Friday, November 29, 2019


Founded in 1904 by seven leading polar explorers of the era, the Explorers Club fosters the scientific exploration of land, sea, air and space.  The 1910 Jacobean revival mansion was originally built for Stephen Clark, grandson of the co-founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.  The Explorers Club purchased the building from the Clark family in 1960 after Stephen’s death.  It became the international headquarters in 1965.  Prior to this, they had several locations in New York City.  It is known as the Lowell Thomas building, named after the famed writer, broadcaster and Explorers Club member best known for making Lawrence of Arabia famous.  A century’s worth of exploration treasures fill the floors.  The ground floor member lounge houses a few of their polar artifacts.  On your way up to the second floor, you won’t be able to miss the giant globe used by Thor Heyerdahl to plan his famous Kon-Tiki expedition.  The uppermost floor is home to the research archives, holding the club’s impressive collection of 13,000 books, 1,000 museum objects, 5,000 maps and 500 films.  The Gallery on the top floor is the room everyone wants to see.  In the early days of the Explorers Club when travel was difficult and field photography was relatively new, hunting and taxidermy were thought to be the best way to preserve animals for education and research.  Here you will see taxidermied animals from many decades past.  Objects from the far corners of the world, including a narwhal tusk, wooly mammoth tusk (ask about the famous 1951 Explorers Club dinner) and the famous yeti scalp.  Scaffolding was recently removed, revealing the results of a five-year long refurbishment of the building’s facade, but work continues to preserve the building.  Visitors are welcome during opening hours.  Group tours can be scheduled by contacting reservations. Regular talks with exploration greats are held in the Clark Room from September-June.   https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/explorers-club-headquarters

Every year people from all walks of life consult our Research Collections of the Explorers Club.  These include writers, genealogists, filmmakers, and curators.  We are also consulted by journalists and photo researchers, independent enthusiasts, staff members, club members and students.  While we truly welcome all individuals, the Club’s resources are limited and our collections geared to the specialist.  We encourage all potential researchers to make full use of their local libraries, archives and museums before exploring what the Club has to offer.  Priority among researchers will be given to those who are seeking information unique to our collections.  The Curator will endeavour to direct all researchers to appropriate sources, but cannot do research on behalf of users or duplicate and send large amounts of information. Those wishing to consult the collections should contact the Curator at the address below for general guidance and to make an appointment.  The Explorers Club  46 E. 70th Street  New York, NY 10021  (212) 628-8383 x28  researchcollections@explorers.org  Please note that research appointments must be made in advance. Appointments may be made between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday.  Those planning a visit should consult a copy of our Research Rules.  All of those visiting the collections will need to sign a copy of these rules, as well as presenting a photo ID to the Curator.  https://www.explorers.org/about/research/research_visit_us

A Night at the Library by Andrew Schwartz   It was the winter of 2019, and the Brooklyn Public Library had, once again, determined to give the public access to its Central Building for a “Night of Philosophy and Ideas.”  New School philosophy PhD student Zenon Marko, who studies the “problem of beginnings,” began a dusk-to-dawn DJ set in the Grand Lobby, ambient and inconspicuous, prepared, he said, for all paths the night may take.  He presided like a minor deity behind his turntables, themselves behind the circulation desk, next to a sign that read “Check Out.”  The vast hall filled with revelers, energized perhaps, as the U.S. French embassy’s cultural counselor Bénédicte de Montlaur described it, by the power of “resistance, of occupying a place.”  By the preliminary designs, this lobby was to be the library basement.  But after three decades with little headway on the structure, the abiding powers replaced the old architect and brought in new ones with new plans—a sleeker, cheaper structure in the art-deco mode popular in contemporary fashion.  Limestone replaced marble.  Designers kept the foundations but removed the neo-classical facade of the partially constructed wing on Flatbush Avenue.  The layout was made to resemble an open book.  From the hilly park behind it, built atop the old reservoir, vestiges can be seen of the original design, left uncovered even after the modernist revision.  https://thebaffler.com/latest/a-night-at-the-library-schwartz

One of the most popular, well-known and touristic ferry services in the world is certainly the Staten Island Ferry that runs a service between Battery Park in New York City and the town of St. George at Staten Island.  During the 25 minute sailings, passengers can enjoy great views of the skyline of New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  And all of this is free.  It is the fastest way for commuters from Staten Island to the city of New York.  Everyday, around 75.000 passengers are transported on 104 trips sailing 24 hours a day.  The largest ferries on the route can now sail with up to 6000 passengers so they come close to the capacity of the worlds largest cruiseships.  Sailings between New York and Staten Island were already offered by local boatsmen sailing with small, two-masted sailingboats from the 18th century onwards.  But in 1817, the Richmond Turnpike Company started a motorized and official service with the steamboat Nautilus.  Captain of this first Staten Island Ferry was John De Forest, the brother-in-law of a man named Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest men of one of the wealthiest families in the history of the United States.  This family originally came from The Netherlands.  They used to be farmers in a small town named De Bilt.  This is also where their family name comes from, they are 'From De Bilt', or in Dutch 'Van De Bilt'.  Cornelius Vanderbilt eventually bought the ferry service of the Richmond Turnpike Company in 1838 after he had made his fortunes in the steamboat business.  He remained the owner untill the early 1860's when the American civil war broke out and he sold the service to the Staten Island Railway company, that was owned by his brother Jacob Vanderbilt.  Read more and see many pictures at http://www.castlesoftheseas.nl/staten-island-ferry.html

of course  adverb  From literal meaning "of the ordinary course of events".  The oldest attestation as "of course" is from the 1540s; the form "by course" (then spelled "bi cours") dates to about 1300.   
(not comparable)  Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see of,‎ course.  (idiomatic) Indicates enthusiastic agreement.
 (idiomatic) Acknowledges the validity of the associated phrase. quotations ▼

Filler Words:  and then, even, fairly, just, much, only, pretty, quite, rather, really, simply, so that, there, totally, very.   At the beginning of sentences:  and, but, however, so, yet.  That list is definitely not exhaustive (there’s another word to watch out for: definitely), but it’s a good start.  These, and other words, often function exactly (there’s another: exactly) as described:  they serve as filler, taking up unneeded space on the page.  The majority of the time—85%?  I’ve never measured—they can be cut with little or no consequence or rewriting.  Christopher Daly 

Mary Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist.  She wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.  She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and supposedly grotesque characters, often in violent situations.  The unsentimental acceptance or rejection of the limitations or imperfection or difference of these characters (whether attributed to disability, race, crime, religion or sanity) typically underpins the drama.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O%27Connor

In her short lifetime, Flannery O’Connor wrote more than 600 letters to her mother.  To read them, you must travel to the 10th floor of Emory University’s Woodruff Library, where they’re filed in a manuscript collection measuring almost 19 feet.  If you make this journey, as I have, you will discover, among details of a more literary nature, the vigor of the author’s appetite.  In her first year as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, she wrote of sampling Triscuits at the local A&P and dining on ham—baked and boiled—at the school’s cafeteria.  She reported eating a couple of eggs each day and declared her preference for Vienna sausages, vanilla pudding, and prunes costing a mere 27 cents.  By spring of 1946, six months into her Iowa career, her purple dress no longer fit.  Caroline McCoy  https://lithub.com/flannery-oconnors-two-deepest-loves-were-mayonnaise-and-her-mother/
Find biographical information on Flannery O'Conner and how to visit Andalusia, her home in Milledgeville, Georgia, at https://libguides.gcsu.edu/oconnor-bio/FAQ

A Good Hard Look, a 2011 novel by Ann Napolitano, portrays Flannery O'Connor as one character.

Turkey Skillet Casserole  With this hearty dish, the pasta cooks right in the sauce for a quick and easy one-pot meal.  Turkey, mushrooms, and spinach give it a light touch.  Instead of fresh turkey, you could use leftover turkey from a Thanksgiving feast!  For a lower-carb version, use zucchini noodles instead of linguini.  Prep time  5 min  Cook time  10 min  Servings  2  Source:  Delicious One-Pot Dishes.  Recipe Credit:  Linda Gassenheimer.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2190  November 29, 2019 

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