Bees are famous for being industrious, and the comparison of busy people to bees goes back to at least the 16th century.  In 1715, English poet Isaac Watts used the phrase in a moral poem advising against idleness and mischief:  “How doth the little busy bee / Improve each shining hour, / And gather honey all the day / From every opening flower!”  Lewis Carroll later parodied this homily as “How doth the little crocodile” in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.  Katy Steinmetz  Find the origins of nine bee-inspired sayings at http://time.com/3897638/bee-inspired-sayings/  

Honey bees are social creatures that enlist a caste system to accomplish the tasks that ensure the survival of the colony.  Thousands of worker bees, all sterile females, assume responsibility for feeding, cleaning, nursing, and defending the group.  Male drones live to mate with the queen, who is the only fertile female in the colony.  The queen bee is the dominant, adult female bee that is the mother of most, if not all the bees in the hive.  A future queen bee's larva is selected by worker bees to be nourished with a protein-rich secretion known as royal jelly so that it can sexually mature.  A drone is a male bee that is the product of an unfertilized egg.  Drones have bigger eyes and lack stingers.  They cannot help defend the hive and they do not have the body parts to collect pollen or nectar, so they cannot contribute to feeding the community.  Worker bees are female.  They accomplish every chore unrelated to reproduction, which is left up to the queen bee.  In their first days, workers tend to the queen.  For the remainder of their short lives (just a single month), workers keep busy.  Debbie Hadley  https://www.thoughtco.com/honey-bee-workers-drones-queens-1968099

Taíno (good people), were seafaring indigenous peoples of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles.  They were one of the Arawak peoples of South America, and the Taíno language was a member of the Arawakan language family of northern South America.  At the time of Columbus' arrival in 1492, there were five Taíno chiefdoms and territories on Hispaniola (modern-day Dominican Republic and Haiti), each led by a principal Cacique (chieftain), to whom tribute was paid. Ayiti ("land of high mountains") was the indigenous Taíno name for the entire island of Hispaniola, which has kept its name as it is used as the Haitian Creole form for Haiti.  Cuba, the largest island on the Antilles, was originally divided into 29 chiefdoms.  Most of the native settlements later became the site of Spanish colonial cities retaining the original Taíno names, for instance; Havana, Batabanó, Camagüey, Baracoa and Bayamo.  The name Cuba comes from the Taíno language; however the exact meaning of the name is unclear but it may be translated either as "where fertile land is abundant" (cubao), or "great place" (coabana).  http://tainomuseum.org/taino/

GIG ECONOMY  A study by Intuit predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors.  There are a number of forces behind the rise in short-term jobs.  For one thing, in this digital age, the workforce is increasingly mobile and work can increasingly be done from anywhere, so that job and location are decoupled.  That means that freelancers can select among temporary jobs and projects around the world, while employers can select the best individuals for specific projects from a larger pool than that available in any given area.  In a gig economy, businesses save resources in terms of benefits, office space and training.  They also have the ability to contract with experts for specific projects who might be too high-priced to maintain on staff.  From the perspective of the freelancer, a gig economy can improve work-life balance over what is possible in most jobs.  https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/gig-economy

Formerly a saloon, a clothing store, and a billiard parlor, the building was constructed in 1868.  Spread across three floors of the restored structure, the American Museum of Magic is filled from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, with props from all of the greatest magicians of the 19th and 20th centuries.  It’s the largest magic museum in the United States that is open to the public.  Half a million pieces of memorabilia are crammed inside of the museum.  Among the pieces are more than 10,000 books, 24,000 magazines, 46,000 photographs, letters, and more than 2,000 handbills.  One of the highlights is an escape apparatus used by Harry Houdini:  his famous Milk Can Escape.  Link to map and directions to the American Museum of Magic 107 E. Michigan Avenue in Marshall, Michigan at https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/american-museum-of-magic

The art of magic and illusion has been written about for ages, dating back to the 16th century when the first book explaining magic tricks was published.  Find about five magic shops in New York City at https://untappedcities.com/2017/05/12/5-places-to-visit-in-nyc-to-celebrate-the-art-of-magic/

Harry Potter: A History of Magic  October 5, 2018-January 27, 2019  Capturing the traditions of folklore and magic at the heart of the Harry Potter stories, Harry Potter: A History of Magic, a British Library exhibition,  combines century—old treasures including rare books, manuscripts, and magical objects from the collections of the British Library and New-York Historical Society—with original material from Harry Potter publisher Scholastic and J.K. Rowling’s own archives.  From medieval descriptions of dragons and griffins to the origins of the sorcerer’s stone, visitors will explore the subjects studied at Hogwarts and see original drafts and drawings by J.K. Rowling.  Unique to the New York presentation of the British Library’s Harry Potter:  A History of Magic exhibition—and on public view for the first time—are Mary GrandPré’s pastel illustrations for the cover artwork of Scholastic’s original editions of the novels; Brian Selznick’s newly created artwork for the covers of the 20th anniversary edition of the Harry Potter series published by Scholastic; cover art by Kazu Kibuishi featured in Scholastic’s 15th anniversary box set; and the enormous steamer trunk used to transport a signed copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the Queen Mary to the U.S.  The exhibition also includes costumes and set models from the award-winning play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.  https://www.nyhistory.org/exhibitions/harry-potter-history-magic   New York Historical Society  170 Central Park West at Richard Gilder Way (77th Street)  New York, NY 10024  (212) 873-3400

Paper car wheels were composite wheels of railway carriages, made from a wrought iron or steel rim bolted to an iron hub with an interlayer of laminated paper.  The center was made of compressed paper held between two plate-iron disks.  Their ability to damp rail/wheel noise resulted in a quiet and smooth ride for the passengers of North American Pullman dining and sleeping cars.   Paper car wheels were invented by the locomotive engineer Richard N. Allen (1827–1890), who set up a company with his brother-in-law in 1867, producing paper from straw.  They damped vibrations much better than conventional cast-iron railway wheels, which transmitted all imperfections of the track into the car above it, making train rides noisy and uncomfortable.  In 1915 the Interstate Commerce Commission, which regulated U.S. railroads, declared paper car wheels to be unsafe, and they went out of use on railroad passenger cars in the United States.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_car_wheel

If you like falafel (fried chickpea patties usually sandwiched in a pita pocket), you’ll love this healthier baked twist on that theme.  The flavor profile of the fish cakes, like falafel, comes from a tasty puree of chickpeas, lemon, and spices.  Adding mackerel gives a healthy seaside twist to this fusion sandwich.  See recipe for Mediterranean-Style Fish Cake Sandwiches by Julie Grimes at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/mediterranean-style-fish-cake-sandwiches?utm_campaign=TST_WNK_20180905&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc_Newsletter&utm_content=The%20Weeknight%20Kitchen:%20Mediterranean-Style%20Fish%20

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1966  October 9. 2018