PARAPHRASES from A Gentleman in Moscow, a novel by Amor Towles  The barbershop was a land of optimism, precision and political neutrality--the Switzerland of the hotel.  *  Dueling, begun as a response to high crimes--by 1900 had tiptoed down the stairs of reason until fought over the tilt of a hat, duration of a glance, or placement of a comma.  *  There's a difference between being resigned to a situation and reconciled to it.  *  The long-strided watchman of the minutes caught up with his bowlegged brother of the hours.  *  One must make ends meet . . . or meet one's end.  *



A Gentleman in Moscow recounts the story of Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov from 1922 to 1954 and his life in the Hotel Metropol where he has been under house arrest.  Find brief summary of the novel and quotes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman_in_Moscow

Who was John Slezer?  At the time he began making his remarkable drawings, John Slezer was an army man.  He held both the office of Chief Engineer for Scotland and that of 'Surveyor of his Majesties Stores and Magazines'.  We don't know exactly when or where John Abraham Slezer was born.  Probably it was some time before 1650, and certainly it was in German-speaking Europe.  Slezer first visited Scotland in 1669.  He met a number of influential noblemen who must have been impressed by his army and surveying experience.  When he decided in 1671 to move to Scotland, these contacts helped him secure his military posts.  Part of Slezer's surveying work was to produce groundplans of the chief fortifications at Edinburgh, Stirling, Dumbarton, Blackness, and the Bass Rock.  During his travels to the garrisons, he decided to repay the kindness he had been shown in his adopted country.  He would produce a book of Scotland's main towns, castles and buildings.  It would be the first time anyone had made a pictorial record of an entire nation.  By 1678, Slezer was progressing with what he was to call the 'Theatrum Scotiae'.  He had been promoted to Lieutenant of the Scots Train of Artillery and married the daughter of a military family.  In 1688, however, his plans to publish his book hit a setback.  By this time, Slezer was Captain of the Scots Train of Artillery, and an important military figure.  He was also a supporter of the Roman Catholic monarch, James II.  Suddenly he found himself on the wrong side of the law.  Refusing to swear allegiance to the new Protestant King and Queen, William and Mary, he was sent to prison.  His release came in June 1689, when he accepted the new monarchy and was reinstated to his former position.  Slezer managed to get a royal licence for the printing of the 'Theatrum Scotiae', and two volumes to follow it, in 1693.  With some financial contributions from Scottish earls, Slezer had the book printed and published in London.  However, it didn't sell well.  Although he proceeded with other drawings, two years later Slezer was struggling to meet the necessary expenses for a follow-up work.  Money promised by Parliament never materialised, and the irregularity of his army pay was worsening his deepening debts.  Slezer spend the last years of his life in the debtor's sanctuary within the bounds of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh.  There he found refuge from the threat of arrest.  He was free to visit his family in the city on Sundays.  Oddly enough, despite being a debtor he was able to continue as Captain of the Train of Artillery of Scotland (later North Britain).  He held the post until military re-organisation in 1716.  John Slezer--adventurer, military draughtsman, and 'recorder of the State of Scotland'--died in 1717.    https://digital.nls.uk/slezer/biography.html  Find images by John Slezer, including Inverness/Innerness, at https://digital.nls.uk/slezer/find.html



Both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln wrote poetry.  But only one had a way with words.  Link to 4:15 audio at https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/retropod/between-lincoln-and-washington-only-one-was-a-great-poet-1/



Happy Joe's Pizza & Ice Cream Parlor is an American pizza parlor chain based in Bettendorf, Iowa. The restaurant chain was founded in 1972 by Lawrence Joseph "Happy Joe" Whitty, a former Shakey's Pizza manager.  Its 61 restaurants are located in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin.  The idea for Happy Joe's came from a combination of a pizza parlor and ice cream palace.  Happy Joe's claims to be the first pizza restaurant to offer a taco pizza (a pizza with refried bean/tomato sauce, cheese, lettuce, tomato and taco chips).   After a franchisee suggested adding tacos to the menu, Whitty invented the restaurant's best-selling product, the Taco Pizza.  In 2005, Happy Joe's started offering breakfast pizzas at select locations.   In 2013, Happy Joe's started offering flatbread pizzas.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Joe%27s



Vagant is a Norway-based, pan-Scandinavian literary magazine, established in 1988.  Vagant.no publishes web-articles on a weekly basis, while the paper edition is released 4 times a year.  Vagant is a member of the European cultural journal network Eurozine.  Vagant played an important role for the generation of Norwegian writers making their debut in the nineties, such as Ingvild Burkey, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Pål Norheim, and Linn Ullmann.  The journal takes its name from the Norwegian word Vaganterne, which comes from the Latin clerici vagantes which describes a group of wandering students from the middle ages, who performed under the patronage of a wealthy nobleman or woman, and often their poems provoked the strict moral system of the church.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagant



"Vagant" is not a word in modern English.  The English word you are thinking of is "vagrant" with an "r" in the middle of it (a wanderer; a person who roams from place to place).  The word "vagrant" is indeed related to "extravagant."  Both words are derived from the Latin root "vagari" meaning "to wander; to roam."  "Extravagant" literally means:  "wandering outside (or beyond) the limit."  "Extravagant" was first used in English with the meaning of "excessive; exceeding normal limits" in 1590.  Its use with the meaning "lavish; wasteful; spending more money than is reasonable or necessary" is first recorded in 1711.  Mike Mendis  https://www.quora.com/Are-the-words-extravagant-and-vagant-related



Learn about more than three dozen sausages, and see pictures and descriptions from abruzzo sausage to weisswurst at The Cook's Thesaurus.  Some pronunciations and some substitutes are listed.

 http://www.foodsubs.com/MeatcureSausage.html



Caldecott Award-winning children’s author and illustrator Mordicai Gerstein, widely lauded for his mixed-media compositions featuring fluid pen-and-ink lines, died September 24, 2019 in Northampton, Mass. He was 83.  Gerstein was born November 24, 1935 in Los Angeles, Calif.  He grew up in East L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, where, from an early age, he would create illustrations for favorite books he read.  Upon graduating high school, he studied painting in New Mexico, receiving private instruction.  He then returned to California and from 1953–1956 attended the Chouinard Art Institute in downtown L.A.  Gerstein left art school to take a job at United Productions of America, where he worked as both an artist and designer and continued to paint in his free time.  Grace Maccarone, executive editor at Holiday House, edited Gerstein’s April 2019 title I Am Hermes! as well as The Sleeping Gypsy (2016) and a forthcoming work still in progress.  She offered this tribute:  “Mordicai was brilliant and indefatigable.  After he had completed 250 masterful illustrations for I Am Hermes! in his 80th year, he told me it would probably be his last book.  Of course, I understood.   But I also knew he was still sketching and still thinking.  So I asked him to consider creating an I Like to Read book, which could have as few as 10 vignettes.  I was thrilled when he called to tell me he had sketched out a book titled Moose, Goose, and Mouse.  It’s funny and joyful and just right for a first grader to read independently—and much more elaborate than 10 vignettes!  In the beginning of the month, Mordicai called to tell me that he had completed the line work and that he had asked Jeff Mack to complete the color work.  I knew it would be our last conversation.  Shannon Maughan  Read more and see graphics at https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/81290-obituary-mordicai-gerstein.html 



The Better Angels Society, the Library of Congress and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation on October 16, 2019  announced that the first Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film has been awarded to “Flannery,” a new film directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Jesuit priest Mark Bosco that documents the life of Georgia writer Flannery O’Connor.  “Flannery” is a feature-length documentary that explores the life and writings of O’Connor, whose provocative, award-winning fiction about Southern prophets, girls with wooden legs and an assemblage of unique and often fantastic characters has inspired artists, musicians and writers around the world.  Watch a trailer for the film here. External  The Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film is a new, annual prize that recognizes a filmmaker whose documentary uses original research and compelling narrative to tell stories that touch on some aspect of American history.  Eighty films were submitted for consideration earlier in 2019.  Link to resources including the Library of Congress blog and Library of Congress magazine at

https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-19-100/library-of-congress-lavineken-burns-prize-for-film-awarded-to-flannery-directed-by-elizabeth-coffman-and-mark-bosco/2019-10-16/



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2170  October 18, 2019