Wednesday, December 18, 2019


Shaker cooks considered lemons an important part of a healthy diet, even though they were expensive and elusive.  This Shaker Lemon and Sage Pie speaks to the pure flavor of lemon and making use of every bit of the fruit.  Find recipe for one 9-inch double crust pie at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/shaker-lemon-and-sage-pie

What’s the difference between magnanimity and generosity?  There is overlap in meaning but magnanimity tends to include a liberality of spirit and outlook--going, in a concessionary manner, far beyond what is required by law, custom or morals, whereas generosity seems to concern giving more/openly.  https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/magnanimity-generosity.2722667/

Panzanella with Hearty Greens, Honey-Roasted Squash, and Pear is from Chicago chef Paul Kahan’s book, Cooking for Good Times .  Paul reinvigorates bread salads for us when he reminds us that they are not just for the summer months with ripe tomatoes.  Instead, the concept works year-round.  In this recipe he combines good-quality stale bread with roasted butternut squash, sliced pear, wintry sturdy greens, Parmigiano cheese, and dresses it all with apple cider vinaigrette.  6 servings  https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/panzanella-with-hearty-greens-honey-roasted-squash-and-pear

Since 1959, land surveyors and other geospatial professionals have had two standards to measure the length of a foot—the U.S. survey foot and the international foot.  Both have been supported by NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  And they’re not exactly equal.  The difference between the two measurements is very small and barely noticeable in everyday use and is a function of their relationship to the standard meter.  A U.S. survey foot is expressed as a fraction—1200/3937 meters—while an international foot is expressed as a decimal, exactly 0.3048 meters.  That’s a difference of only one one-hundredth of a foot per mile.  But when you begin to measure or use coordinates that span hundreds or thousands of miles, that minor difference can reach a few to several feet.  In such cases, accidentally confusing the two types of feet can severely impact the precise coordinates and measurements used in engineering, surveying, mapping, agriculture, and other industries that depend on accurate positions.  That’s why NIST and NOAA are retiring the U.S. survey foot, and standardizing on the international foot.  And the modernization of the National Spatial Reference System, a precise coordinate system that defines latitude, longitude, height, scale, gravity, shoreline, and orientation throughout the U.S. in 2022, is the perfect time to move the U.S. toward a single, uniform definition of the foot.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/geodesy/international-foot.html

skinflint  noun  "miser, one who makes use of contemptible economy to keep money," 1700, slang; literally "kind of person who would skin a flint to save or gain something," from skin (v.) + flintFlay-flint in same sense is from 1670s.  Among the 18c. slang terms for a miserly person was nipcheese (1785, originally "a ship's purser").  https://www.etymonline.com/word/skinflint

FLINT AS EPONYM  All Gummed Up is a 1947 film directed by Jules White and starring American slapstick comedy team The Three Stooges (Moe HowardLarry Fine and Shemp Howard).  It is the 103rd short film released by Columbia Pictures in starring the comedians, who released 190 short films for the studio between 1934 and 1959.  The Stooges operate a local drugstore whose landlord, the cantankerous Amos Flint (Emil Sitka), informs them their lease is about to expire.  All Gummed Up was filmed from April 23–24, 1947.  All Gummed Up was remade in 1953 as Bubble Trouble, using ample recycled footage from the original.  Ironically, the remake is considered to have a better story flow than the original.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Gummed_Up

Eponym is a name/ noun formed after a person.  For instance, the Elizabethan age pertains to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Elizabethan is an eponym.  The earliest recorded eponym dates back to the second millennium B.C, when the Assyrians named each year after a royal official appointed that year.  Similarly, fifth-century Athens is known as The Age of Pericles, named after its most famous statesman.  Numerous verbs have also been derived from historical figures with their names linked with their ideas/innovations.  The words boycott, chauvinist, quisling, and sandwich originate from personal names (Charles Boycott, Nicholas Chauvin, Major Vidkun Quisling and John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich).  Roopa Banerjee  https://www.educationworld.in/in-the-name-of-eponyms/

Elsie Quarterman (1910-2014) was the first woman to serve as an academic department chair at Vanderbilt University.  She is best known for her work on the ecology of Tennessee cedar glades, a habitat that occurs when limestone bedrock is at or near the ground’s surface.  These areas feature very shallow soil or exposed bedrock, rendering trees unable to grow.  The “cedar” in the name comes from the abundance of eastern red cedar that grows on the margins of the glades or in cracks in the bedrock where roots gain a foothold.  Quarterman is credited with rediscovering in 1969 the native Tennessee coneflower, Echinacea tennesseensis, a plant only found in Middle Tennessee cedar glades and thought to be extinct.  It became the first plant endemic to Tennessee to be protected by the Endangered Species Act, and thanks to her efforts to establish more populations within the cedar glades, was removed from the endangered species list in August 2011.  Today, Echinacea tennesseensis can be found in Tennessee’s Davidson, Wilson and Rutherford counties.  In 1998, the 185-acre forest near LaVergne, Tennessee, where Quarterman conducted much of her research was named the Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade State Natural Area in her honor.  Kara Furlong 

The words don and doff date from the 14th century, and are examples of contractions of words/phrases becoming recognised words in their own right.  Don is short for do (put) on, while doff is short for do (take) off.  Both words were commonly used for a couple of hundred years to describe putting on or taking off any item of clothing or attire (not just hats).  For example people spoke about donning and doffing coats, capes, gloves, etc.  After going out of fashion in the 16th century, they came back into popular use in the 17th century as a result of Walter Scott using them in his novels.  https://www.quora.com/What-is-meant-by-don-and-doff-How-did-these-terms-originate

The Faurschou Foundation (148 Green St. in Brooklyn) hosts its opening exhibition, “The Red Bean Grows in the South.”  Read the NY Times’s take on the new gallery for more information.  The show runs December 15, 2019–April 11, 2020, and is free and open to the public.  The Faurschou Foundation was started in 2011 by Jens Faurschou, “a Danish collector, art advisor, and philanthropist,” with locations in Copenhagen, Venice, and Beijing.  See pictures at https://greenpointers.com/2019/12/13/faurschou-foundation-opens-with-the-red-bean-grows-in-the-south-exhibition-sunday-12-15/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2198  December 18, 2019 

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