“Every time an old person dies, a library burns to the ground.”  -  African proverb  "If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” -   Rudyard Kipling   Stories have power.  They delight, enchant, touch, teach, recall, inspire, motivate, and challenge.  They help us understand.  They imprint a picture on our minds.  Our storytelling ability, a uniquely human trait, has been with us as long as we’ve been able to speak and listen.  Not only do people love to tell stories, people love to hear stories!  Jean Garboden  Read a tiny story at https://truenorthelderhood.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/every-time-an-old-person-dies-a-library-burns-to-the-ground/

Tilsit cheese is made from cow’s milk—usually partially-skimmed, but sometimes whole.  The milk may or may not be pasteurized, depending on where it is made.  The cheese dates from the 1700s.  The story is that it was invented in Prussia by Dutch immigrants in Tilsit, East Prussia actually trying to make Gouda.  The town of Tilsit is also famous for the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, signed by Napoleon, Alexander I of Russia and Frederick William III of Prussia.  France made peace with Russia (temporarily—until 1812) and gave Russia a free hand in Finland.  Tilsit was transferred to Russia from Germany at the end of the Second World War in 1945.  Though Tilsit has disappeared off the map, being now a town called “Sovetsk” in the Kaliningrad area of Russia, Tilsit cheese is still made there and called that.  Also called Tilsiter and Ragnit.  https://www.cooksinfo.com/tilsit-cheese  Find recipe for Tilsiter Salad at http://www.anexpatcooks.com/recipe/tilsiter-salad

Prussia began its history outside Germany altogether.  The people called Preussen in German, who inhabited the land on the south-eastern coast of the Baltic, were Slavs, related to the Lithuanians and Latvians.  They were conquered and forcibly Christianised in the thirteenth century by the Teutonic Knights, diverted from the Holy Land.  German peasants were brought in to farm the land and by around 1350 the majority of the population was German, though the Poles annexed part of Prussia in the following century, leaving the Knights with East Prussia.  Meanwhile Germans had conquered the Brandenburg area to the west and the margraves, or marcher lords, of Brandenburg became Electors of the Holy Roman Empire.  Both Brandenburg and East Prussia fell under  control of the Hohenzollern family, which mastered the Brandenburg hereditary nobility, the Junkers, and began the long march to power in Europe which was to end with the First World War and the abdication of the Kaiser in 1918.  The formidable Frederick William of Brandenburg, known as the Great Elector, who ruled from 1640 to his death in 1688, made Brandenburg-Prussia the strongest of the northern German states, created an efficient army and fortified Berlin.  His son, the Elector Frederick III (1657-1713) was besotted with all things French and looked for a crown as a reward for aiding the Emperor Leopold I.  There could not be a king of Brandenburg, which was part of the Empire, and there could not be a king of Prussia, because part of it was in Poland.  By an ingenious formula, however, Frederick was permitted to call himself king in Poland.  He put the crown on his head with great ceremony at Königsberg as Frederick I and so created the Prussian kingdom, with its capital at Berlin.  Brandenburg from then on, though still theoretically part of Germany owing allegiance to the Emperor, was treated in practice as part of the Prussian kingdom.  It was Frederick’s son and successor, Frederick William I, one of history’s sergeant-majors, who transformed his realm into the military autocracy that gave Prussia its lasting reputation.  He ruled until 1740 and his son in turn, Frederick the Great, used his army to turn Prussia into a major European power later in the eighteenth century.  https://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/kingdom-prussia-founded

Jarlsberg is a mild, semi-soft cow’s milk cheese of Norwegian origin.  Created by Anders Larsen Bakke, it resembles a Swiss Emmental with distinctive, open and irregular ‘eyes’.  Beneath the yellow-wax rind of Jarlsberg is a semi-firm yellow interior that is buttery, rich in texture with a mild, nutty flavour.  It is an all-purpose cheese, good for cooking as well eating as a snack.  Since the cheese melts so well, Jarlsberg tastes delicious on sandwiches, fondues, quiches and on hot dishes.  https://www.cheese.com/jarlsberg/

Daniel James Palmer is an American novelist.  He is the son of the novelist Michael Palmer.  He is married with two children and resides in New Hampshire.  Palmer was born in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.  He graduated from Boston University with a political science major and returned to receive his MA in Mass Communication.  Palmer began to pursue writing after the dotcom wave disrupted his previous technology career and led him to begin writing about his thoughts through short stories.  He took his previous technology background and incorporated that into the themes of his thriller novels.  His first, the techno-thriller Delirious, follows the downfall of an electronic guru, Charlie, whose own GPS invention unravels a murder trail.  Like Delirious, Palmer’s subsequent novels attempt to expose and create fear of the hidden dangers of today's popular technology.  Palmer taught himself to play guitar and performed in the Boston club scene with various bands for several years.  Palmer has recorded two albums:  Alien Love Songs (2000) and Home Sweet Home (2007), both of which were produced by Don DiLego of Velvet Elk Studios.  Palmer's music style is influenced by both Americana and classic rock traditions.  Retail clothier J.Crew licensed Palmer's song “Perfect Place to Be” for commercial use. 

https://www.revolvy.com/page/Daniel-Palmer-(writer)  Link to a list of Daniel Palmer's books at http://www.danielpalmerbooks.com/books

What tastes like a cherry tomato injected with mango and pineapple juice, and looks like an orange pearl encased in a miniature paper lantern?  It’s a real plant:  Physalis pruinosa, aka the “ground cherry.”  Ground cherries are one of those slightly obscure seasonal things—like purple long beans or fresh lima beans—you’ll probably come across only by chance from a farmstand or a friend’s garden.  If you do, consider yourself lucky!  These little gems are in the same genus as tomatillos (Physalis philadelphica)—hence the similar papery husk—and the same family as tomatoes.  Ground cherries taste slightly sweet and tropical, with a texture that’s somewhere between a tomato and a grape.  According to this article, their common name comes from the fact that the fruit falls to the ground when it is ripe.  The guy at our local farmstand called them “ground tomatoes,” and a bit of online research turns up many other names:  “husk cherries,” “winter cherries,” “strawberry tomatoes.”  Some sources also call them Cape gooseberries, but from what I can tell, those are slightly different (Physalis peruviana).  Ground cherries are versatile, suitable in both sweet and savory dishes.  You can just unwrap the fruits and eat them raw, like cherry tomatoes (which is what I’ve been doing).  Amanda Fiegl  Find five recipe ideas at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/five-ways-to-eat-ground-cherries-98470003/

Whether or not it is an entirely admirable thing, it is certainly an arresting thing that Tonke Dragt’s THE LETTER FOR THE KING (Pushkin Children’s Books, 512 pp., paper, $15.95; ages 10 and up), newly republished in English in a translation by Laura Watkinson, has as literal a title as has ever been imagined by an author for an adventure story.  We expect the titles of children’s classics to be deliberately intriguing, marked by an unexpected metaphysical juxtaposition—a witch meets a wardrobe—or at least to suggest an intriguing concept, time wrinkling or a philosopher’s stone sought.  But Dragt’s book promises to be about a letter, for some king, and that is exactly its chief and only matter.  The question is if it can be delivered or not.  Since its publication more than 50 years ago, the book has sold millions of copies in Europe and been adapted as a movie; it is being developed as a series by Netflix.  So the new reader coming to it must ask not if it works but how its mechanism runs—and, perhaps, whether it will run well for a generation of impatient, fantasy-besotted young American readers.  (The second volume of the series, “The Secrets of the Wild Wood,” has also been republished.  It involves secrets in a wild wood.)  Adam Gopnik  Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/books/review/tongke-dragt-letter-for-the-king.html?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  November 14, 2018  Issue 1986  318th day of the year