Wednesday, March 11, 2020


Pintle, gudgeon, chock:  Luis Jaramillo on the weird and wonderful jargon of the high seas. | Lit Hub
How Judith Jones radically transformed American food writing. | Lit Hub Food  Barn 8 author Deb Olin Unferth shares five books popular in the Connally Unit maximum security prison, from The Sellout to Their Eyes Were Watching God. | Book Marks  Costica Bradatan on conspiracies and meaning-making in the life of Umberto Eco. | Los Angeles Review of Books  Let us now praise the onion, “singularly useful allium” and one of the Holy Trinity of vegetables. | Lit Hub Food  https://lithub.com/  March 10, 2020

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.  The question is not what you look at, but what you see.  Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.  The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.  Henry David Thoreau  American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817-1862) quotes reported by Flavia Medrut  https://www.goalcast.com/2018/09/05/henry-david-thoreau-quotes/ In wildness is the preservation of the world.  https://www.azquotes.com/author/14637-Henry_David_Thoreau/tag/conservation

nepotism  noun  favoritism (as in appointment to a job) based on kinship  During his papacy from 1471-1484, Sixtus IV granted many special favors to members of his family, in particular his nephews.  This practice of papal favoritism was carried on by his successors, and in 1667 it was the subject of Gregorio Leti's book Il Nepotismo di Roma-titled in the English translation, The History of the Popes' Nephews.  Shortly after the book's appearance, nepotism began to be used in English for the showing of special favor or unfair preference to any relative by someone in any position of power, be it ecclesiastical or not.  (The "nep-" spelling is from nepote, a 17th-century variant of Italian nipote, meaning "nephew.")  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nepotism

The most important thing to know about barley is that it comes in two basic forms:  hulled and pearl.  Hulled barley has had the tough, inedible outermost hull removed but still retains its bran and endosperm layer.  It is the most nutritious of the two and can be considered a whole grain.  A light golden brown in color, it’s the nuttier and chewier version as well.  Pearl barley has been polished to remove the bran and possibly even the endosperm layers, resulting in a pale, creamy-colored grain.  It is less chewy and cooks faster than the hulled variety, but has less fiber, is less nutritious, and is not considered a whole grain.  Combine one cup hulled or pearl barley and three cups water or stock water in the saucepan.  Add a generous pinch of salt if desired.  Bring the water and barley to a boil over high heat.  Keep an eye on the pot as barley will give off a lot of foam at first and can cause the pot to boil over.  When the barley has reached a boil, lower the heat to a low simmer, cover, and continue to cook until the barley is done.  For pearl barley, start checking at 25 minutes.  For hulled barley, start checking at 40 minutes.  The barley is done when it has tripled in volume and is soft yet chewy.  Add more water if the pan becomes dry before the barley has finished cooking; check every 5 minutes until desired chewiness is reached.  When the barley is done, it will have absorbed most of the water.  If there is a little water still left in the pot, just leave the barley to sit for 10 minutes, covered, until it has all been absorbed.  If there is a lot of water left, drain the barley in a strainer over the sink.  With a fork, fluff the barley to separate the grains.  Dana Velden  https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-cook-barley-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-198693  See also Mushroom Barley Soup at https://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/mushroom-barley-soup/ and Chicken Barley Soup at https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/chicken-barley-soup/

The most common method is to add barley grains straight to a broth or stew.  Cooking this way, at a gentle simmer, takes approximately 30 minutes.  Another option is to use pearl barley as a substitute for rice in a risotto--it has a similar capacity for absorbing liquid and the cooking time will be roughly the same.  If you want to add pearl barley to a soup or stew but don’t want the barley to thicken it then cook it separately first in water for 20-30 minutes and rinse before using.

The Apple from The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan  *  A land grant in the Northwest Territory required a settler to “set out at least fifty apple or pear trees” as a condition of his deed.  *  Europeans brought with them to the frontier a kind of portable ecosystem—grasses, herbs, fruits and flowers. *  In Geneva, New York, the Plant Genetic Resources Unit maintains the world’s largest collection of apple trees, with some 2,500 varieties.  *  A small seedling came up in Jesse Hiatt’s orchard in Iowa—he named it the Hawkeye and mailed four of them to a contest in Missouri.  The Hawkeye received first prize and was renamed the Delicious.  *  In the forest around Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan, the first wild apples were identified by Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov. 

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country largely located in Central Asia with the most western parts of it being located in Eastern Europe.  It is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest country in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi).  Kazakhstan is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry.  It also has vast mineral resources.  Kazakhstan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage.  Kazakhstan shares borders with RussiaChinaKyrgyzstanUzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea.  The terrain of Kazakhstan includes flatlands, steppetaigarock canyonshillsdeltas, snow-capped mountains, and deserts.  Kazakhstan has an estimated 18.3 million people as of 2018.   Its population density is among the lowest, at less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi).  The capital is Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana, where it was moved in 1997 from Almaty, the country's largest city.  There are ten nature reserves and ten national parks in Kazakhstan that provide safe haven for many rare and endangered plants and animals.  Common plants are AstragalusGageaAlliumCarex and Oxytropis; endangered plant species include native wild apple (Malus sieversii), wild grape (Vitis vinifera) and several wild tulip species (e.g. Tulipa greigii) and rare onion species Allium karataviense, also Iris willmottiana and Tulipa kaufmanniana.  Common mammals include the wolfred foxcorsac foxmooseargali (the largest species of sheep), Eurasian lynxPallas's cat, and snow leopards, several of which are protected.  Kazakhstan's Red Book of Protected Species lists 125 vertebrates including many birds and mammals, and 404 plants including fungi, algae and lichen.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan

Gestures–usually made with the hand, but in some notable cases with other parts of the body entirely–form a symbolic, non-vocal language; a shorthand way of sending a message without the need for words.  Many gestures we make today have a long history, and some are supposedly connected with particular historical events.  Here, Robert Hume considers the history–both real and imagined–of six popular gestures from the handshake to the high-five.  The handshake dates back at least as far as Ancient Greece.  In the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, a funeral stone from the 5th century BC depicts two soldiers shaking hands.  The base of a column at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, meanwhile, shows Hera [the wife and sister of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion] shaking hands with Athena [the goddess of wisdom, courage and inspiration in ancient Greek mythology and religion].  By shaking hands, rather than bowing or curtseying, both parties proved they were equals and that they felt sufficiently comfortable in each other’s presence not to bring weapons.  https://www.historyextra.com/period/ancient-greece/a-brief-history-of-gestures-from-the-handshake-to-the-high-five/

Greetings without touching to lessen possible transmission of infections:  wave the hands, smile, blink the eyes, tap the feet, bow, put hand on heart, say words of welcome or recognition.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2238  March 11, 2020

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