One aspect of the chocolate-and-vanilla divide that has seldom been disputed is the question of provenance.  But over the last year two new studies have radically rejiggered the origin stories of both.  On the chocolate front, the earliest chemical evidence of cacao use has been pushed about 1,400 years further into the past and about 2,000 miles south.  For vanilla’s part, researchers now believe that the beans were not only used by humans more than two millennia earlier than previously thought, but an entire ocean away.  These findings are just a couple of the latest examples of how archaeologists, geneticists and cultural anthropologists are rewriting history through the study of food.  The earliest use of vanilla has long been attributed to the Totonac community in what is now the Mexican state of Veracruz.  They gathered the fragrant seedpods from orchids that grew wild in the forests.  Much later, they domesticated the vines, which can take up to five years to mature.  Each flower must be pollinated the one day that it blooms or else the stem bears no fruit.  Based on a sample from a ceramic jar, it has been believed that the history of chocolate began with the Mokaya, sedentary villagers who occupied the Soconusco region of Mexico’s Pacific coast.  Around 1900 B.C., the Mokayas began to consume Theobroma cacao, a plant that thrives in the upper reaches of the Amazon.  There followed a succession of Mesoamerican societies—Olmec, Toltec, Maya, Aztec—that found ways to exploit the bean, which was variously used as a monetary unit, a measuring unit and a meal.  It wasn’t until 1847 that the English company J. S. Fry & Sons of Bristol produced the first solid chocolate bar offered to the general public.  Turns out that our love affair with chocolate predates the Mokaya.  New research indicates that cacao was originally used in the humid forests of the upper Amazon basin, where the tree is at its most genetically diverse.  Investigators looked at jars and shards of pottery from Santa Ana-La Florida, an archaeological site in Ecuador once inhabited by the Mayo-Chinchipe people, and detected signs of chocolate tippling from as long as 5,300 years ago.  Franz Lidz  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/delicious-ancient-history-chocolate-vanilla-180972551/



Crowder peas, also called field peas or Southern peas, are related to black-eyed peas and are part of the family of cowpeas.  They got their name because they are closely crowded together in their pods.  These “peas” are actually beans that originated in Africa.  They were brought to America and grown in the South starting back in the 1600s.  Find recipe for crowder peas with tomatoes and green onions serving 4 as a side, 2 as a main course at https://www.familyfoodonthetable.com/crowder-peas-with-tomatoes-and-green-onions/  Total time to prep and cook:  30 minutes  posted by Kathryn 



One of the first Directors of the House of Wisdom in Bagdad in the early 9th Century was an outstanding Persian mathematician called Muhammad Al-Khwarizmi.  He oversaw the translation of the major Greek and Indian mathematical and astronomy works (including those of Brahmagupta) into Arabic, and produced original work which had a lasting influence on the advance of Muslim and (after his works spread to Europe through Latin translations in the 12th Century) later European mathematics.  The word “algorithm” is derived from the Latinization of his name, and the word "algebra" is derived from the Latinization of "al-jabr", part of the title of his most famous book, in which he introduced the fundamental algebraic methods and techniques for solving equations.  Perhaps his most important contribution to mathematics was his strong advocacy of the Hindu numerical system, which Al-Khwarizmi recognized as having the power and efficiency needed to revolutionize Islamic and Western mathematics.  The Hindu numerals 1-9 and 0--which have since become known as Hindu-Arabic numerals--were soon adopted by the entire Islamic world.  Later, with translations of Al-Khwarizmi’s work into Latin by Adelard of Bath and others in the 12th Century, and with the influence of Fibonacci’s “Liber Abaci” they would be adopted throughout Europe as well.  https://www.storyofmathematics.com/islamic_alkhwarizmi.html



LEGAL ENGLISH—HOW IT DEVELOPED AND WHY IT IS NOT APPROPRIATE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS by Barbara J. Beveridge

The common law, as we know it, began to develop after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066.  With the end of tribal rule, matters which had always been handled by local courts, slowly began to be handled by the King's court.  The King's court evolved over time into a bench of professional justices who were not lawyers but rather royal officials from the civil service who were selected because of their particular learning—they had some training in Canon law and often Roman law.  These justices appeared periodically in all the counties around England. It was this moving about the country by these justices that was pivotal as it began the process whereby the custom of the King's court eventually became the common law of England, in other words, the law common to all of England.  The Words Themselves What we know today as legal English did not begin its life as English alone, but rather was predominantly French and Latin, considered to be the languages of learning.  As positions in government, law, religion, and military affairs were held and influenced by those of the educated and upper classes, some argue this is the reason French terminology predominated in these areas.  Latin was the preferred language for writing.  For two centuries it monopolized the language of the statutes, however by the 14th century French dominated the statutes.  It was not until the end of the 1591 century (following the introduction of the printing press in 1476 and the acceptance of the London Standard as the standard form of written English) that statutes began to be printed in English.  Why legal English is not appropriate in international commercial contracts  What ultimately happens then is that there are a lot of outdated and unnecessary words and phrases in our common law contracts.  For contracts which are used domestically this is not such a problem because we know which words not to concern ourselves with, such as 'deliver'. However the transferring of all of this excess verbiage into international contracts only creates confusion and error as translators and non-common law lawyers are not privy to this knowledge of which words to ignore, nor do they have the same understanding of these convoluted sentences.  Read much more at file:///C:/Users/JOHNES~1/AppData/Local/Temp/Legal%20English%20-%20How%20it%20Developed-1.pdf  This paper was first published in The Development of Legal Language, papers from a Symposium on Legal Linguistics, Rovaniemi, Finland, September 13-15, 2000, Ed. Heikki E.S. Mattila, Pub. Kauppakaari, Finland   15 pages  Thank you, Muse reader!



J. D. Salinger's books will soon be available to read digitally," Little, Brown and Company said in a tweet August 11, 2019.  The author's son, Matt Salinger, wants to make the books more accessible to a younger generation of readers and for those with disabilities that prevent them from reading printed material, according to The Times, which interviewed the younger Salinger.  Matt Salinger told The Times he is planning to release decades worth of his father's unpublished writing, a project that may take up to seven years.  J. D. Salinger wrote four book-length works from 1951 to 1963, according to the publisher's website:  "Nine Stories," Franny and Zooey," and "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour - An Introduction," as well as "The Catcher in the Rye."  Theresa Waldrop  https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/11/us/catcher-in-the-rye-salinger-digital-ebook-trnd/index.html



August 10, 2019  About a decade ago libraries across the world faced a dilemma.  Their vital functions—to supply books and access to information for the public—were being replaced by Amazon, e-books and public Wi-Fi.  To fight for their survival, said Loida Garcia-Febo, president of the American Library Association, libraries tried to determine what other role they could play.  “They invented these amazing new initiatives that are finally launching now,” she said.  It took them this long to raise money and build them.  Libraries are certainly having a moment.  In the past few years dozens of new high-profile libraries have opened close to home and across the world.  To attract visitors from home and abroad, many libraries have advanced, even quirky amenities.  They have rooftop gardens, public parks, verandas, play spaces, teen centers, movie theaters, gaming rooms, art galleries, restaurants and more.  Alyson Krueger  See pictures and read descriptions of beautiful libraries at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/10/travel/libraries-are-the-tourist-attractions.html



Jack Black and Jack White finally team up to record a song as Jack Gray by Rachel Yang  Link to video at https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jack-black-jack-white-finally-053146448.html



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life.  To be able to be caught up into the world of thought--that is to be educated. - Edith Hamilton, educator and writer (12 Aug 1867-1963)



WORD OF THE DAY  sericulture  noun  The rearing of silkworms for the production of silk.  Queen Sirikit, the queen mother of Thailand after whom the Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture is named, was born on August 12, 1932.  Her birthday is celebrated as a public holiday and also observed as National Mother’s Day in Thailand.



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2137  August 12, 2019