The earliest recorded use of the alliterative phrase making a mountain out of a molehill dates from 1548.  The word for the animal involved was less than two hundred years old by then.  Previous to that the mole had been known by its Old English name wand, which had slowly changed to want.  A molehill was known as a wantitump, a word that continued in dialect use for centuries more.  The former name of want was then replaced by mold(e)warp (meaning earth-thrower), a shortened version of which (molle) began to appear in the later 14th century  and the word molehill in the first half of the 15th century.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_a_mountain_out_of_a_molehill

On October 21, 1833 a baby boy was born to a family in Stockholm, Sweden who was to become a famous scientist, inventor, businessman and founder of the Nobel Prizes.  His father was Immanuel Nobel and his mother was Andriette Ahlsell Nobel.  They named their son Alfred.  At the age of 17, Alfred could speak and write in Swedish, Russian, French, English and German.  Alfred was most interested in literature, chemistry and physics.  His father was not pleased with Alfred’s interest in poetry.  He decided to send the young man abroad to study and become a chemical engineer.  In Paris, Alfred worked in the private laboratory of Professor T. J. Pelouze, a famous chemist.  There he met a young Italian chemist, Ascanio Sobrero.  Three years earlier, Sobrero had invented nitroglycerine, a highly explosive liquid.  It was considered too dangerous to be of practical use.  Alfred became very interested in nitroglycerine and how it could be used in construction work.  In 1864, he was able to start mass production of nitroglycerine but he did not stop experimenting with different additives to make the production much safer.  Alfred found, through his experiments, that mixing nitroglycerine with a fine sand called kieselguhr would turn the liquid into paste which could be shaped into rods.  These rods could then be inserted into drilling holes.  The invention was made in 1866.  Alfred got a patent or legal right of ownership on this material the next year.  He named it “dynamite.”  He also invented a detonator or blasting cap which could be set off by lighting a fuse.  Alfred died in San Remo, Italy on December 10, 1896.  In his last will and testament, he wrote that much of his fortune was to be used to give prizes to those who have done their best for humanity in the field of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.  Not everybody was pleased with this.  His will was opposed by his relatives and questioned by authorities in various countries.  It took four years for his executors to convince all parties to follow Alfred’s wishes.  In 1901, the first Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature were first awarded in Stockholm, Sweden and the Peace Prize in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway.  https://www.nobelprize.org/alfred-nobel/alfred-nobels-life-and-work/  Alfred Nobel held 355 different patents, dynamite being the most famous.  The synthetic element nobelium was named after him.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Nobel

Alice Pleasance Liddell (1852–1934) was the little girl who inspired Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.  Alice’s connection with the New Forest began in 1880 after she married wealthy Reginald Hargreaves, who had inherited the Cuffnells country estate near Lyndhurst.  Alice became a society heiress and was the first president of Emery Down Women’s Institute.  She is said to have found being the original storybook Alice something of a burden.  Alice was four years old when the author, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, became a close family friend.  His fantastic stories were made up to entertain young Alice and her sisters on a boat outing and formed the basis for Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, the first draft of the Alice stories, which went on to become the most popular children’s books in England.  Alice struggled with the cost of maintaining Cuffnells and was forced to sell some of her Alice memorabilia, including the manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground given to her by Dodgson so many years ago.  It fetched the huge sum of £15,400 at auction--almost four times the reserve price.  She went to America in 1932 to attend celebrations marking the centenary of Dodgson’s birth.  She was exhausted by the letters she received afterwards from Alice fans and by press intrusion, and died two years later.  Cuffnells was requisitioned during World War II and never returned to its former glory.  It was demolished in the early 1950s.  See pictures at https://www.newforestnpa.gov.uk/discover/history-culture/famous-forest-folk/alice-liddell-alice-wonderland-inspiration/  Read about fictional accounts of Liddell’s life at http://poeforward.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-pleasance-liddell.html  Alice Liddell was the fourth child and second daughter of the Dean from the Christ Church College in Oxford, Henry George Liddell, and Lorina Liddell.  ‘Liddell’ is pronounced to rhyme with ‘fiddle’.  We know this thanks to a couplet, which was composed in Carroll’s day by the students at Oxford.  It went as followed:  “I am the Dean and this is Mrs. Liddell.  She plays the first, and I the second fiddle.” http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/resources/background/alice-liddell/

My sister hoarded information the way squirrels hoarded nuts.  Not useful information, either . . .  Alice I Have Been, a novel by Melanie Benjamin about Alice Liddell 

A Colorado native, Jim Budish studied sculpture at the Art Students League of Denver and at the Loveland Academy of Fine Arts.  He also participated in ISC (International Sculpture Center) workshops at the Art Institute of Chicago.  Jim began his career sculpting representational figurative works.  He realized in time however, that it was neither his desire nor ambition for his life’s work to be creating “photographs in bronze”.  Rather, he decided that he wanted to be able to create his own new and unique direction in representing the human form and the forms of the multitude of special creatures that surround us.  With each piece, he explores the attitude and emotion of his subject and attempts to capture the “joie de vivre” that he feels is lurking somewhere inside us all.  Jim Budish is currently one of the most popular sculptors in the United States.  In addition to his success at sculpture shows, Jim does charity work by donating his art for auctions that benefit the less fortunate.  His work can be found in numerous collections in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Hong Kong, and Japan.  See pictures at  http://smithklein.com/project/jim-budish/  A Muse reader working in Manhattan has two Jim Budish pieces in the covered area between her building and the one next door.

Maria Semple is the author of the novels Today Will Be Different (2016), Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012) and This One is Mine (2008), all published by Little, Brown and Co.  Before writing fiction, she wrote for the TV shows 90210, Mad About You, Arrested Development and others.  Where’d You Go, Bernadette, an international bestseller, has been translated into 30 languages.  It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and made over a dozen year-end best lists.  It was short-listed for the Women’s Prize and received the Alex Award from the American Library Association.  Today Will Be Different was an instant international bestseller and was featured on the cover of the New York Times book review.  It, too, made over a dozen year-end best lists.  Maria spent her early years traveling around Europe with her bohemian parents, but that ended abruptly when her father, Lorenzo Semple, Jr., finished a pilot for Batman while living in Torremolinos, Spain.  He airmailed it in, they shot it, and the family moved to LA.  After the Batman TV series and feature, Lorenzo went on to write a bunch of movies.  Once he was established, the family moved to Aspen, Colorado.  Maria attended boarding school at Choate Rosemary and college at Barnard, where she majored in English.  She moved to LA shortly after graduating Barnard and wrote screenplays which never got made, and TV shows which did.  In 2008 Maria, George Meyer and their little daughter moved to Seattle just because.  It was a difficult adjustment for Maria, which became the basis for Where’d You Go, Bernadette.  The novel came out in 2012 and became an instant bestseller.  https://www.mariasemple.com/about-me/

I AM SILENTLY CORRECTING YOUR GRAMMAR--seen on tote bag for sale in a shop in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

With more than 40 years of professional experience, Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, partners and co-founders of Dublin-based Grafton Architects, are the first women to be jointly awarded the architecture’s highest honor, the Pritzker Prize.  Romullo Baratto  Find 20 facts and curiosities about Yvonne Farrell, Shelley McNamara, and Grafton Architects at https://www.archdaily.com/934782/who-are-grafton-architects-20-things-to-know-about-the-2020-pritzker-laureates

Swapping kisses for elbow bumps.  The bizarre ways that coronavirus is changing etiquette   With concerned citizens steering clear of handshakes, people around the world are getting creative with their meet and greets.  Dr. Sylvie Briand, the World Health Organization's director of pandemics, has endorsed a range of greetings as an alternative to the handshake, including bumping elbows, waving and bowing with palms together in the Thai "wai."  Meanwhile, videos have surfaced from Iran and Lebanon of friends tapping their feet to greet one another.  People should use an "open palmed gesture rather than a closed palm gesture . . .  especially if you're greeting lots of people at a networking event or conference," Etiquette coach William Hanson said, adding that making eye contact should also be a priority.  Amy Woodyatt  See pictures of handshake alternatives at https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/03/world/coronavirus-etiquette-intl-scli/index.html

 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2235  March 4, 2020