We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes;  But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.  Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese,  Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.  (extract from Linguistic humor, the English lesson)  https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/humor/english-lesson.html 



Caldecott Award-winning children’s author and illustrator Mordicai Gerstein, who created more than 40 books for young readers, sketched out a book titled Moose, Goose, and Mouse before his death in 2019. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/81290-obituary-mordicai-gerstein.html



Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American pre-Code crime film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy.  The movie also provided one of the earliest roles for Mickey Rooney, who played Gable's character as a child.  The film is based on a story by Arthur Caesar, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Story.  It was also the first of Myrna Loy and William Powell's fourteen screen pairings.  Notorious criminal John Dillinger attended a showing of the film at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934.  After leaving the theater, he was shot to death by federal agents.  Myrna Loy was among those who expressed distaste at the studio's willingness to exploit this event for the financial benefit of the film.  Scenes from Manhattan Melodrama, in addition to Dillinger's death, are depicted in the 2009 film Public Enemies.  The film has a Harlem nightclub scene featuring Shirley Ross singing a song called "The Bad in Every Man."  After the film's release, the lyrics were rewritten by Lorenz Hart as the retitled "Blue Moon".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Melodrama



A molehill (or mole-hill, mole mound) is a conical mound of loose soil raised by small burrowing mammals, including moles, but also similar animals such as mole-rats, kangaroo moles, and voles.  The word is first recorded in the first half of the 15th century.  Formerly the hill was known as a 'wantitump', a word still in dialect use for centuries afterwards.  The phrase "making a mountain out of a molehill" is commonly used metaphorically to mean "to exaggerate a minor problem".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molehill



Beans, being fairly easy to grow, are commonly used in everyday expressions to indicate something of little value.  Consequently, someone who isn’t worth a hill of beans is seen as being worth very little, although one could argue that today a hill of beans costs a pretty penny.  An older saying, “not worth a bean,” appeared as far back as 1297, when historian Robert of Gloucester wrote it in his English Chronicles.  The American saying, “not worth a hill of beans,” began to appear around 1863; “a hill of” was often inserted into phrases to emphasize their meaning.  https://www.almanac.com/fact/where-did-the-saying-not-worth-a

Joe Biden wrote Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (2017);

Promises to Keep:  On Life and Politics (2007); Promise Me, Dad:  A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose (2017); and, Conversations with Joe (2018).     

Hope Never Dies (Obama Biden Mysteries, #1) is by Andrew  Shaffer.

The President Is Missing (2018) is a novel by Bill Clinton and James Patterson.

Jimmy Carter wrote
The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the Revolutionary War (2003); Our Endangered Values (2006); Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid (2006); Beyond the White House (2007); We Can Have Peace in the Holy Land (2009); White House Diary (2010); A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power (2014); and, A Full Life: Reflections at 90 (2015)

Barack Obama wrote Dreams From My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006)


"Hokey pokey" was a slang term for ice cream in general in the 19th and early 20th centuries in several areas—including New York City and parts of Great Britain—specifically for the ice cream sold by street vendors, or "hokey-pokey" men.  The vendors, said to be mostly of Italian descent, supposedly used a sales pitch or song involving the phrase "hokey pokey", for which several origins have been suggested, although no certain etymology is known.  One such song in use in 1930's Liverpool, UK was "Hokey Pokey penny a lump, that's the stuff to make ye jump".  The name may come from the term "hocus-pocus", or it may be a corruption of one of several Italian phrases.  According to "The Encyclopedia of Food" (published 1923, New York) hokey pokey (in the U.S.) is "a term applied to mixed colors and flavors of ice cream in cake form".  The Encyclopedia says the term originated from the Italian phrase oh che poco-- "oh how little".  Alternative possible derivations include other similar-sounding Italian phrases:  for example ecco un poco - "here is a (little) piece".   Find related uses at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokey_pokey_(ice_cream)

-gress-, root.  -gress- comes from Latin, where it has the meaning "step; move.''  It is related to -grad-.  This meaning is found in such words as: aggression, congress, digress, egress, ingress, progress, regress, transgress.  https://www.wordreference.com/definition/-gress-



Roasted Grapes with Thyme, Fresh Ricotta & Grilled Bread  posted by Alexandra  https://alexandracooks.com/2011/09/07/lunch-roasted-grapes-with-thyme-fresh-ricotta-grilled-bread/



bandy  verb  From French bander (“to bandy at tennis”), with -y, -ie added due to influence from Spanish and Portuguese bandear and or Old Occitan bandir (“to throw”), from the same root as English band. Compare also with banter.  bandie  bandy (third-person singular simple present bandies, present participle bandying, simple past and past participle bandied).  (transitive) To give and receive reciprocally; to exchange.  to bandy words (with somebody)  (transitive) To use or pass about casually. quotations ▼ to have one's name bandied about (or around) (transitive)  To throw or strike reciprocally, like balls in sports. quotations ▼ (obsolete, intransitive) To fight (with or against someone). quotations ▼

Find much more at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bandy



Polis literally means city in Greek.  It can also mean a body of citizens.  In modern historiography, polis is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as "city-state".  These cities consisted of a fortified city centre (asty) built on an acropolis or harbor and controlled surrounding territories of land (khôra).  The Ancient Greek city-state developed during the Archaic period as the ancestor of city, state, and citizenship and persisted (though with decreasing influence) well into Roman times, when the equivalent Latin word was civitas, also meaning "citizenhood", while municipium applied to a non-sovereign local entity.  The term "city-state", which originated in English (alongside the German Stadtstaat), does not fully translate the Greek term.   Read more, see graphics and find derived terms, such as Tripolis-–a group of three cities, retained in the names of Tripoli in Libya, in Greece, and a namesake in Lebanon.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polis



November 13, 2019  This week’s recipe for Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms & Riesling is from the charming new book, Food52 Dynamite Chicken by Tyler Kord.  With his trademark wit and wacky turn of mind, Tyler has collected an amazing bunch of simple and delicious chicken recipes perfect for midweek family eating.  In this recipe, chicken thighs are browned and then stewed with good ol’ button mushrooms, garlic, cardamom, coriander and Riesling wine.  Any white wine can work here, but if you have a chance to grab an off-sweet Riesling, do so and be sure to save a glass for dinner.  Find recipe serving 4  at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/chicken-thighs-with-mushrooms-riesling



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. - Marianne Moore, poet (15 Nov 1887-1972)



http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2182  November 15, 2019