Printing House Square was a London court in the City of London, so called from the former office of the King's Printer which occupied the site.  For many years, the office of The Times stood on the site, until it relocated to Gray's Inn Road and later to Wapping.  The site has been completely redeveloped.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_House_Square  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Row_(Manhattan) and http://whitmans-brooklyn.org/portfolio/printing-house-square-new-york/



Lincoln Joseph Steffens (1866–1936) was an American investigative journalist and one of the leading muckrakers of the Progressive Era in the early 20th century.  He launched a series of articles in McClure's, called Tweed Days in St. Louis, that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities.  He married the twenty-six-year-old socialist writer Leonore (Ella) Sophie Winter in 1924 and moved to Italy, where their son Peter was born in San Remo.  Two years later they relocated to the largest art colony on the Pacific Coast, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  Ella and Lincoln soon became controversial figures in the leftist politics of the region.  When John O’Shea, one of the local artists and a friend of the couple, exhibited his study of "Mr. Steffens’ soul," an image which resembled a grotesque daemon, Lincoln took a certain cynical pride in the drawing and enjoyed the publicity it generated.  In 1934, Steffens and Winters help found the San Francisco Workers' School (later the California Labor School); Steffens also served there as an advisor.  Characters on the American crime drama series City on a Hill make numerous references to Lincoln Steffens.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Steffens



Why is Queens Library now Queens Public Library?  We put “public” at the center of our name to reinforce “who is at the center of our work and to whom the library belongs.  Why is “We speak your language” the new tagline?  We speak your language” means we speak Spanish, Chinese, Bengali, Russian, Greek, and many other tongues.  It also means we speak imagination, tech, history, LGBTQ, HTML, finance, nonfiction, science fiction, storytime, chess, teens, opportunity, and many other interests and pursuits.  The tagline says we see you, we understand you, we are here for you, and we will help you get where you want to go.  What does the new logo stand for?  The new logo, comprised of the Q and the tagline, stands for who we are, whom we serve, and how we approach our customers. The tilted pieces that form the Q celebrate the many diverse perspectives of Queens Public Library, our resources, programs and services, and communities. It uses two- and three-dimensional space to express both the physical and cultural characteristics of Queens Public Library.  In two dimensions, the mark is the letter Q, referencing our name and the borough of Queens.  In three dimensions, the logo houses an open book, an open doorway, and a welcome mat, extending our promise and welcoming everyone.  Why was purple selected as Queens Public Library’s primary color, and what is the significance of the secondary colors?  Purple is associated with some of the qualities Queens Public Library seeks to cultivate, such as wisdom, creativity, dignity, and ambition.  The secondary colors complement the color purple and reflect the diversity and vibrancy of Queens, the people who live and work here, and the library itself.  How will customers experience our renewed promise to the public?  We will continue working to ensure that all of us speak each person’s language every time they walk into one of our locations, interact with us, call us, or visit us online.  All of our locations now have tablets loaded with Google Translate so staff can have conversations in multiple languages with customers.  We also will offer another type of translation device at every site and will soon pilot a language line service at several locations as well.  We also have launched a new website that is clearer, faster, easier to navigate and search, can be converted to over 80 languages, and has a responsive design that will work on desktops and mobile devices with different screen sizes.  Learn more about the features here.  http://tab.queenslibrary.org/slide-show-content/our-renewed-promise-to-the-public



False color (or pseudo color) refers to a group of color rendering methods used to display images in color which were recorded in the visible or non-visible parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.  A false-color image is an image that depicts an object in colors that differ from those a photograph (a true-color image) would show.  See many graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_color

Brick by brick, LEGOLAND New York works its way toward its 2020 opening in Goshen.  When it finally cuts the ribbon, it will be the biggest LEGO amusement park to date.  Building, including site preparation and infrastructure, is underway for the 150-acre theme park and 250-room onsite hotel.  LEGOLAND is owned and operated by Merlin Entertainments, which runs more than 111 attractions around the world and 25 attractions and two hotels in North America.  In Goshen, a few of the planned attractions are special to the site and have not been seen before at any of the eight  other LEGOLAND locations.   http://www.hvmag.com/LEGOLAND-2020-Opening-Goshen-Update/



Mystic Seaport Museum, in partnership with Tate, London, will host a major monographic exhibition devoted to the watercolors of one Britain’s greatest painters:  J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851).  Mystic Seaport Museum will be the only North American venue for the exhibition.  A unique collection of about 90 works, the selection will provide a view into the evolution of the artist’s vision and creative process.  The exhibition at the Museum focuses on the critical role played by watercolors in defining Turner’s deeply personal style.  The works have been selected from the vast legacy that comprises more than 30,000 works on paper, 300 oil paintings, and 280 sketchbooks, known as the “Turner Bequest,” donated to Great Britain after the artist’s death in 1851 and mostly conserved at Tate Britain.  The bequest includes the entire body of works housed in the artist’s personal studio and produced over the years for his “own pleasure,” to cite the words used by the critic John Ruskin.  While Turner is perhaps better known for his oil paintings, he was a lifelong watercolorist and fundamentally shaped what was understood to be possible within the medium during his lifetime and after.  An inveterate traveler, Turner rarely left home without a rolled-up, loose-bound sketchbook, pencils, and a small traveling case of watercolors.  https://www.mysticseaport.org/locations/j-m-w-turner-watercolors/  The J.M.W. Turner:  Watercolors from Tate runs from October 5, 2019 to February 23, 2020 in the Thompson Exhibition Building.  MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM  75 Greenmanville Ave.  Mystic, CT  860.572.0711  info@mysticseaport.org  open every day 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.



Twenty-six creators and thinkers drawn from a vast array of fields just got a big financial boost—and an even bigger name to add to their résumés.  The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation unveiled the winners of this year's MacArthur fellowships—often better known as the "genius" grants—recognizing the host of artists and scholars for their creativity and potential.  "From addressing the consequences of climate change to furthering our understanding of human behavior to fusing forms of artistic expression, this year's 26 extraordinary MacArthur Fellows demonstrate the power of individual creativity to reframe old problems, spur reflection, create new knowledge, and better the world for everyone," the foundation's president, John Palfrey, said in a statement released September 25, 2019.  Along with inclusion on an illustrious list of past fellows—more than 1,000 in all, since the program's first class in 1981—each of this year's grantees gets a $625,000 stipend, meted out in quarterly installments over five years with no strings attached.  Colin Dwyer  Find names of winners and see graphics at https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/763748204/macarthur-genius-grant-winners-attest-to-power-of-individual-creativity



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  If we listen, the air is heavy with poems, ripe for plucking. - Yahia Lababidi, aphorist (b. 25 Sep 1973)



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2160  September 25, 2019