Charlotte Perkins Gilman; also Charlotte Perkins Stetson (1860–1935), was a prominent American feminist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform.  She was a utopian feminist and served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle.  Her best remembered work today is her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which she wrote after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis.  At one point, Gilman supported herself by selling soap door to door.  After moving to Pasadena, Gilman became active in organizing social reform movements.  As a delegate, she represented California in 1896 at both the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention in Washington, D.C. and the International Socialist and Labor Congress in London.  In 1890, she was introduced to Nationalist Clubs movement which worked to "end capitalism's greed and distinctions between classes while promoting a peaceful, ethical, and truly progressive human race."  Published in the Nationalist magazine, her poem, "Similar Cases" was a satirical review of people who resisted social change and she received positive feedback from critics for it.  Throughout that same year, 1890, she became inspired enough to write fifteen essays, poems, a novella, and the short story The Yellow Wallpaper.  Her career was launched when she began lecturing on Nationalism and gained the public's eye with her first volume of poetry, In This Our World, published in 1893.  As a successful lecturer who relied on giving speeches as a source of income, her fame grew along with her social circle of similar-minded activists and writers of the feminist movement.  In 1890, Gilman wrote her short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", which is now the all-time best selling book of the Feminist Press.  She wrote it on June 6 and 7, 1890 in her home of Pasadena, and it was printed a year and a half later in the January 1892 issue of The New England Magazine.  Since its original printing, it has been anthologized in numerous collections of women's literature, American literature, and textbooks, though not always in its original form.  For instance, many textbooks omit the phrase "in marriage" from a very important line in the beginning of story:  "John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage."  The reason for this omission is a mystery, as Gilman's views on marriage are made clear throughout the story.  The story is about a woman who suffers from mental illness after three months of being closeted in a room by her husband for the sake of her health.  She becomes obsessed with the room's revolting yellow wallpaper. Gilman wrote this story to change people's minds about the role of women in society, illustrating how women's lack of autonomy is detrimental to their mental, emotional, and even physical wellbeing.  This story was inspired by her treatment from her first husband.  The narrator in the story must do as her husband, who is also her doctor, demands, although the treatment he prescribes contrasts directly with what she truly needs—mental stimulation and the freedom to escape the monotony of the room to which she is confined.  "The Yellow Wallpaper" was essentially a response to the doctor who had tried to cure her of her depression through a "rest cure", Dr. Silas Weir Mitchell, and she sent him a copy of the story.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Perkins_Gilman

The tiny mountain village of Corippo, arranged higgledy-piggledy on the green slopes of southern Switzerland's Verzasca valley, looks like something out of a fairytale.  But here, in what is Switzerland's smallest municipality, the citizens are facing a harsh reality.  What was once a thriving farming community of around 300 people has dwindled to just 12 residents, 11 of whom are over 65.  Today, the only economic activity in the town is the local osteria, a rustic restaurant.  Here, in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, not far from Lacarno, Corippo's slate-roofed buildings, built from local Ticino granite, have remained largely untouched for centuries--but it's now on the verge of becoming a ghost town.  However, all's not lost.  A local foundation, Fondazione Corippo 1975, has come up with a novel way to save the village:  Corippo is set to become the country's first "albergo diffuso," or scattered hotel.  Borrowing a model that's already proven successful in Italy, around 30 of the village's 70 buildings--slate-roofed, built from local Ticino granite, and centuries-old--are to to be converted into vacation cottages and hotel rooms.  It will, says Fabio Giacomazzi, an architect and president of the foundation, give visitors "the chance to experience a very particular sojourn in a genuine rural village that remained practically the same since 1800."  Aside from soaking up the atmosphere of an authentic Ticino village, guests will also be able to hike through the region, visit cultural sites and enjoy the local gastronomy.  "The idea emerged in the '90s," says Giacomazzi.  "The original idea to bring back permanent inhabitants was [no longer] feasible, because the buildings are too small and not directly inaccessible by car."  And now, finally, things are starting to happen.  The first cottage, the two-bedroom Casa Arcotti, opened to guests in late July 2018, while the hotel proper is scheduled to open Easter 2020.  The full three-stage restoration plan--which comes with a price tag of around $6.5 million--would see the osteria expanded and refurbished, in order to become not only the hotel's dining room but also a reception and meeting point.  The public squares in front of the town hall and church are to become open-air communal spaces, while a mill, a bakery and a chestnut-drying room are also slated for renovation.  There are also plans for landscaping, and the reintroduction of goat farming, as well as rye, hemp and chestnut trees.  For more about the project, visit the Fondazione Corippo 1975 website at http://www.fondazionecorippo.ch/   Maureen O'Hare  See pictures at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/corippo-switzerland-hotel/index.html

Ira Levin (1929-2007) wrote only seven novels, but they included one that prompted the gothic revival, Rosemary's Baby, as well as The Stepford Wives, The Boys from Brazil and Sliver, all of which were made into films--and made their author a great deal of money.  Along with these was a real stage stunner, the long-running Broadway comic thriller Deathtrap.  He was sedulous in managing his plots, something he attributed to a treat that took place when he was 15.  "My parents took me to see the New York production of Ten Little Indians.  As those figurines vanished one by one from the mantelpiece and the actors vanished one by one from the stage, I fell in love with theatre that grips and dazzles and surprises.  I was already a would-be novelist.  Now I was a would-be playwright too."  Levin's family were Russian immigrants who had arrived in the US in the 19th century, some settling in Vermont, others on the lower east side in Manhattan, where he was born.  His father, Charles, was a toy importer.  After attending Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa (1946-48), he returned to New York University, graduating in English and philosophy in 1950.  After this, he set about writing, boosted by work for television in what has come to be regarded as a golden age--or at any rate one in which there was a ready outlet for new, live work and adaptations.  As a student, Levin had been a runner-up in a CBS screenwriting contest, and the contacts thus established helped get his Leda's Portrait shown in 1951 on the network suspense series, Lights Out.  Christopher Hawtree  https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/nov/15/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries

sedulous  adjective  Mid 16th century:  from Latin sedulus ‘zealous’ + -ous.  https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/sedulous

The Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering, taking place October 4th-7th, 2018, is a non-profit organization working to preserve and perpetuate the traditions of working ranch people in the American West since 1989.   Cowboy poets, storytellers, musicians and artists perform in various venues in downtown Durango.  https://www.durango.org/discover-durango/durango-cowboy-poetry-gathering   See schedule and buy tickets at http://www.durangocowboypoetrygathering.org/buytickets.php

DURANGO AREA TOURISM OFFICE  802 Main Avenue  Durango, CO, 81301  970-247-3500  Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering  Ellie Flake  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCLTYXiC0iA  1:31 

Toledo-Lucas County Public Library presents Authors!  (Th) Oct. 4 | 7 p.m.  Bowsher High School  Wil Haygood, author of The Butler, returns to Toledo to lead a Community Read of his latest book Tigerland, an emotional, inspiring story of two teams from a poor, black, segregated high school in Ohio in the midst of the racial turbulence of 1968-69.  FREE: RSVP Requested  (Sa) Oct. 6 | 7 p.m.  Bowsher High School  Tiffani Thiessen has been charming old and new fans alike on her longtime Cooking Channel show, Dinner at Tiffani’s.  Now, Tiffani is opening up about her life with her debut cookbook, Pull Up a Chair:  Recipes from My Family to Yours.  FREE: RSVP Requested

September 25, 2018  “OK,” “Sheeple” Says Scrabble, Which Added 300 New Words to Official Dictionary  As a jobless architect living in the Great Depression, there’s no way Alfred Mosher Butts could have foreseen the 1933 board game he invented would one day be found in three out of every five American homes.  Initially dubbed “Lexiko,” the game underwent several retoolings in the decade that followed, but failed to gain any traction.  It was only in the early 1950s—just a few years after the game had been rebranded “Scrabble”—that it began to fly off the shelves.  But the game still needed to be standardized.  According to David Bukszpan’s book Is That A Word? From AA to ZZZ:  The Weird and Wonderful Language of Scrabble, it was Scrabble’s growing popularity in the 1960s, and its adoption on the “penny-a-point” chess club circuit in Manhattan (aka “once money became involved”), which forced the game to adopt an official dictionary.  By 1978, the first edition of The Official SCRABBLE Players Dictionary had made its debut.  This week, the sixth edition of the dictionary has dropped.  Brace yourself, Scrabble fiends:  More than 300 new words have been adopted, and the compilers have embraced some millennial mainstays like “twerk,” “emoji” and “listicle.”  “For a living language, the only constant is change,” says Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster in a press release.  The new additions bring the acceptable Scrabble lexicon up to more than 100,000 two- to eight-letter words.  Katherine J. Wu   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scrabble-300-words-offical-dictionary-180970398/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1961  October 1, 2018  Thought for Today  A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained.  It can afford to extend a helping hand to others.  It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. - Jimmy Carter, 39th US President, Nobel laureate (b. 1 Oct 1924)   Word of the Day  ageful  adjective  Aged, elderly, old.  (rare) Eternal, everlasting.  Today is recognized by the United Nations as the International Day of Older Persons to raise awareness about issues affecting the elderly.  Wiktionary