Monday, June 3, 2019


turn turtle  verb  (third-person singular simple present turns turtlepresent participle turning turtlesimple past and past participle turned turtle); (intransitive) Especially of a boat or ship, or some other vehicle: to turn upside downquotations ▼; Synonym: turtle (verb); (intransitive, figuratively) To fail; to go belly upquotations ▼; (intransitive, surfing) To roll upside down with one's surfboard (usually a longboard) to allow a wave, especially a wave that has already broken, to pass overquotations ▼(intransitive, historical) To capture a turtle by turning it on to its backquotations ▼ turtling (noun)  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/turn_turtle#English

Four decades ago, I was among the crowd jammed into the gallery of the Virginia House of Delegates chamber as the members of that august body refused to hold a vote on the proposed Equal Rights Amendment by Garrett Epps  Conservative Republicans and Democrats had bottled the measure up in committee; supporters sought a vote to bring it directly to the floor.  They fell short; the ERA effort in Virginia seemed to have died.  That was a very different General Assembly and a very different Virginia.  On January 15, 2019, the Virginia Senate voted to approve the ERA.  The resolution now goes back to the House that rejected it 40 years ago.  If you’re confused about the ERA’s status, that’s only natural.  Until recently, the Equal Rights Amendment itself—the heart of it says, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex”—seemed like a dead letter.  When Congress proposed the amendment in 1972, the resolution said it would become effective if approved by three-quarters of state legislatures “within seven years.”  During the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, two state legislatures rescinded previous ratifications; Congress rejected those moves and counted the states toward ratification anyway.  The idea is that Article V mentions ratification but does not mention rescission; once a state has ratified, its role in the process is at an end.  (By analogy, a state can’t rescind its ratification of the Constitution itself; what’s done is done.  However, a proposed amendment hasn’t gone into effect yet.  The Constitution has.)  During the extended ratification period for the ERA, a federal district judge held that Idaho’s rescission was valid—and, for good measure, held that the 1978 deadline extension was unconstitutional.  Before the Supreme Court could hear the case, however, the deadline passed—so the high court vacated the Idaho decision as moot.  Note that at every stage of the amendment process, it is Congress—not the courts—that takes the leading role.  The language of Article V puts Congress at the center of the action, but it doesn’t specify exactly how Congress should determine which amendments have been validly adopted.  And Congress hasn’t covered itself with glory in that regard.  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/will-congress-ever-ratify-equal-rights-amendment/580849/

The average rainfall in Portland is one of the necessary things that provides us with outrageously vibrant outdoor colors throughout the year.  Granted we live in kind of a west coast rain forest without the tropical elements and our daily view consists of lush green pines sweeping through hilly landscapes of the most emerald green fields you could ever imagine.  So we think that this more than makes up for the amount of rain we get in Portland.  As Portlanders we have become accustomed to the rain for the most part, but people continue to ask how much rain does Portland get every year.  The region has a PDX average rainfall per year of 39.14 inches.  This is a statistic measured over the last 30 years of rainfall data for the Portland area.  But guess what?  Portland area rainfall is actually less than the nationwide average annual rainfall by about 0.03 inches.  November, December and January seem by far the months that primarily get a hard soaking.  Are you surprised?  Find the benefits of Portland "liquid sunshine" and 5 key tips on how to deal with the rain in Portland at https://www.simplefloorspdx.com/blog/portland-rain-how-often-does-it-rain-in-pdx/

As the flora and fauna of Oregon's Tillamook State Forest know, rain should be celebrated.  Read about the 2018 precipitation celebration at https://www.forestgrove-or.gov/community/page/rain-festival-tillamook-forest-center

International Day of Peace, also known as the World Peace Day, is a day that is celebrated on September 21st to acknowledge and show appreciation for all of those who worked to promote peace and end conflict, whether it is in their home country or in the world.  It is also a day in which warring factions, both of a political and a personal nature, are supposed to put away their differences--for one day--and call a cease-fire of hostilities.  In 1981, the United Nations’ General Assembly passed a resolution making the third Tuesday of September each year International Day of Peace.  In 2001, the United Nations decided that International Day of Peace should be observed on the 21st of September instead and set the observance of that day starting the following year.  Setting this date, the U.N then decided that this day should be a global cease-fire day.  People all over the world celebrate International Day of Peace in a variety of different ways.  These include planting trees for peace, lighting candles and holding candle light vigils, attending peace-related art exhibits and going for peace walks.  People may also attend various public events such as public speeches and concerts.  http://www.holidayscalendar.com/event/world-peace-day/

Authors and translators the Muser is grateful for
Don Bartlett  https://elsewhereeditions.org/bartlett/                                            
Maeve Binchy/Anne Maeve Binchy/ Maeve Binchy Snell  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maeve_Binchy

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal legal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex.  It seeks to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of divorcepropertyemployment, and other matters.  The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman.  The amendment was first introduced into Congress in December 1923.  The National Woman's Party already had tested its approach in Wisconsin, where it won passage of the Wisconsin Equal Rights Law in 1921.  The party then took the ERA to Congress, where U.S. Senator Charles Curtis, a future Vice President of the United States, introduced it for the first time in October 1921.  Although the ERA was introduced in every congressional session between 1921 and 1972, it almost never reached the floor of either the Senate or the House for a vote.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment

Queen Victoria as you've never seen her before  High-quality film of Queen Victoria on her last trip to Ireland has been rediscovered.  The footage was taken a year before she died.  The monarch can be seen smiling and nodding.  We can even see that she's wearing sunglasses.  The British Film Institute has a free library of Victorian film, and you can see more of MoMA's archives here.  Thank you, Muse reader!

John Horton Conway (born 1937) is an English mathematician active in the theory of finite groupsknot theorynumber theorycombinatorial game theory and coding theory.  He has also contributed to many branches of recreational mathematics, notably the invention of the cellular automaton called the Game of Life.  Conway spent the first half of his long career at the University of Cambridge, in England, and the second half at Princeton University in New Jersey, where he now holds the title Professor Emeritus.  Conway's career is intertwined with mathematics popularizer and Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner.  When Gardner featured Conway's Game of Life in his Mathematical Games column in October 1970, it became the most widely read of all his columns and made Conway an instant celebrity.  Gardner and Conway had first corresponded in the late 1950s, and over the years Gardner had frequently written about recreational aspects of Conway's work.  For instance, he discussed Conway's game of Sprouts (Jul 1967), Hackenbush (Jan 1972), and his angel and devil problem (Feb 1974).  In the September 1976 column he reviewed Conway's book On Numbers and Games and introduced the public to Conway's surreal numbers.  Conferences called Gathering 4 Gardner are held every two years to celebrate the legacy of Martin Gardner, and Conway himself has often been a featured speaker at these events, discussing various aspects of recreational mathematics.  Read about Conway's major areas of research, awards and publications at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2105  June 3, 2019

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