On
English packs of cards the design and wording on the ace of spades will tell you the maker’s name and, until 1860, the
amount of tax paid. Taxation on playing
cards was a form of protectionism and a means of raising revenues for the
Exchequer, but ultimately the amount received from playing card duty was less
than the cost of administering the tax.
In his budget speech on 4th April 1960 the Chancellor of the Exchequer
announced the decision to abolish the excise duty on playing cards in the
UK. After this time the ace of spades
remained a maker’s identification device with a more elaborate design than the
other three aces, but no longer represented any tax or duty paid to the
treasury. http://www.wopc.co.uk/cards/ace-of-spades/anon-aces See
also https://i-p-c-s.org/faq/ace-of-spades.php
and
http://forums.ellusionist.com/showthread.php?77584-Importance-of-the-Ace-Of-Spades-(An-Essay)
What Adults Can Learn From Dutch Children’s
Books by Michael Erard It is an often overlooked fact that one of the easiest ways to learn
about a foreign culture is through the books it produces for its children. Shortly after my family moved to the
Netherlands last summer, we discovered “zoekboeks” (pronounced “zhook-book”)
the genre of kids’ picture books that invite you to search (“zoek”) for
characters, objects or events obscured by visual busyness. English-language books for kids are hard to
come by here, and we didn’t speak or read Dutch yet, so the wordless zoekboek
was a welcome find. And then the
zoekboek really opened my eyes. If you know this genre only from its English-language
offshoots like “Where’s Waldo,” you’ve been missing out. Imagine paintings by Pieter Bruegel or
Hieronymus Bosch, swarming with visual detail, except they’re not about
peasants or gardens of earthly delights but recognizably contemporary life. The zoekboek is closely related to a German
genre, the Wimmelbuch, or “teeming book.” A “wimmelbook”—in this era of fluid borders
and cultures, the word is often rendered as a mash-up of German and English—is
“a book of plenitude,” writes Cornelia Rémi, a German professor who is the only
scholar known to consider the genre in depth. She argues that the zoekboek and the
wimmelbook differ from each other: The
zoekboek gives the reader explicit search tasks (where’s Waldo?) and often uses
words, while the wordless wimmelbooks “allow for manifold reading options and
encourage a highly active response from children and adults, which rightfully
might be called a form of playing.” When
I now read traditional storybooks (which we also do at home), they seem rigid
and prescribed in comparison. The
activity in wimmelbooks also has a healthy, comfortable publicness, almost as
if people on the pages realize the walls of their houses are transparent—and
they don’t mind. Even though we
see into houses in some wimmelbooks (because exterior
walls have been magically dissolved), we don’t see into people’s heads; by
featuring the exteriority of life in its community dimension, the wimmelbooks
leave the people private. In the pages
of wimmelbooks, everyone lives as if they’ve never left, nor for that matter
are they recently arrived. Everyone is
living together in their teeming everyday, and that may be a fine model for
living together. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/14/opinion/sunday/dutch-childrens-books.html Michael Erard is writer in
residence at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the
Netherlands.
One of the strangest
plants of the desert, the night blooming
cereus, is a member of the cactus family that resembles nothing more than a
dead bush most of the year. It is rarely
seen in the wild because of its inconspicuousness. But for one midsummer's night each year, its
exqusitely scented flower opens as night falls, then closes forever with the
first rays of the morning sun. Range:
Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of southern Arizona, east to
western Texas and south to northern Mexico.
Habitat: Desert flats and washes between 3000
and 5000 feet, often in the shade of desert shrubs like creosote. Flowers: These very fragrant trumpet-shaped
flowers, which bloom for only one night in June or July, are up to 4 inches
wide and as much as 8 in. The night
blooming cereus has a tuberous, turnip-like root usually weighing 5 to 15
pounds (but in some specimens weighing over 100 pounds), which Native Americans
used as a food source. A close Baja
relation (Peniocereus. johnstonii),
called Saramatraca, Pitayita, or Matraca is
locally popular for its edible tuber, which is said to account for the plant's
scarcity there. Night-blooming cereus is
popular in rock gardens and can be grown from stem cuttings. After the cut end is is allowed to heal for
several weeks, it is planted in dry sand. Like all cactus, night-blooming cereus may be
protected in certain desert areas, and permits may be required to collect
it. See pictures at https://www.desertusa.com/cactus/night-blooming-cereus.html and Cereus Blooms at Night (1996),
a first novel published by film-maker, artist, and writer Shani Mootoo.
Shani Mootoo worked as a visual artist and video maker before
becoming a published writer. After writing four novels, a book of poetry
and of short stories, she has returned to painting and to photographyas she
continues to write. Mootoo earned a BFA from the University of
Western Ontario, and an MA in English from the University of Guelph. She currently holds the position
of Associated Graduate Faculty at the University of Guelph in support of
the Creative Writing program in the School of English and Theatre
Studies. Shani Mootoo was born
in Ireland and raised in Trinidad. She lives in Canada. https://www.shanimootoo.com/
“War is peace. Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.” “The
best books . . . are those that tell you
what you know already.” “Doublethink means
the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously,
and accepting both of them.” “It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of
words.” 1984, novel by George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Arthur
Blair (1903-1950)
Famous Trials
by Professor Douglas O. Linder "In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers
gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role
in our democracy. The press was to serve
the governed, not the governors." New
York Times v. United States ["Pentagon Papers" Case]
THE UNITED STATES
SUPREME COURT
Decided June 30, 1971 CERTIORARI
TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT 403 U.S. 713
LeBron James opens new public school in Akron: 'One of the greatest moments' of his life by Jeff Zillgitt
LeBron James and his charity, "The LeBron James Family Foundation,”
partnered with Akron Public Schools to open the I PROMISE school for at-risk
youths. The school is a partnership
between Akron and the LeBron James Family Foundation, and the idea originated a
few years ago when James and his foundation’s leaders planned the next step in
their effort to help students. The name
of schools stems from the foundations road map for students who promise to go
to school, do their homework, listen to teachers, ask questions and find
answers, be respectful of others and live a healthy life. On July 29, 2018, James tweeted, “The jitters
before the first day of school are real right now!!! Tomorrow is going to be one of the greatest
moments (if not the greatest) of my life when we open the #IPROMISE School. This skinny kid from Akron who missed 83 days
of school in the 4th grade had big dreams.”
In a way, the I Promise School is
modeled after James’ childhood only more organized and professional. James, who attended Akron Public Schools for
eight years, and his mom, Gloria James, had help from the community--people who
looked after them and made sure they got what they needed. The classrooms will hold 20 students
for every teacher, and 12 teachers have been hired for the 2018-19 school year. There are 43 academic staffers, including a
principal, assistant principal, four intervention specialists, tutor, English
as a second language teacher, music instructor and a gym teacher. IPS is a certified STEM (science, technology,
engineering, math) school. The school
day is long--9 a.m.-5 p.m., and so is the school year, lasting July 30-May 17--and
there will be a seven-week summer school.
Students will be served breakfast, lunch and a snack daily. Read more and see pictures at https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2018/07/30/lebron-james-promise-school-akron-ohio/862159002/
Happy Anniversaries: 102nd--August 1, Haleakala National Park, Hawaii (detached from
Hawaii National Park 1960) and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii (split
into Haleakala National Park and Hawaii National Park 1960; latter redesignated
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 1961) 142nd--August 2, Washington Monument https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/park-anniversaries.htm
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1927 August 1, 2018 Thought for Today Of all the
preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the
criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and
well-fed. - Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1 Aug 1819-1891) Word
of the Day august
adjective Awe-inspiring, majestic, noble, venerable.
Of noble birth. Wiktionary
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