SIGNPOST
From: Alec Charles A couple of miles south of the town of
Sandwich in Kent, England, there is a village by the name of Ham. At a nearby road junction, a noted signpost
indicates: HAM SANDWICH. I am not making this up!
From: Dave Fragments An Instance of the Fingerpost
is an erudite 1997 historical mystery novel by Iain Pears set in 17th-century
Europe. It is a good novel, a satisfying
read. I still have the copy I bought in
my library. Four very different
narrators recall a murder from their past and eventually the reader reaches a
“fingerpost” that points to the solution.
Tana French (born 1973) is an American-Irish writer and theatrical
actress, born in Vermont and
long resident in Ireland. Her debut
novel In the Woods (2007), a psychological mystery,
won the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity,
and Barry awards for best first novel. She lives in Dublin. The British online
newspaper, The Independent, has referred to her as the First Lady
of Irish Crime, "who very quietly has become a huge international name
among crime fiction readers."
French was enthralled by both acting and writing since her
childhood days but eventually focused more on acting. She trained as a
professional actor at Trinity, and she works in theatre, film, and voiceover. In her later 30s, her passion for writing was
unexpectedly rekindled. Her choice of genre stems from her profound
interest in mystery and crime novels, which she grew up reading. She began writing her debut novel in
the months-long lulls between castings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tana_French
The
Public Domain Review specializes in criticism as history, presenting readers
with high-quality scans of artwork, archaic books, maps, hand-written journals,
as well as early films and audio recordings and photographs—these little bits
of ephemeral media that, in part due to the technological limitations of the
era in which they were created, engender a real sense of wonder in modern viewers—and
placing them in the context of their eras. The board games of the 18th and 19th centuries, for example, weren’t just a way to pass the time
because nobody had thought to invent the internet yet, they were interactive
ideological tracts, morality tales, and educational tools, historical artifacts
that over time have evolved into things like Monopoly and The Game of Life. This old stuff is still with us, even if we
don’t realize it! “Celestiographs”—ostensible
images of “a form of celestial light hitherto unrecorded”—were actually the results of a failed photography experiment by an amateur
astronomer only make them more
aesthetically pure and genuinely mystifying.
Drew Millard https://theoutline.com/post/8208/the-public-domain-review-rockets-the-oddities-of-the-past-into-the-present?utm_source=TW&zr=2jujhnmu&zd=4&zi=6nrbhtcd
Floriography (language
of flowers) is a means of cryptological communication
through the use or arrangement of flowers. Meaning has been attributed to flowers for
thousands of years, and some form of floriography has been practiced in
traditional cultures throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Plants and flowers are used as symbols in
the Hebrew Bible, particularly of love and lovers in
the Song of Songs, as an emblem for the Israelite
people and for the coming Messiah. In Western
culture, William Shakespeare ascribed emblematic
meanings to flowers, especially in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Interest in floriography soared in Victorian
England and in the United
States during the 19th century. Gifts of blooms, plants, and specific floral
arrangements were used to send a coded message to the recipient, allowing the
sender to express feelings which could not be spoken aloud in Victorian
society. Armed with floral dictionaries,
Victorians often exchanged small "talking bouquets", called nosegays
or tussie-mussies, which could be worn or carried as a
fashion accessory. William Shakespeare, Jane
Austen, Charlotte and Emily
Bronte, and children's novelist Frances Hodgson Burnett, among others, used
the language of flowers in their writings. Shakespeare used the word "flower"
more than 100 times in his plays and sonnets. In Hamlet, Ophelia mentions
and explains the symbolic meaning of pansies, rosemary, fennel, columbine, rue, daisy, and violets. In The Winter's Tale, the princess Perdita
wishes that she had violets, daffodils,
and primroses to make garlands for her
friends. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon talks
to his messenger Puck amidst a scene of wild flowers. In J. K.
Rowling's 1997 novel Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone, Professor Severus
Snape uses the language of flowers to express regret and mourning for
the death of Lily Potter, Harry Potter's mother, according to Pottermore. Read
more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers
Earth
laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882) Read more at https://www.bartleby.com/370/14.html
As of November 1st, 2019
MacMillan Publishing, one of the largest print publishers in the world, placed
an 8-week embargo on libraries purchasing more than one copy of new release
eBooks limiting an entire branch to loan out one eBook at a time to library
patrons. This coupled with the
publishing community beginning to limit perpetual access to eBooks and
audiobooks, in general, should serve as a warning for what is about to come
with the continued siloing and commoditization of information. A new reality favoring publishers and
aggregators over creators and consumers closing in not only on the expressions
of authors but the reportage of journalists, songs of artists, and the visions
of filmmakers. As much as I like my
Netflix subscription and my son likes his Spotify subscription, I have to
wonder what the future will bring when important news stories and creative
expressions are fenced-in through subscription models and exclusive content
deals priced out of reach of the average wage earner. Is there any doubt the total cost of
information consumption will rise as more information providers climb on board
the gravy train of the subscription model?
Sound familiar? So when a
top-five international book publisher picks a fight with 138,000 librarians
over an 8-week release window, one has to wonder if this is the canary in the
coal mine warning of what is to come. In
an open letter to librarians, MacMillan
publishing CEO John Sargent offered, “We believe the very rapid increase in the
reading of borrowed e-books decreases the perceived economic value of a book,”
and “To borrow a book in those days required transportation, returning the
book, and paying those pesky fines when you forgot to get them back on
time. In today’s digital world there is
no such friction in the market.” extract
of An Essay by
J. Paul Duplantis
Inimitable adjective too good be satisfactorily imitated by others;
unique ETYMOLOGY: 16c. https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=inimitable&title=21st
Caroll Edwin Spinney (December 26, 1933 – December 8, 2019) was an
American puppeteer, cartoonist, author and speaker most famous for
playing Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street from its inception in
1969 until 2018. Caroll Edwin Spinney
was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, on December 26, 1933. His mother, a native of Bolton, England, named him Caroll because he was born the day after
Christmas. He has been drawing and
painting since he was a child. He
developed a love of puppeteering when he saw a performance of Three
Little Kittens at the age of
five. This motivated him to purchase a
monkey puppet from a rummage sale three years later and put on a puppet show
utilizing the monkey and a plush snake.
The following Christmas, his mother gifted him with a Punch and Judy puppet theater.
He continued puppeteering throughout his childhood and adolescence and
used his performances to raise money for college tuition. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroll_Spinney
(idiomatic) Askew, disturbed; not adjusted or working properly; out of order. quotations ▼ Synonyms: out of order The
term is often preceded by throw, as in “an impact can throw the adjustment out of kilter”. Alternative form: out
of kelter Related term: off-kilter
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/out_of_kilter#English
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2194
December 9, 2019
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