictionary in our latest update, including binge-watch, impostor syndrome,
and silent generation. Coinciding with the 90th anniversary
of the publication of The House at Pooh Corner, several
words from Winnie-the-Pooh have also been added to the OED in
this update. Read more about this here. This update also sees the addition of a
number of Manx English words, such as jough, tholtan, and buggane. Find out more about the Manx dialect in this article by
Senior Assistant Editor Kelvin Corlett, and read more about the Manx English
pronunciation model that has also been added. View the full list of words
added in this update. The
OED publishes four updates a year. The next update will be added to the
dictionary in September 2018.
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1907
June 22, 2018 Thought for Today The most exhausting thing in life is being
insincere. - Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (22 Jun 1906-2001)
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