The Legacy of Wendell Mohr
by Curt Swarm “Shooting Star Out of the void he came like a
shooting star touching her shoulder."
A grand adventure," he said, igniting the darkness. ‘Let there be light.’ and so it is that they
turned the nights to diamonds turned the days to gold and painted once upon a
time.” Wendell Mohr passed away in 2008,
but his work lives on, gaining momentum, adding fame to an already famous
artist. Wendell lived in the tiny
unincorporated village of Vernon, Iowa which is on the other side of the Des
Moines River from Bentonsport, another unincorporated village in Van Buren
County. He lived in the old Vernon
school, a two-story brick structure, complete with bell tower, gymnasium, and
loft apartment. The school, a historic
landmark, was the ideal setting for isolation, a place of peace and beauty for
Wendell's imagination to run amuck, free.
http://www.mississippivalleypublishing.com/daily_democrat/opinion/the-legacy-of-wendell-mohr/article_8d3d6897-32b3-5a88-8fff-85e851bde0cc.html Wendell Mohr's art was about drama and
adventure. Art was his first language,
as it was man's.
https://kesslertg.wixsite.com/noteworthyart/wendell-mohr See examples of Wendell Mohr’s works at https://www.invaluable.com/artist/mohr-wendell-bhazl51dfy/sold-at-auction-prices/ The Muser purchased five idealized views of
Des Moines by Wendell Mohr at Vernon School.
https://villagesofvanburen.com/directory.html?item=1555
The Potato from The Botany
of Desire by Michael Pollan
One theory of modern
agriculture holds that domesticated plants first emerged on dump heaps, flourished
and eventually hybridized * To my eye there are few sights in nature as
stirring as rows of vegetable seedlings rising like a green city on the spring
ground. * The patented potatoes I was
planting are descended from wild ancestors in the Andes, the potato’s “center
of diversity.” * Potatoes supplied protein, vitamins B and
C—all that was missing was vitamin A and a bit of milk could make that up—so
potatoes are the ultimate comfort food and all a body really needs. * Potatoes
put an end to scurvy in Europe. * Marie Antoinette wore potato flowers
(five-petaled lavender starts with yellow centers that give off a faint
roselike perfume) in her hair to promote the potato as food. * A
potato farmer in Idaho spends about $1,950 an acre (mainly on chemicals,
electricity and water) to grow a crop that might earn him $2,000. * In
March 1998, patent number 5,723,765, describing a method for the control of
plant gene expression, was granted jointly to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
and a cottonseed company called Delta & Pine land. The technology introduced into any plant
causes the seed the plant makes to be sterile.
Now viable seeds will come not from plants but from corporations. *
Nemesis
was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble
acts and punishment for evil ones. The
Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender immediately but
might wait generations to avenge a crime.
In English, nemesis originally
referred to someone who brought a just retribution, but nowadays people are
more likely to see animosity than justice in the actions of a nemesis. Read definitions at https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nemesis
594 Ways of Reading Jane
Eyre by Bonnie
Chau NEWS AND TRENDS March/April 2020 Prismatic Jane Eyre
is a research project that explores the relationship between Charlotte Brontë’s
classic 1847 novel and its many translated versions. https://www.pw.org/content/594_ways_of_reading_jane_eyre
RICE
NOODLES Place all your rice noodles in a
deep mixing bowl, trying to snap as few of them as possible as you remove them
from the package. Bring a good amount of
water to boil. Pour the boiling water
over the rice noodles until they are completely submerged. Every minute or two, give the noodles a stir
to loosen them up. When they are completely
limp, give them a taste to see if they’re cooked through. The thread-like vermicelli noodles used in
spring rolls will cook through in just a few minutes. The flat rice noodles might take upwards of
ten minutes depending on thickness. Pay
attention and test the noodles frequently because they’ll become mushy if they
overcook. Once the noodles are tender, drain them and run them under cool water
to stop the cooking. Toss them with a
bit of sesame oil to keep the noodles from
sticking to each other if you’re not going to use them right away. • If the noodles will be used in a stir-fry
dish like pad thai, you definitely want to under-cook them a bit. They will absorb more moisture and cook the
rest of the way through once in the stir fry.
If your noodles are perfectly cooked to start, they will turn to mush in
the stir fry. • If you’re making a soup,
you can cook the noodles directly in the broth. Add them just before serving and monitor
closely to make sure they don’t over-cook.
https://www.thekitchn.com/cooking-basics-how-to-cook-rice-noodles-129104 See also 12 Light and Healthy Rice Noodle Recipes--They're Delicious Hot or Cold by Lily Kip
https://www.thespruceeats.com/best-rice-noodle-recipes-4687677
and 18 Easy Rice Noodle Recipes to Make by
Bon Appétit https://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/slideshow/rice-noodle-recipes
It's pretty much the
thrift store dream; to find a rare, long lost treasure on a crowded shelf, on
sale for a bargain price. That's what
happened at the Hotline Pink Thrift Shop in Kitty Hawk, N.C., when Wendy
Hawkins came across an otherwise ignored piece of art. "One day I saw this, with a bunch of
other paintings lined up on the floor, and I said 'this is old, this is
something special,' " Hawkins, who volunteers at the store twice a week, told WAVY TV.
The item turned out to be a 1950s woodcut print that was created and
signed by Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. It is part of a series of 100 illustrations
depicting Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy,
a 14th century Italian poem about the writer's fictional journey from the
deepest circles of hell, up the mountain of purgatory and finally to paradise. Dalí was
initially commissioned by the Italian government to make the series in honor
Dante's birthday celebration but outrage over a Spaniard taking on an Italian
poet's work led officials to drop it. However,
the artist had become so taken by the project that he couldn't let it go. In the end he created a series of 100
watercolor paintings—one for each chapter of Dante's book— that were reproduced
as wood engravings. Each of those required
about 35 separate blocks to complete the image.
"And that is what Wendy found," Melanie Smith, owner of
Seaside Art Gallery just down the street from the thrift store, told NPR. It's called Purgatory Canto 32 and it shows a
woman in blue next to a man in red. She said part of what made it so valuable is that it
bears two signatures—once with a wood stamp and once in handwriting with a
purple pencil. Vanessa Romo https://www.npr.org/2020/03/10/814266026/thrift-store-wood-engraving-print-turns-out-to-be-salvador-dal-artwork
In 1918, the city of
Philadelphia threw a parade that killed thousands of people. Ignoring warnings of influenza among soldiers
preparing for World War I, the march to support the war effort drew 200,000
people who crammed together to watch the procession. Three days later, every bed in Philadelphia’s
31 hospitals was filled with sick and dying patients, infected by the Spanish
flu. By the end of the week, more
than 4,500
were dead in an outbreak that would claim as many as 100 million
people worldwide. By the time
Philadelphia’s politicians closed down the city, it was too late. A different story played out in St. Louis,
just 900 miles away. Within two days of
detecting its first cases among civilians, the city closed schools,
playgrounds, libraries, courtrooms, and even churches. Work shifts were staggered and streetcar
ridership was strictly limited. Public
gatherings of more than 20 people were banned.
The extreme measures—now known as social distancing, which is being
called for by global health
agencies to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus—kept per
capita flu-related deaths in St. Louis to less than half of
those in Philadelphia, according to a 2007 paper in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences.
South Korea has adopted a modern version of the St. Louis model; the
country never locked its citizens down or quarantined entire cities, but has
still managed to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. In recent days, new infections have leveled
off thanks in part to thousands of free daily tests and a coordinated
government effort that closed schools, canceled public events, and
supported flexible working arrangements. Michael J. Coren March 11, 2020
https://qz.com/1816060/a-chart-of-the-1918-spanish-flu-shows-why-social-distancing-works/
Reported illnesses have
ranged from mild symptoms to severe illness and death for confirmed coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases. The following symptoms may
appear 2-14 days after exposure.* Fever, Cough, Shortness of breath. *This is based
on what has been seen previously as the incubation period of MERS-CoV viruses.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY The most wonderful of all things in life, I
believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship
has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner
progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it
cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident. - Hugh
Walpole, writer (13 Mar 1884-1941)
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2239
March 13. 2020
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