The
House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written
by John Bellairs and
illustrated by Edward Gorey. It is the
first in the series of twelve novels featuring the fictional American boy Lewis
Barnavelt. The Cronin House in
John Bellairs's hometown of Marshall, Michigan was the inspiration for
his book. With the film adaptation
debuting in 2018, Marshall's population embraced the fame with walking tours
and other activities related to the book and its film. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children's
Literature said The House with a Clock in Its Walls "received
a New York Times outstanding book citation, and a Michigan
Young Readers award nomination". Anita Silvey wrote in Children's Books
and Their Creators, "With The House with a Clock in Its Walls,
Bellairs achieved even greater popularity and established himself as one of the
most compelling mystery writers for children." Kirkus
Reviews wrote that Gorey's drawings of the house were
"creepy-cozy". It said of the
evil plot to be stopped, "Bellairs doesn't bother to supply either
motivation or blueprints for the . . .
scheme, but if the cavalier and capricious handling of the occult by
characters and author alike precludes any bone-deep shudders, the house lives
up to its promise of a few gratifying Halloween shivers." The New York Times wrote, "It's
the aura of this story—its blend of the everyday and the supernatural—that
makes it glow among a plethora of lacklustre occult books this spring [of
1973]." It continued, "What
the author has done that's so special is to touch both the intellect and the
feelings. He has dusted off the
paraphernalia of ancient magic and made us newly aware of the difference between
good and evil. His dialogue goes snap,
crackle and pop. He sets chilling scenes
with suspense that tightens like a screw."
See picture of the Cronin house and link
to information on the 2018 film at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_with_a_Clock_in_Its_Walls
The phrase 'face the music' has an agreeable imagery. We feel that
we can picture who was facing what and what music was playing at the time. Regrettably, the documentary records don't
point to any clear source for the phrase and we are, as so often, at the mercy
of plausible speculation. There was, of
course, a definitive and unique origin for the expression 'face the music' and
whoever coined it was quite certain of the circumstances and the music being
referred to. Let's hope at least that
one of the following suggestions is the correct one, even though there is no
clear evidence to prove it. A commonly
repeated assertion is that 'face the music' originated from the tradition of
disgraced officers being 'drummed out' of
their regiment. A second popular theory
is that it was actors who 'faced the music', that is, faced the orchestra pit,
when they went on stage. A third theory,
less likely but quite interesting none the less, relates to the old UK practice
of West Gallery singing. This was
singing, literally from the west galleries of English churches, by the common
peasantry who weren't allowed to sit in the higher status parts of the
church. The theory was that the nobility
were obliged to listen to the vernacular songs of the parishioners, often with
lyrics that were critical of the ways of the gentry. It may help to pinpoint the origin to know
that the phrase appears to be mid 19th American in origin. The earliest
citation I can find for the phrase is from The New Hampshire Statesman
& State Journal, August 1834:
"Will the editor of the Courier explain this black affair. We want no equivocation--'face the music'
this time." Almost all other early
citations are American. Sadly, none of
them give the slightest clue as to the source, or reason for, the music being
faced. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/face-the-music.html
Face
the Music is
a musical, the first collaboration between Moss Hart (book) and
Irving Berlin (music and lyrics). Face the Music opened on
Broadway in 1932, and has had several subsequent regional and New York
stagings. The musical was written as a
political satire, specifically spoofing political and police corruption that
the Seabury
Commission was
investigating. It also satirized show
business, showing the far-fetched economies, such as seeing 4 films with a room
and bath for 10¢. The musical did not
ignore the Depression but rather found humor in it. There were many titles considered, among
them Nickels and Dimes, but Berlin came up with the final
title. Face the Music opened
in Philadelphia on February 3, 1932 for 2 weeks in its pre-Broadway
tryout. The musical premiered on Broadway at the New Amsterdam Theatre on
February 17, 1932 and closed on July 9, 1932 after 165 performances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_the_Music_(musical)
There may be trouble ahead, But while there's moonlight and music and love and
romance--Let's face the music and dance.
Cornmeal Peach Cobbler https://food52.com/recipes/22886-cornmeal-peach-cobbler Apple
Pandowdy https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/apple-pandowdy/ Shoofly
Pie https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017018-shoofly-pie Shoo
fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy - Dinah Shore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDA5ZDarEE4 1:34
The Pennsylvania
Trolley Museum, located at 1 Museum Road, Washington, Pennsylvania,
is a museum dedicated to trolleys and includes
several restored examples. According to
their web site, the museum's mission is "to communicate the story of
Pennsylvania's Trolley Era to a diverse audience through the preservation,
interpretation, and use of its collection of electric railway and railroad
equipment." To that end, the museum
includes a collection of 45 refurbished trolleys. The museum owns a New Orleans streetcar,
Perley A. Thomas car #832, formerly used on various lines in New Orleans
including the Desire line which is mentioned in the film A Streetcar Named Desire based
on the play by Tennessee Williams, although it is not the streetcar actually in the
film (#922, still in service in New Orleans). Much of the museum's collection is housed in
a $2 million "Trolley Display Building" which opened May 6, 2005.
Visitors can take a short ride on a restored functioning trolley. A special ride during the Christmas season
includes a visit from Santa Claus. In September 2004, the area surrounding the
museum flooded in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. The floodwaters caused substantial damage to
the museum which has since been repaired.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Trolley_Museum See also https://pa-trolley.org/visit-ptm/
Museums in Johnstown Pennsylvania
https://visitpa.com/pa/johnstown/attractions-activities/museums
Longest arch of
elm trees in the US is in Westmont Borough, Johnstown, Pennyslvania
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/190910471676994711/ See also http://westmontborough.com/general-information/trees/
A renewable methane producer, RNG Energy
Solutions, can't get enough food waste from restaurants and groceries, and the
fattier and gassier it is, the better.
RNG converts the wretched refuse of our
teeming stores into transportation fuel.
RNG Energy announced August 27. 2018 it has formed a joint venture with Philadelphia Energy Solutions, which
operates the giant South Philadelphia refinery complex, to build a $120 million digester that can convert more than 1,100 tons of
food waste a day into methane gas.
The Point Breeze Renewable Energy Project would be built on 22 acres of
vacant land in the refinery's North Yard area, off Maiden Lane to the west of
the four spherical butane tanks along the Schuylkill Expressway. The project would take from two to three years
to permit and to build. The biogas
project aims to divert food wastes from landfills, and also to reduce the
escape of methane from decomposing landfill waste into the atmosphere. The facility would produce 3 million cubic
feet of gas a day, for which there is a strong market from owners of truck
fleets and municipal buses. Andrew Maykuth http://www2.philly.com/philly/business/energy/philadelphia-energy-solutions-food-waste-digester-methane-gas-fuel-20180828.html
A huge hole has opened in the Sun's
corona, which means
we're officially on geomagnetic storm watch--with auroras incoming across a
huge swathe of North America. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) has issued a storm watch for a G2-level solar storm on
September 11, 2018. That's a moderate
storm on the 5-level scale, with G5 being the highest. We're currently heading into Solar minimum, the least active period of
the Sun's 11-year cycle. That means much
lower sunspot, coronal mass ejection and solar flare activity. But "holes" can still open in the
Sun's corona. These are cooler, less
dense regions of plasma in the Sun's atmosphere, with more open magnetic
fields. These open regions allow the
solar winds to escape more easily, blowing electromagnetic radiation into space
at high speeds. If the hole is facing
Earth, those winds come right at us. Spacecraft operations may be
affected as the storm impedes GPS, which means corrections may need to be
issued by ground control. And
high-frequency radio propagation can fade at high latitudes. The biggest effect will probably be the light
show, since the solar winds are responsible for auroras. Michelle Starr
Read more and see graphics at
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 1950
September 11, 2018 Word of the
Day ostrichism
noun The act of hiding, often unsuccessfully, by ducking one's head out of view.
A policy of burying
one's head in the sand, that is, ignoring the reality of a situation.
Wiktionary
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