Monday, March 2, 2020


The R. W. Lindholm Service Station is a service station designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and located in Cloquet, Minnesota.  Built in 1958 and still in use, it is the only station built to a Wright design during his lifetime.  It was originally part of Wright's utopian Broadacre City plan and is one of the few designs from that plan that was actually implemented.  The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Wright had designed station owner Ray Lindholm's house in 1952 and, knowing Lindholm worked in the oil business, presented him with a proposal to design the gas station envisioned as part of Broadacre City.  Lindholm seized the opportunity to beautify gas station design, and Wright completed his design in 1956.  The station ultimately cost $20,000--roughly four times the cost of the average filling station at the time.  Its construction was only a partial success for Wright, as his vision of the gas station as a social center never took hold.  However, Phillips 66 incorporated several of the gas station's design elements, particularly the triangular cantilevered canopy, in later gas stations.  The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 11, 1985, for its architectural significance.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._W._Lindholm_Service_Station  Cloquet's R.W. Lindholm Service Station, more commonly known as the Frank Lloyd Wright Gas Station, was sold to Broadacre, LLC of Minneapolis on March 18, 2018 for $250,000.  https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/real-estate/4712112-Cloquets-Frank-Lloyd-Wright-gas-station-sold-after-60-years-in-family

As a rule of thumb, good questions:  Ask ‘what, when, where, who’ to gather fact and context.  Ask ‘how do you’ to uncover processes and flows.  Ask ‘how might we’ to investigate opportunities.  Ask ‘why’ to find underlying reasons and motivations.  Have purpose.  Are neutral and free of bias.  Are interesting, short, and can be answered.  Chris How  Link to articles on good questions at https://medium.com/@chris_162/part-1-what-makes-a-good-question-477ddd4e64e3

Simon Rich (born June 5, 1984) is an American humorist, novelist, and screenwriter.  He has published two novels and three collections of humor pieces, several of which appeared in The New Yorker.  His novels and short stories have been translated into over a dozen languages.  Rich was one of the youngest writers ever hired on Saturday Night Live, and served as a staff writer for Pixar.  After graduating from Harvard, Rich wrote for Saturday Night Live for four years where the staff was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety, Music or Comedy Series in 2008, 2009, and 2010 and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy/Variety Series in 2009 and 2010.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Rich

encumber  transitive verb  1WEIGH DOWNBURDEN  2to impede or hamper the function or activity of HINDER negotiations  3to burden with a legal claim (such as a mortgage)

The expression “to care (or give) a fig” dates back to the early 1600s, and “to give (or care) a hoot” has been around since before World War I.  Both nouns—“fig” and “hoot”—have long been used figuratively for something small and unimportant, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.  So something that’s “not worth a fig (or a hoot),” or something that you “don’t care a fig (or a hoot) about,” is worthless or contemptible.  The noun “fig”—sometimes “a fig’s end”—was recorded in the sense of something unimportant as early as the mid-1400s.  https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2013/11/figs-and-hoots.html

Not Worth a Fig is a 2009 Turkish drama film written and directed by Selda Çiçek based on a true story about a woman unhappily married to her late sister's husband.  The film, which went on nationwide release on November 6, 2009, was selected for the 16th London Turkish Film Festival.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Worth_a_Fig

Celebrated on March 14, National Pi Day not only commemorates a very special number, but also celebrates the birthday of the great scientist and mathematician Albert Einstein.  Pi was first calculated by Archimedes of Syracuse (287–212 BC), one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.  National Pi Day has become a day to celebrate numbers and math, and celebrations are held across the country in honor of this very special number.  These days, all of the numerical fun is sometimes accompanied by delicious food items such as pizza pie, fruit pie, and even pot pies!  Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter—and amazingly for all circles of any size, Pi will be always be the same.  Pi is an "irrational number," meaning its exact value is completely unknowable.  Scientists have calculated billions of digits starting with 3.14159265358979323, but no recognizable pattern ever emerges.  If you are a nerd that likes pies this holiday is pretty much the best combination of the most interesting things in life:  pie and mathematics.  And of course that means that in order to celebrate abstract mathematical items that are somewhat irrational the obvious solution is to incorporate pie into the holiday.  Pi is one of the things that links math back to real world uses.  Because Pi is linked to circles it is also linked to cycles, things like calculating waves, ebb and flow, the oceans tides, electromagnetic waves and much more.  In addition many natural world phenomena can be calculated with pi—like the shape of rivers, the disc of the sun, the spiral of DNA and even the pupil of the eye.  https://nationaltoday.com/national-pi-day/

When the U.S. passport was redesigned in 2007, a biometric chip was added.  Images were added.  Ostensibly to cut down on counterfeits, the dark images have made some stamps difficult to read.  Quotes were also added at the top of each page.  In a 52-page passport, this included 25 patriotic quotes relating to the United States.  Author Matthew is an avid traveler who travels more than 200,000 miles each year by air.  Read the 25 quotes at https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/07/04/us-passport-quotes/

February 27, 2020 (1) A former deputy solicitor general who served under eight presidents, Lawrence Wallace, has died at age 88.  Wallace argued more cases in the U.S. Supreme Court than any other lawyer in the modern era.  Wallace is known for risking his career over a footnote in which he noted that he personally disagreed with the Reagan administration’s position in a tax exemption case.  The brief he signed, despite his noted disagreement, argued that the IRS could not revoke tax-exempt status for private universities that discriminate.   (The Washington Post via How Appealing) (2) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has written more opinions than any of her colleagues in argued cases so far this term.  Ginsburg has written three majority opinions and three dissents in 11 argued cases. (Law360)  Debra Cassens Weiss  https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/afternoon-briefs-doj-lawyer-who-wrote-risky-footnote-dies-chip-gaines-of-hgtv-wins-suit-dismissal

COLORFUL PROSE  *  joined  the chrome-surge (driving in Los Angeles)  *  flash of ocular Morse code  *  a low hum, deep and constant as a Gregorian chant:  freeway dirge  *  Time Bomb, #5 in the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman   See Alex Delaware series order at https://www.fictiondb.com/author/jonathan-kellerman~series~alex-delaware~2024.htm

March is Women’s History Month   Born in a well-to-do farmer family in the backward Mali community, Savitribai Phule was married off to 13-year-old Jyotirao Phule at the tender age of nine in-keeping with the tradition at the time of marrying off girls before they hit puberty.  Jyotirao sent his wife to get trained at a school and she passed with flying colours along with Fatima Sheikh.  Jyotirao had studied the Hindu scriptures and come to the conclusion that all humans were equal.  He realized that education was the one tool that if provided to all humans, would get rid of all social inequalities.  In 1848, the emancipated husband and wife finally established India’s first school for girls in Vishrambag Wada, Pune.  Only nine girls enrolled all from different castes.  Later on, the number rose to 25.  While Savitribai became the headmistress, she taught alongside her fellow trainee Fatima Sheikh and Jyotirao’s emancipated aunt Sagunabai.  The first woman teacher and the first female educationist of India was also the first female poetess.  Her two books of poetry 'Kavya Phule' (1934) and 'Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar' (1982) continue to inspire us today with their questions on caste and gender.  'Kavya Phule' was published when Savitribai was just 23.  She also wrote a poem entitled 'Go, Get Education' which encouraged people to free themselves from oppression by educating themselves.   Roshni Chakrabarty  https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/how-savitribai-phule-india-s-first-female-teacher-dealt-with-abusers-hell-bent-on-preventing-her-from-educating-girls-1633725-2020-01-03

Each March, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics celebrates National Nutrition Month®.  As part of their campaign, they invite the public to focus on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits.  National Nutrition Month 2020 is themed “Eat Right, Bite by Bite” and the overall message is that quality nutrition isn’t restrictive, but that small changes to diet can have a cumulative effect on health over time.  https://nutrition.org/national-nutrition-month-2020/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2233  March 2, 2020 

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