ALGOL (short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages, originally developed in the mid-1950s, which greatly influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ACM in textbooks and academic sources for more than thirty years.  In the sense that the syntax of most modern languages is "Algol-like", it was arguably the most influential of the four high-level programming languages among which it was roughly contemporary:  FORTRAN, Lisp, and COBOL.  It was designed to avoid some of the perceived problems with FORTRAN and eventually gave rise to many other programming languages, including PL/I, Simula, BCPL, B, Pascal, and C.  ALGOL introduced code blocks and the begin…end pairs for delimiting them.  It was also the first language implementing nested function definitions with lexical scope.  Moreover, it was the first programming language which gave detailed attention to formal language definition and through the Algol 60 Report introduced Backus–Naur form, a principal formal grammar notation for language design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALGOL

From:  Alexander Nix  Subject:  mushroom  Why did all the vegetables want to go out with the mushroom?  Because he’s a fungi to be with.
From:  Vanessa Cooling  Subject:  mushroom  An amusing use of the word mushroom can be found in Georgette Heyer’s novels of Regency England.  Individuals who are considered to be trying to edge themselves into the upper class without adequate societal qualifications are referred to as “mushrooms of society” or, my favourite, “encroaching mushrooms”. 
From:  Richard Kaplan  Subject:  couch potatoes  In 2011, when detailed data about the genome of the garden potato was published in Nature and revealed that there were about 39,000 genes, I was unsurprised and observed in The Times (London) on 17 July that it should have been expected:  the garden potato has a larger number of genes than the couch potato.  The human genome contains about 20,000 coding genes.  See also A selection of pun-ishing headlines by Russell Smith at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/a-selection-of-pun-ishing-headlines/article790687/

Dan Tana (born Dobrivoje Tanasijevic 1933) is an American restaurateur and former professional footballer from Yugoslavia.  Tana is the proprietor of an eponymous restaurant, Dan Tana's, in West Hollywood, California, as well as being closely associated with football clubs Red Star Belgrade and Brentford F.C.  Tana founded the restaurant Dan Tana's, on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, in 1964.  Tana had formerly been the maitre d' at another Hollywood restaurant, La Scala.  Since its opening it has been famed for opening late and its steaks, and has been described as "resolutely untrendy" and a favourite of Hollywood and film industry personalities and professionals.  Link to Dan Tana's official site at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Tana

INTO THE TEETH OF THE OGRE by James Cusick   The facts seemed to be beyond dispute when in 1937 the redoubtable Colonel Edward Strutt declared the north face of the Eiger to be "an obsession for the mentally deranged".  Of the eight men who had, until then, ventured on the Eigerwand, six had perished, and two more would fall to their deaths just a few months later.  Newspaper interest in the mountain was nothing new--it began with the first ill-fated attempts in 1935--for the north face of the Eiger shares with Everest the distinction of being one of the few objectives in mountaineering that ring any bells with the public.  The German press was quick to turn the name Nordwand into Mordwand--the killer wall.  The Eiger, or "Ogre", is one of a trio of peaks, along with the Monch and the Jungfrau, that form the backdrop to the resorts of Grindelwald and Wengen in Switzerland's Bernese Alps.  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/into-the-teeth-of-the-ogre-5385619.html

It is easy to hide behind a keyboard and insult people.  It is easy to issue general non-apologies (I apologize if you take offense or I apologize to those impacted or I apologize if you felt let down by that comment).  It takes courage to contact people personally and privately to make amends.

Sleight is a noun that means the use of skill or dexterity.  Sleight is an archaic word.  For the most part, the word sleight is only seen in the phrase sleight of hand, which refers to the ability of a magician to deceive the eye and perform conjuring tricks.  The phrase sleight of hand may also refer to a skillful deception, of any sort.  Sleight comes from the Old Norse word slaegth, which means sly.  Slight means an inconsequential amount, to a small extent, frail, or having little significance, when used as an adjective.  As a noun, slight refers to an insult.  Slight may also be used as a transitive verb to mean doing something poorly or treating something or someone as unimportant or with disrespect.  Related words are the adverb slightly, and the noun slightness.  Slight comes from the Old Norse word slettr, meaning make smooth or level.  http://grammarist.com/homophones/sleight-vs-slight/

June 15, 2018  Music lives in a part of the brain that's affected last by Alzheimer's disease, research shows.  Singing can even help people experiencing memory loss due to Alzheimer's, dementia and other chronic diseases improve their language use and social well-being.  Giving Voice Chorus began because its founders had parents with Alzheimer's, knew what music could do and wanted to bring people together.  What started in 2014 as a gathering of 30 people with dementia and their care partners is now 160 singers strong across the Twin Cities.  Rehearsing once a week, their musical community is breaking down the isolation that people living with Alzheimer's outside of a care facility face.  At Giving Voice rehearsals, no one is the only person with dementia in the room.  They're all singers, and when they perform it's impossible to tell who has it and who doesn't.  When lyricist Louisa Castner and composer Victor Zupanc started the residency a year ago, they were supposed to create 8 minutes of music and had no idea whether they would hit it off creatively.  Well, they did.  Holding focus groups with the chorus, they discovered the singers were really open to talking about their lives, successes, hopes and dreams.  The stories inspired them so much that they could not stop writing.  They have finished 13 songs as of this writing.  Castner's mother had Alzheimer's and died in 2015.  As the resident music director at Children's Theatre Company, Zupanc has done hundreds of shows, but he said this project has hit him harder than others.  His father had Alzheimer's and passed away just a few months ago.  In those last months, Zupanc would bring Slovenian sheet music and sing with his dad.  Hailey Colwell  Link to 2:24 music video of "Sing Together" by the Giving Voice Chorus at https://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2018/06/15/giving-voice-chorus-premieres-songs-that-share-the-power-of-music-on-memory-

August 31, 2018  Ronan Farrow's time at NBC began with a short-lived daytime program on the network's cable news channel, MSNBC.  After debuting in 2014, "Ronan Farrow Daily" lasted only a year, as Farrow transitioned into more of a roving reporting role.  He soon focused on investigative work, and last year he began digging into the claims against Weinstein.  For eight months, Farrow reported the story out, eventually obtaining a recording of an NYPD sting in which Weinstein admitted to groping model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez.  In August, Farrow was set to fly out to California for an interview with a woman who was going to claim Weinstein raped her.  But according to a former NBC producer who worked with Farrow on the Weinstein reporting, that didn't happen because the network didn't want it to.  Farrow eventually took the stories to the New Yorker, with the first piece publishing in October of last year.  And the public may not learn Farrow's interpretation of events until he's finished with his upcoming book, "Catch and Kill," which will detail his reporting on Weinstein.  He has, however, dropped hints about the network's reluctance, telling Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, "I walked into the door at The New Yorker with an explosive reportable piece that should have been public earlier.  And immediately New Yorker recognized that, and it is not accurate to say that it was not reportable.  In fact, there were multiple determinations that it was reportable at NBC."  McHugh's claims about NBC were detailed in two explosive stories published on August 30, 2018 by The New York Times and The Daily Beast.  McHugh resigned from the network earlier this month and is the first person linked to NBC to accuse the network of hampering his and Farrow's work.  He began working with Farrow in 2015 for an investigative series that aired on the "Today" show.  The two pursued the Weinstein allegations last year, but McHugh says now that the network was "resistant" during the reporting process.  https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/31/media/ronan-farrow-harvey-weinstein-nbc-news/index.html   More on the story:  August 31, 2018  THIS YEAR, Ronan Farrow, along with Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of The New York Times, won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for stories on Harvey Weinstein’s alleged pattern of sexual assault.  The reporting popularized the #MeToo movement across the country; Weinstein has since been indicted.  Now, as Farrow has continued unraveling the story and earning laurels for his work at The New Yorker, NBC executives are left trying to explain how they let him, a former MSNBC host and NBC News contributor, walk away.  https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/nbc-weinstein.php

"We don't need a plan.  We're an agile company."  Dilbert comic strip  September 2, 2018  http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-09-02

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1946  September 4, 2018