Pleasures of the Literary Meal by Bee Wilson   The pleasure of reading about what others eat and drink is somewhere between the satisfaction of feeding and that of being fed.  We salivate to share Proust’s memories of cherries and cream cheese and almond cake, and we can almost taste the sweet almondy crumbs in our own mouths and feel nourished by them.  But we also have an urge to see others receiving satisfaction, especially children.  I was reminded by a splendid new collection edited by Christina Hardyment, “Pleasures of the Table:  A Literary Anthology,” illustrated with vivid historic images from the collection of the British Library.  Hardyment has previously published books on children’s literature, and she has selected especially well from childhood books for this anthology.  She gives us Edmund gorging on Turkish delight in the Narnia books, and Heidi eating toasted cheese with her grandfather.  There’s also the scene in “Swallows and Amazons,” by Arthur Ransome, in which the children picnic on “Wild Cat Island.”  We are told that the four children eat scrambled eggs from a communal frying pan, before having “four big slabs of seed cake” and “apples all round.”  Hardyment includes a section from the Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.”  After a fiendish puzzle that culminates with Holmes serving a recovered stolen document to its rightful owner on a breakfast platter, the story ends with the detective enjoying a meal himself.  “Sherlock Holmes swallowed a cup of coffee, and turned his attention to the ham and eggs.  Then he rose, lit his pipe, and settled himself down into his chair.”  The joy of reading about the meals of others shows that, in many ways, we are simple creatures:  by merely looking upon someone else eating we can feel better fed.  https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/pleasures-of-the-literary-meal  Now the Muser understands why she enjoys reading that Jack Reacher savors coffee.

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy which was founded by Zeno of Citium, in Athens, in the early 3rd century BC.  Stoicism is a philosophy of personal ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world.  According to its teachings, as social beings, the path to eudaimonia (happiness, or blessedness) for humans is found in accepting the moment as it presents itself, by not allowing oneself to be controlled by the desire for pleasure or fear of pain, by using one's mind to understand the world and to do one's part in nature's plan, and by working together and treating others fairly and justly.  The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things—such as health, wealth, and pleasure—are not good or bad in themselves (adiaphora), but have value as "material for virtue to act upon".  Alongside Aristotelian ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to Western virtue ethics.  The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and they believed people should aim to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is "in accordance with nature".  Because of this, the Stoics thought the best indication of an individual's philosophy was not what a person said, but how a person behaved.  To live a good life, one had to understand the rules of the natural order since they thought everything was rooted in nature.  Many Stoics—such as Seneca and Epictetus—emphasized that because "virtue is sufficient for happiness", a sage would be emotionally resilient to misfortune.  Stoicism flourished throughout the Roman and Greek world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Emperor Marcus Aurelius.  It experienced a decline after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD.  Since then it has seen revivals, notably in the Renaissance (Neostoicism) and in the contemporary era (modern Stoicism).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism

Labyrinths differ from mazes though the two are often confused.  A labyrinth is a spiral walking course having a single, winding, unobstructed path from the outside to the center.  Unlike a maze that can be confusing, trick the mind and disorienting, a labyrinth calms the mind and relaxes the body.  Labyrinths have been used by many cultures throughout history.  Some believe it is a path that represents “the walk” that we take through life; many twists and turns but no dead ends.  http://www.relax4life.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/What-Is-A-Labyrinth-9-13-.pdf  Download Paper Finger Labyrinths including Cretan, Chartres, Roman and Ely at https://www.relax4life.com/download-paper-finger-labyrinths/

When UC Berkeley geologist Andrew Lawson discovered and named the San Andreas Fault in 1895, he could not know that in the 21st century, his name would be associated with something he didn't even know existed--intermediate depth earthquakes.  But let's tell the story from the beginning.  About 125 years ago, everybody living in California knew that we have earthquakes.  After all, the Hayward quake of 1868 caused deaths and heavy damage on both sides of the Bay.  But only a few people knew about Lawson's discovery and nobody, not even Lawson himself, knew for certain that earthquakes and the San Andreas Fault had anything in common.  That changed abruptly with the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.  A few days after the fires, which consumed large parts of the city, were finally extinguished, Lawson assembled an A-Team of prominent geologists from all over the United States.  They fanned out over Northern California and assessed the damage and the changes in landscape associated with this big temblor.  After they published their findings in what is now famously known as the Lawson-Report, it became clear that the San Andreas is indeed the "Mother of all Earthquake Faults."  https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2016/02/25/deep-earthquakes-and-the-king.html  The mineral Lawsonite is named for Andrew Lawson, as is the Lawson Adit, originally a mining construction research tunnel on UC Berkeley's campus.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lawson

Pome by Elizabeth Spires  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55837/pome

What is a Poem?  https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/what-is-a-poem/281835/  Pome is a noun.  It means apple, pear, and quince in old French, deriving from Latin roots.  Poem is a noun.  It means literature that is writing in short, rhythmic phrases in groups of 3, 4, or more.  Kathleen W. Curry https://kathleenwcurry.wordpress.com/2015/07/08/easily-confused-words-pome-vs-poem/

From J.K. Rowling on May 26, 2020 

A few weeks ago at dinner, I tentatively mooted the idea of getting The Ickabog down from the attic and publishing it for free, for children in lockdown.  My now teenagers were touchingly enthusiastic, so downstairs came the very dusty box, and for the last few weeks I’ve been immersed in a fictional world I thought I’d never enter again.  As I worked to finish the book, I started reading chapters nightly to the family again.  This was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my writing life, as The Ickabog’s first two readers told me what they remember from when they were tiny, and demanded the reinstatement of bits they’d particularly liked (I obeyed).  I think The Ickabog lends itself well to serialisation because it was written as a read-aloud book (unconsciously shaped, I think, by the way I read it to my own children), but it’s suitable for 7-9 year olds to read to themselves.  I’ll be posting a chapter (or two, or three) every weekday between 26th May and 10th July 2020 on The Ickabog website.  We plan to publish some translations soon and will post further details on that website when they’re available.  In November 2020, The Ickabog will be published in English in print, eBook and audiobook formats, shortly followed by other languages.  he best drawings in each territory will be included in the finished books.  As publishers in each territory will need to decide which pictures work best for their own editions, I won’t be personally judging the entries.  However, if parents and guardians post their children’s drawing on Twitter using the hashtag #TheIckabog, I’ll be able to share and comment!  To find out more about the Illustration Competition, go to The Ickabog website when it launches.  I’m pledging all author royalties from The Ickabog, when published, to help groups who’ve been particularly impacted by the pandemic. Further details will be available later in the year.  https://www.jkrowling.com/j-k-rowling-introduces-the-ickabog/

U.S. writer Joyce Carol Oates, so often a bridesmaid for the Nobel literature prize, won France's richest books prize May 25, 2020.  The Cino del Duca World Prize, which is worth 200,000 euros ($218,000), is often seen as a stepping stone to the Nobel, with Andrei Sakharov, Mario Vargas Llosa and the French novelist Patrick Modiano all winning it before going on to Nobel glory.  Five of Oates' books, including her novel "Blonde", which chronicled the inner life of Marilyn Monroe, have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, without ever winning.  https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/writer-joyce-carol-oates-wins-frances-218000-cino-del-duca-world-prize/articleshow/75990011.cms

THOUGHT FOR MAY 27  Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate. - Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Vice President (27 May 1911-1978)

WORD OF THE DAY FOR MAY 27   libre  adjective  (obsolete, rare) Especially of the will:  free, independent, unconstrained.  (software) With very few limitations on distribution or the right to access the source code to create improved versions, but not necessarily free of charge.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/libre#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2275  May 27, 2020