Friday, August 31, 2018


The origins of Bembo® font goes back to one of the most famous printers of the Renaissance, Aldus Manutius.  In 1496 he used a new weight of a roman face, formed by Francesco Griffo da Bologna, to print the short piece ’De Aetna’, by Pietro Bembo.  This very typeface would eventually be of such importance that the development of print typefaces is unthinkable without it.  The first developmental phase was defined by the influence of the classic Roman forms, indentifiable by the slight slant of the lower case s and the high crossbar of the lower case e, which in time took on less and less of a slant.  The Monotype Corporation in London used this roman face as the model for a 1929 project of Stanley Morison which resulted in a font called Bembo.  Morison made a number of changes to the 15th century forms.  He modified the capital G and instead of the italic which Manutius originally had in mind, he used that from a sample book written in 1524 by Giovanni Tagliente in Venice. https://www.linotype.com/1118/bembo.html

In 1986, the publishing community established the National Book Foundation, a not-for-profit organization to oversee the Awards, diversify their base of philanthropic support and expand their mission.  The Foundation board then hired Neil Baldwin—an author, and Manager of The Annual Fund at The New York Public Library—to become the Founding Executive Director of The National Book Foundation and help determine its agenda for the future.  From 1986 to 1990, independent panels of writers chose the National Book Award Winners in the categories of only Fiction and Nonfiction.  The National Book Foundation reinstituted the Poetry Award in 1991 and launched the Award for Young People’s Literature in 1996.  In 2013, the judging panels were opened to non-writers with significant literary expertise in each category.  The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.  Link to a 3:58 "Books Matter" video at http://www.nationalbook.org/aboutus_history.html#.W3LplM5KiUk

"Less is always more when it comes to the defense."  "The files were superfluous to my cross-examination but my hope was that they would make an impressive prop."  "You never show your cards unless your opponent has called the final bet."  The Fifth Witness, 23rd novel and fourth in the Lincoln Lawyer (Mickey Haller series) by Michael Connelly

Flatbreads are cooked all over the world from Mexican tortillas to Indian chapatis.  They are great served soft, filled with slaw or falafels, or baked until crisp and served with dips, soups or stews.  Flatbreads can be rolled out and frozen in a stack.  You will need to put a bit of greaseproof paper between each of the breads so they don’t stick.  Frozen flatbreads can be cooked from frozen--they will take a few minutes more to cook on a hot frying pan.  Jo Ingleby   Find recipe at https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/quick_flatbreads_43123

In 1994, the Frogtown Storytelling Guild (Toledo, OH), a nonprofit organization, was founded by individuals who were interested in preserving the art of storytelling in all its facets.  The Frogtown Storytelling Guild is a member of the National Storytelling Network (Kansas City, MO), the vision of which is to have all people value the power of storytelling and its ability to connect, inspire, and instill respect.  As a member of the National Storytelling Network, each year in November, the Frogtown Storytelling Guild hosts a Tellabration! storytelling concert.  Individual Frogtown Storytelling Guild members tell stories in a variety of settings such as libraries, schools, nursing home, and churches.  Each member specializes in one or more genre of stories (personal stories, fables, folktales, tall tales, etc.).  Interested in joining Frogtown Storytelling Guild?  Membership is only $25.00/year!  https://frogtownstorytelling.wordpress.com/about/

In 1988, the first Tellabration! concerts were performed at six locations in the state of Connecticut.  J. G. Pinkerton, the originator of Tellabration!, envisioned the event as a way of fostering and maintaining the art of storytelling.  It was a great success, and in the following year Tellabration! concerts spread to other states.  In 1990, Tellabration! became a national event with the help of the National Storytelling Network.  Now thousands of storytelling groups worldwide produce Tellabration! concerts in November.  As a member of the National Storytelling Network, the Frogtown Storytelling Guild continues J. G. Pinkerton’s vision by sponsoring  an annual Tellabration! concert.  In the local Tellabration! concert, Frogtown Storytelling Guild members share the stage with a guest storyteller.  https://frogtownstorytelling.wordpress.com/tellabration/

7 Reasons Google Search Results Vary Dramatically  September 29, 2015 by Mike McEvoy   Like many people you may be a regular Google search user.  Over time you may have noticed a strange phenomenon:  Google search results vary, even on the same device, using the same browser and using the same keyword phrase or search term.  Users who are not well-versed in Google’s mysterious and ever-changing search algorithm may attribute this to simple error.  However, these changes are actually quite intentional.  While occasionally inconvenient for users, these search results variations can prove much more problematic for businesses, marketers and companies providing SEO services.  Ranking first on page one in the results Google returns on a desktop computer for a given keyword phrase and somewhere in the middle of page three in the search results on a smartphone for the same keyword phrase can have a significant impact on your business’ online business visibility and sales.  Do you remember everything you’ve searched for with Google in the past?  Probably not, but Google does, or at least up until the last point you cleared your browser cache and cookies.  If you regularly search for similar keywords, Google will remember this, offering you results based on prior searches.  It’s no secret that Google places ads from its AdWords PPC advertising serviceon its Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).  Some ads are at the top of the first results page, while some show up off to the right-hand side.  Sometime there are ads at the end of the ten blue links.  Read about the seven reasons for varying search results at https://www.webpresencesolutions.net/7-reasons-google-search-results-vary-dramatically/

An August 29, 2018 search for "dine and dash" 2018 in Google produced 226,000 results.  All but three items on page one were about dining with no intention of paying.  A colleague six miles from me repeated the search, getting 340,000 results.  When Google changed its algorithim for blogs, the average viewership for Librarian's Muse went from 25 to 5.

Coke plans to buy British coffee-shop chain Costa for $5.1 billion, taking it over from Whitbread.  Coke, “like a lot of its peers, is looking to diversify away from its core business of sugary drinks, an area that has been increasingly attracting government ire due to a rising global obesity problem,” says Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.  A growing number of U.S. cities, for example, have levied special taxes on sodas and other sugary beverages.  The seller of Sprite and Powerade seems to think “this is the ideal way into a frothy market that it’s maybe missed out on so far,” Neil Wilson, Markets.com’s chief market analyst adds.  Costa, a rival to Starbucks in the U.K., has more than 2,400 coffee shops in its home country, along with more than 1,400 retail outlets in other nations.  It also sells coffee in grocery stores and gas stations.  Coke has ventured into coffee before, including acquiring a minority stake in once-hot Keurig Green Mountain.  That company is now owned by an investor group led by JAB Holding.  Victor Reklaitis 

Paul Taylor, one of the most prolific and influential choreographers in the world of modern dance, died Aug. 29, 2018 at the age of 88.  The movements Taylor created on stage were inspired by everyday people doing everyday things, including doing nothing at all.  It was an approach that at first turned people away—but he eventually turned them around.  In his work Esplanade, the dancers are in reds, oranges, pinks.  They're constantly moving—running, falling, slipping, tumbling.  Paul Taylor was born in 1930 just outside of Pittsburgh.  He wanted to be a painter, and attended Syracuse University on a swimming scholarship to pay for it.  And then, he told NPR in 2004, something changed.  He was discouraged about painting and went into the library.  "And I picked up a dance magazine, picked up some dance books and then looked at the pictures," Taylor said.  "And I like to move and I thought, 'Well, maybe that's it.  I'll just try that.'  So I left college and came to New York to take dance classes."  He went to the Julliard School and began a career dancing at the age of 22—relatively old in the world of dance.  Once in New York he embedded himself in the contemporary arts scene, collaborating with the likes of artist Robert Rauschenberg and composer John Cage.  He formed his own company but stopped dancing in 1974, at the age of 44, after collapsing onstage.  In 2008, Paul Taylor wrote an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal describing why he made dances.  It included a lot of the usual reasons for making art—to feel less alone, to offer reprieve from the world.  Andrew Limbong  See pictures at https://www.npr.org/2018/08/30/643422769/paul-taylor-giant-of-modern-dance-has-died

Iosif Kobzon, the legendary Soviet crooner who served in the Russian State Duma in his later years, died at the age of 80 on August 30, 2018.  Known as Russia’s Frank Sinatra, Kobzon won widespread fame for performing the theme songs of the classic 1973 television spy series “17 Moments of Spring.”  Kobzon became a controversial figure as a Duma lawmaker for his support of the 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and other pro-Kremlin stances.  He has been barred entry to the United States since 1995 when his visa was revoked on suspected mafia ties.  In 2015, the European Union blacklisted Kobzon for visiting the war-ravaged region of eastern Ukraine where he was born and expressing support for pro-Russian separatists.  Link to 2:33 music video at https://themoscowtimes.com/news/legendary-soviet-crooner-lawmaker-iosif-kobzon-dies-62719

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1945  August 31, 2018

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