Wednesday, February 13, 2019


Chief Justice John Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, near Germantown, Virginia.  In 1780, Marshall started his own law practice, defending clients against pre-war British creditors.  From 1782 to 1795, he held various political offices, including the position of secretary of state in 1800.  In 1801, he became the fourth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving until his death, on July 6, 1835, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  In 1798, Marshall was invited to join the U.S. Supreme Court.  Still thriving and content with his private practice at the time, however, he turned down the position, but agreed to participate in a 1797 diplomatic mission that was dubbed the "XYZ Affair."  Serving as one of three envoys to France, Marshall was sent there to help improve relations between the United States and France (the commission's main goal was to stop French attacks on American ships).  In France, Marshall's commission was turned away by French officials, who demanded they be bribed.  Marshall staunchly refused.  Following his refusal, he became known and liked for the slogan, "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute," though the line had actually been uttered by Marshall's fellow convoy, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.   One of Marshall's first landmark cases was Marbury v. Madison, which established the basis of judicial review.  The case went to the Supreme Court in 1803, following a hostile history:  Toward the end of John Adams's term (while Marshall was serving as secretary of state), Adams had made William Marbury justice of the peace for the District of Columbia.  Instead of handing over the commission to Marbury himself, Marshall left the document for his successor as secretary of state, James Madison, to deliver.  However, once Thomas Jefferson, Adams's political adversary, took office as president, Jefferson forbade Madison to deliver the commission because it had been drawn up by Adams's supporters.  Marbury responded by filing a lawsuit, requesting that the Supreme Court issue a court order forcing Madison to give the commission to Marbury.  Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Supreme Court lacked the power to make Madison hand over the commission, although he thought that Marbury had the right to have it. In the process, Marshall determined that Section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789—authorizing the Supreme Court to issue writs to government officials—was unconstitutional.  Additionally, he concluded that all laws conflicting with the Constitution should be from then on rendered "null and void."  In so doing, Marshall instituted the process of judicial review and, subsequently, positioned the judicial branch as equal to its partners in the American government:  the legislative and executive branches.  Over the course of his 34-year term as chief justice, John Marshall delivered more than 1,000 decisions and penned more than 500 opinions.  He played a pivotal role in determining the Supreme Court's role in federal government, establishing it as the ultimate authority in interpreting the Constitution.  https://www.biography.com/people/john-marshall-9400148
           
Holm oak is native to the Eastern Mediterranean  Trees are resistant to salt-spray from the sea, and are often planted as a windbreak in coastal situations.  Its catkins provide a source of pollen for bees and other insects, while its dense, evergreen canopy offers year-round shelter for birds.  In ancient Greece the leaves of the holm oak were used to tell the future and they were also used to make crowns to honour people.  The acorn was seen as a sign of fertility and wearing acorn jewellery was believed to increase fertility.  Holm oak timber is incredibly hard and strong.  The Romans used the wood for making the wheels of carts and carriages, as well as  agricultural tools.  Today it is sometimes used for firewood as it is slow and long lasting.  Holm oak acorns are used to feed pigs reared for Iberico ham.  https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/common-non-native-trees/holm-oak/

Exalt vs. exult  To exalt is to raise in rank, to glorify, or to increase the effect or intensity of.  In all its definitions, exalt is transitive, meaning it takes a direct object (You can’t just exalt, period; you have to exalt someone or something). The word’s past participle, exalted, is often used to mean elevated in rank or lofty.  To exult is to rejoice greatly or to be jubilant or triumphant.  It is always intransitive, meaning it does not have a direct object (You can’t exult someone or something; you just exult).  https://grammarist.com/usage/exalt-exult/

Vermilion, Ohio, is the kind of small town that leaves a very strong imprint.  It is 40 miles west of Cleveland, never close enough to be a suburb, and always proud enough to resist such a moniker.  Vermilion hugs Lake Erie, between what was, back in the day, the Ford assembly plant in Lorain and the General Motors plant in Sandusky.  The town doubled in size in the 1960s, from 5,000 to 10,000 people, when workers flooded north from Memphis to the auto plants.  The town’s population has held steady at 10,000 since then, despite the downsizing and auto-plant closures, the Lorain steel mills, and the spin-off economy.  You can borrow fishing equipment at the Ritter Public Library.  Public art and marketing materials feature water, the lighthouse, and boats.  One restaurant in particular has changed the identity of the town.  Chez Francois was started by proprietor Matthew Mars and executive chef John D’Amico, who met as dishwasher and prep cook in an Italian restaurant in Cleveland owned by Mars’s father.  They opened Chez Francois in what had originally been a sail loft and then was the site of another restaurant from the 1960s, L’Auberge du Port.  It’s in prime real estate for the town, facing the river on one side and Main Street on the other.  It is a terrific restaurant, and it is a key player in an economic way forward for the town.  The restaurant draws destination diners, whether from Cleveland or farther-away venues like Toledo or Columbus.  They come for a special event, a not-necessarily-special event, as hungry boaters, and even regulars for a planned stop on their biannual snowbird migrations between the North and the South.  More restaurants are opening in town, and the competition is welcome, Mars told us.  In a buy-local boost, Chez Francois has sourced from local farms since the late 1980s, ahead of the trend.  Another source, 10 miles southwest of town is the Culinary Vegetable Institute, at The Chef’s Garden, on the site of a family farm turned progressive learning center/growing center/culinary center for everyone from professional chefs to earth-to-table aficionados.  Deborah Fallows  See pictures at https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/12/returning-to-ohio/510251/

In early February 2019, Swedish outposts of Burger King featured menus with names grounded in Big Mac comparisons, including:  “The Kind of Like a Big Mac, but Juicier and Tastier” and “The Big Mac-ish but Flame-Grilled Of Course.”  Other options were even more derogatory:  “The Burger Big Mac Wished It Was” and “The Anything But a Big Mac."  McDonald’s lost the Big Mac trademark after a legal battle with Supermac’s, an Irish fast-food chain.  (The name comes from owner Pat McDonagh’s nickname in his heyday as a college Gaelic football player.)  McDonagh started the chain in 1978 and has faced opposition from McDonald’s over the naming of the chain’s offerings, like a burger called Mighty Mac, which shares many ingredients with the Big Mac.  McDonald’s suggested that the similarity in names might confuse customers.  Supermac’s argued that McDonald’s legal interventions were preventing the chain from expanding outside Ireland.  McDonald’s said it plans to appeal the EUIPO decision.  Taylor Telford 

Jean-Thomas (TomiUngerer November 28, 1931–February 8 or 9, 2019  The renowned French cartoonist, author and illustrator Tomi Ungerer at the age of 87 in Ireland.  Originally from Alsace in eastern France, Ungerer lived in the United States and Canada before settling in Ireland.  He was obsessed with books from an early age.  "For me, if there was a heaven it would be a library," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in a 2016 interview, adding that he was "brought up on reading".  He wrote in three languages:  English, French and German.  He published over 140 books which have been translated into 30 languages.  After World War II, Ungerer travelled across Europe and in 1956, he left for New York with 60 dollars in his pocket and what he later described as a "trunk full of drawings and manuscripts".  The following year, after meeting the children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom at Harper and Row, his first children's book The Mellops Go Flying was published and became an immediate success.  A range of works followed from the complete Mellop series to several prize-winning books and satirical works including Horrible and The Underground Sketchbook.  Ungerer donated more than 11,000 original works of art, sculptures, books and toys to a museum devoted to his work and life, which opened in 2007 in his birthplace Strasbourg.  Since then, the Tomi Ungerer Museum has been voted as one of the ten best museums in Europe by the Council of Europe.  https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/renowned-french-author-and-illustrator-tomi-ungerer-dies-at-87-1991050

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2042  February 13, 2019

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