Uncle Alphonso's No-Fuss Paella by Kate McDermott serves six   I have known Renée all my life.  She called my dad Uncle Hershey because of all the Hershey bars that he would bring to her family on Christmas, Easter, and birthdays.  Renée attended college in Spain, and met and later married a Spaniard who serenaded her below her balcony.  On her visits back to Santa Barbara, our families always got together, and she made the delicious paella she had learned in Spain from her husband’s Uncle Alphonso.  I still have my handwritten index card with this recipe, and at the top I wrote just two words:  “Yum Yum!”  Find recipe at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/uncle-alphonsos-no-fuss-paella  “Uncle Alphonso’s No-Fuss Paella”, from HOME COOKING WITH KATE MCDERMOTT by Kate McDermott  Copyright © 2018 by Kathleen L. McDermott  Used by permission of The Countryman Press

                                                                                                         

Authors the Muser is grateful for

Walker Percy  (1916–1990) https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/walker-percy

Ray Bradbury  (1920–2012)  https://www.biography.com/people/ray-bradbury-9223240

Karl Vonnegut Jr.  (1922-2007)  https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/kurt-biography/

Are Electric Cars Worse for the Environment by Jonathan Lesser  May 15, 2018   I used the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s most recent long-term forecasts for the number of new electric vehicles through 2050, estimated how much electricity they’d use, and then figured out how much pollution that electricity would generate, looking at three key pollutants regulated under the U.S. Clean Air Act—sulfur dioxide (SO₂), oxides of nitrogen (NO_X), and particulates—as well as CO₂ emissions. I compared them to the emissions of new gasoline-powered vehicles, using the EIA’s “real world” miles-per-gallon forecast, rather than the higher CAFE standard values. What I found is that widespread adoption of electric vehicles nationwide will likely increase air pollution compared with new internal combustion vehicles.  You read that right:  more electric cars and trucks will mean more pollution.  That might sound counterintuitive:  After all, won’t replacing a 30-year old, smoke-belching Oldsmobile with a new electric vehicle reduce air pollution?  Yes, of course.  But that’s also where many electric vehicle proponents’ arguments run off the road:  they fail to consider just how clean and efficient new internal combustion vehicles are.  The appropriate comparison for evaluating the benefits of all those electric vehicle subsidies and mandates isn’t the difference between an electric vehicle and an old gas-guzzler; it’s the difference between an electric car and a new gas car.  And new internal combustion engines are really clean. Today’s vehicles emit only about 1% of the pollution than they did in the 1960s, and new innovations continue to improve those engines’ efficiency and cleanliness.  And as for that electric car:  The energy doesn’t come from nowhere.  Cars are charged from the nation’s electrical grid, which means that they’re only as “clean” as America’s mix of power sources.  Those are getting cleaner, but we still generate power mainly by burning fossil fuels:  natural gas is our biggest source of electricity, and is projected to increase.  And coal, while still declining, will remain the second largest source of electricity for some time.  (Third is nuclear power, which doesn’t generate emissions but has other byproducts that worry some environmentalists.)  Even with large increases in wind and solar generation, the EIA projects that the nation’s electric generating mix will be just 30% renewable by 2030.  Based on that forecast, if the EIA’s projected number of electric vehicles were replaced with new internal combustion vehicles, air pollution would actually decrease—and this holds true even if you include the emissions from oil refineries that manufacture gasoline.  Read more at https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2018/05/15/are-electric-cars-worse-for-the-environment-000660

Marcona almonds are a special product of Spain, akin to San Marzano tomatoes from Italy or caviar from Russia.  These almonds are more rounded and plump than the California varieties we're used to.  They also seem to have a softer and somewhat "wet" texture, similar to macadamia nuts.  The marcona almonds we've tried have a sweeter, more delicate taste closer to the flavor we associate with almond extract.  You can get them at Whole Foods and any good gourmet shop.  You can usually find them raw or toasted with olive oil and salt.  Trader Joe's also carries a variety that has been toasted with rosemary. 

Emma Christensen  https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-deal-with-marcona-al-80856

BOOK ADDICTS by Martha Esbin, a cinquain with five eight-syllable lines

Book addicts fear having no books,

take extra books on trips in case

they run out, store books on the floor,

have books in each room of the house,

make up reading lists for themselves.

The cinquain, also known as a quintain or quintet, is a poem or stanza composed of five lines.  Link to cinquains at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poems?field_form_tid=406

December 7, 2018  Frenchman to float across the Atlantic--in a barrel  A 71-year-old Frenchman has set off across the Atlantic Ocean in a large orange barrel, hoping to float to the Caribbean by the end of March.  Jean-Jacques Savin left the Canary Islands, off the coast of west Africa, on Wednesday, in a sophisticated barrel-shaped capsule he spent months crafting.  He is traveling at "two or three kilometers an hour" (one to two miles an hour) and intends to (literally) barrel his way across the ocean with the help of currents alone, he told the AFP news agency in a telephone interview after setting off.  Savin's journey is being tracked online, with his latest marking showing him approximately 19 miles off the island of El Hierro from which he departed.  The retired military parachutist has been funded by sponsorships and a crowdfunding campaign, and a Facebook page has also been posting updates of his progress.  He has stowed away a bottle of Sauternes white wine and a block of foie gras for New Year's Eve, and a bottle of Saint-Émilion red for his birthday in January, according to AFP.  https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/27/europe/barrel-atlantic-crossing-scli-intl/index.html

From:  Steve Warshaw   Subject:  No el  Long long ago the interior of New York City--Manhattan, specifically--was tangled with elevated structures carrying automotive and commercial transport and railway traffic.  Much of that is gone--including a substantial part of the West Side Highway, the Third and Sixth Avenue els, etc.  One of the West Side rail carriers was transmogrified into a tourist attraction called the High Line.  The elevated auto and rail approaches to the bridges into The Bronx and Queens still remain, as do elevated subway and rail lines over the 125th St. “valley”.  So--in a sense--NYC has become a partially no-el city.  From:  Denis Toll   Subject: No el  A coupe of songs suitabe for Noe:  Jinge Bes, Anges from the Reams of Gory, The Hoy and the Ivy, Deck the Has with Boughs of Hoy  Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

2019 is a Year of the Pig according to the Chinese zodiac, and it's an Earth Pig year from February 4, 2019 through January 23, 2020.  An Earth Pig comes once in a 60-year cycle.  Years of the Pig include 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, and 2031.  In Chinese astrology, each year belongs to a Chinese zodiac animal according to the 12-year cycle.  If you were born in a Pig year, you are known as a Pig (or ‘belonging to the Pig') in China.  Zodiac years are by the Chinese calendar.  See graphics and find out lucky and unlucky things for people born in a year of the pig.  https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/pig.htm 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 2, 2019  Issue 2014