The setting of Winesburg, a fictional town in northwestern Ohio, is based closely on Clyde, Ohio, the town to which Sherwood Anderson’s family moved when he was seven years old and where he lived until his mother died in 1895.  After his mother’s death, Anderson spent two years working in a Chicago warehouse before returning to Clyde to join his Ohio National Guard unit for service in the Spanish-American War, where he saw no action and was posted to the American south and later Cuba.  After his return from Cuba he was in Clyde again briefly before leaving for Wittenberg Academy in Springfield, Ohio for what would be his last year of formal education.  After this brief period of schooling he moved to Chicago in 1900, departing from Clyde for good although he later returned to visit.  There is an actual Ohio town called Winesburg, but it is located in Holmes County, an area known for its Amish population, in the east central portion of the state.  The town of Clyde traces its origin to a frontier settlement called Hamer’s Corners.  This book, variously described as a novel or short story cycle, influenced Hemingway, Faulkner, and other writers who profoundly shaped American literature during the last century.  Winesburg, Ohio still holds its own.  Faulkner called Anderson “the father of all my works” and the one who showed him and others of his generation “the way.”  The Clyde Public Library, an elegant Carnegie library with a room devoted to Anderson and Clyde history, has a room called the Thaddeus B. Hurd Room, named after a local man, an architect by profession, who worked to preserve Clyde history.  Hurd’s father, Herman Hurd, was one of Sherwood Anderson’s boyhood friends.  The Hurd Room includes copies of all of Anderson’s books, including foreign language editions from both Europe and Asia.  A handsome painting by George White of the Alfred Stieglitz photo of Sherwood Anderson from 1923 hangs in the Thaddeus Hurd Room of the Clyde Public Library.  https://www.buckeyemuse.com/going-home-to-winesburg-sherwood-andersons-clyde-ohio/

A cabbage roll is a dish consisting of cooked cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings.  It is common to the cuisines of the Balkans, Central, Northern, Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan and Iran, as well as West Asia and Northern China.  Meat fillings are traditional in Europe, often beef, lamb, or pork seasoned with garlic, onion, and spices.  Grains such as rice and barley, mushrooms, and vegetables are often included.  Pickled cabbage leaves are often used for wrapping, particularly in Southeastern Europe.  In Asia, seafoods, tofu, and shiitake mushroom may also be used.  Chinese cabbage is often used as a wrapping.  Cabbage leaves are stuffed with the filling which are then baked, simmered, or steamed in a covered pot and generally eaten warm, often accompanied with a sauce.  The sauce varies widely by cuisine.  Always in Sweden and sometimes in Finland, stuffed cabbage is served with lingonberry jam, which is both sweet and tart.  In Eastern Europe, tomato-based sauces or plain sour cream are typical.  In Lebanon, it is a popular plate, where the cabbage is stuffed with rice and minced meat and only rolled to the size of cigar.  It is usually served with a side of yogurt and a type of lemon and olive oil vinaigrette seasoned with garlic and dried mint.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_roll

On September 17, 1883, William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey.  He began writing poetry while a student at Horace Mann High School, at which time he made the decision to become both a writer and a doctor.  He received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met and befriended Ezra Pound.  Pound became a great influence on his writing, and in 1913 arranged for the London publication of Williams’s second collection, The Tempers.  Returning to Rutherford, where he sustained his medical practice throughout his life, Williams began publishing in small magazines and embarked on a prolific career as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright.  Following Pound, he was one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement, though as time went on, he began to increasingly disagree with the values put forth in the work of Pound and especially Eliot, who he felt were too attached to European culture and traditions.  Continuing to experiment with new techniques of meter and lineation, Williams sought to invent an entirely fresh—and singularly American—poetic, whose subject matter was centered on the everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people.  He continued writing up until his death in New Jersey on March 4, 1963.  Link to information on Objectivists, Modernism, Metaphysical Poet and Imagism--and poems by William Carlos Williams  at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-carlos-williams

Janet Echelman creates massive fiber pieces.  Each soft sculpture begins as a vision in her head, as she thinks about the site and the commission.  In her Boston studio, she and a design team use custom software to turn her vision into a virtual 3D model.  Then they turn to dozens of professionals to make it real.  Link to March 2011 TED talk "Taking imagination seriously" by Janet Echelman at https://ideas.ted.com/gallery-fantastical-floating-sculptures-that-will-send-your-mind-soaring/  9:26 

A company in Lewiston, Maine that makes and sells edible insects is planning a major expansion during 2019 as demand for crickets and other critters as snacks and garnishes grows.  The most popular flavors are cotton candy, because of the kids, and Italian lasagna.  Other flavors are Indian curry, lemon meringue, mango habanero, orange creamsicle, Mexican mole, sun dried tomato, jalapeno garlic and white cheddar.  While Entosense imports dried insects from Asia and Mexico, which it subsequently flavors and repackages for sale, it plans to once again start raising insects, including the Acheta cricket and scorpions, in Lewiston.  Lori Valigra  https://bangordailynews.com/2019/05/03/business/more-people-are-eating-insects-so-a-maine-company-that-sells-them-has-big-growth-plans/  Thank you, Muse reader!

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. - Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941)

Game of Thrones Gaffe  See the viral phot of the table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) from the May 5, 2019 episode.   Starbucks has chimed in on the epic gaffe.  “TBH we’re surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink,” the company wrote on Twitter, referring to their new tropical-inspired refreshment.  When one fan asked Starbucks what dragons drink anyway, they replied in the most fanboy way ever:  “Whatever they want.”  That’s a direct reference to the Season 8 premiere in which Dany said that when her dragons get hungry they eat “whatever they want.”  Well played, Starbucks.  UPDATE:  Here is the official response from HBO:  “The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake.  Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.”  Marcus James Dixon  https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/starbucks-responds-game-of-thrones-coffee-cup-gaffe-dragons/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2093  May 7, 2019