Industrial homework or
piecework is governed mainly by the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA),
which defines industrial homework (also called "piecework") as the
production by any covered person in a home, apartment, or room in a residential
establishment, of goods for an employer who permits or authorizes such
production. The source of the goods may
be the employer or elsewhere. Covered
homework is subject to the FLSA's minimum wage, overtime, and recordkeeping
requirements. Employers are required to
provide workers with handbooks to record time, expenses, and pay
information. Piece-rate pay is generally
subject to income taxes on employees.
Benefits are generally not required and vary by employer. The performance of certain types of
industrial homework is prohibited under the FLSA unless the employer has
obtained prior certification from the Department of Labor. Restrictions apply in the manufacture of
knitted outerwear, gloves and mittens, buttons and buckles, handkerchiefs,
embroideries, and jewelry, if there are no safety and health hazards. The manufacture of women's apparel (and
jewelry under hazardous conditions) is generally prohibited. Piece-rate workers perform jobs such as
stuffing envelopes, assembling crafts, and more. Homeworker employees must be paid the Federal
minimum wage. This rate must be met
regardless of whether the worker is paid by time, piece, job, incentive, or any
other basis. The cost of tools, tool
repair, or other similar requirements, may not be borne by the worker where
such cost would reduce the wages paid below the required minimum wage or in any
way reduce wages due for overtime hours.
https://definitions.uslegal.com/i/industrial-homework-or-piecework/
During
the Great Depression, which began in 1929 and lasted approximately a decade,
shantytowns appeared across the U.S. as unemployed people were evicted from
their homes. As the Depression worsened
in the 1930s, causing severe hardships for millions of Americans, many looked
to the federal government for assistance.
When the government failed to provide relief, President Herbert Hoover
(1874-1964) was blamed for the intolerable economic and social conditions, and
the shantytowns that cropped up across the nation, primarily on the outskirts
of major cities, became known as Hoovervilles.
Democratic National Committee publicity director and longtime newspaper
reporter Charles Michelson (1868-1948) is credited with coining the term, which
first appeared in print in 1930.
Hooverville shanties were constructed of cardboard, tar paper, glass,
lumber, tin and whatever other materials people could salvage. Unemployed masons used cast-off stone and
bricks and in some cases built structures that stood 20 feet high. Most shanties, however, were distinctly less
glamorous: Cardboard-box homes did not
last long, and most dwellings were in a constant state of being rebuilt. Some homes were not buildings at all, but
deep holes dug in the ground with makeshift roofs laid over them to keep out
inclement weather. Some of the homeless
found shelter inside empty conduits and water mains. Writer John Steinbeck (1902-68) featured a
family who lived in a California Hooverville and sought farm work in his Pulitzer
Prize-winning novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” which was first published in
1939. https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression/hoovervilles
“Heavens to Betsy,” an
exclamation of surprise, shock, or fear, can be traced to 19th-century
America. But “Betsy” herself remains
stubbornly anonymous. The Oxford English Dictionary comments: “The origin of the exclamation Heavens to Betsy is unknown.” The earliest published reference found so
far, according to the OED, comes from an
1857 issue of Ballou’s Dollar Monthly Magazine: “ ‘Heavens to
Betsy!’ he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, ‘I’ve cut my head off!’
” Fred Shapiro, editor of the Yale Dictionary of Quotations, found this hyphenated
example in an an 1878 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine: “Heavens-to-Betsy! You don’t think I ever see a copper o’ her
cash, do ye?” And the OED has this one from a short-story
collection by Rose Terry Cooke, Huckleberries Gathered From New
England Hills (1892):
“’Heavens to Betsey!’ gasped Josiah.”
(“Betsy,” as you can see, is spelled there with a second “e.”) The OED says
the word “heaven,” used chiefly in the plural, has appeared since the 1500s in
“exclamations expressing surprise, horror, excitement, etc.” It’s frequently accompanied by an
intensifying adjective, Oxford adds,
as in “good heavens,” “gracious heavens,” “great heavens,” “merciful heavens,”
and so on. In later use, the dictionary
says, “extended forms” have included “Heaven and earth,” “Heavens above,”
“Heavens alive,” and “Heavens to Betsy,” which it says originated and is
chiefly heard in the US. https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/10/heavens-to-betsy.html
Body
and Soul is a
1925 silent film about the abuse of religious faith and how the veneration of
minster over family can lead to tragedy.
It’s the story of Sister Martha Jane (Mercedes Gilbert), a devout
churchgoer whose hard work has resulted in a nice nest egg. She keeps her money in the family bible,
reasoning that no one would be so evil as to steal money from it. Martha dotes on her only child, a daughter
named Isabelle. Isabelle is played by
Julia Theresa Russell, a schoolteacher with no previous acting experience. Of course, the main draw of the picture is
Paul Robeson, who was enjoying major success as a stage star at the time Body
and Soul was released. Casting
Robeson in dual roles cleverly allowed him to chew scenery as the villain and
also be the sympathetic sweetheart. The
trick was used again and again in Hollywood films, most notably by Mary
Pickford in Stella Maris. It allowed actors to play their usual
typecast character while still dabbling in riskier roles or it let them show
off their range and skill with makeup, as was the case with Lon Chaney in Shadows. In Robeson’s case, it allows him to play both
the demonic minister and Sylvester the sweetheart, displaying his skills in two
extreme roles. Robeson nearly hit the
Hollywood mainstream after Body and Soul when he was invited
to join Cecil B. DeMille’s company and star in a picture. Robeson respected DeMille and agreed to the
offer but the movie never ended up being made.
By then, sound was on the horizon and soon movie audiences would be able
to enjoy the same beautiful voice that had enchanted devotees of the
stage. Body and Soul has
been released on DVD and
Bluray as part of the Pioneers of African-American Cinema box
set with a score by DJ
Spooky. It is also available on Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist set from the Criterion
Collection, which includes a score by
Wycliffe Gordon and a commentary by Pearl Bowser. Link to COOKING WITH THE (SILENT) STARS: A MODERN LOOK
AT PHOTOPLAY’S 1929 COOK BOOK at https://moviessilently.com/2017/02/26/body-and-soul-1925-a-silent-film-review/ In order to evade the censors, Body and
Soul’s ending was changed to an optimistic one.
Lee Richmond, pitcher for the Worcester Worcesters, pitched a perfect game against the Cleveland Blues by retiring all 27 batters he faced on Saturday,
June 12, 1880. This event took place in
the Worcester
Agricultural Fairgrounds in Worcester, Massachusetts. The game lasted 1 hour and 26 minutes, with a
seven-minute delay due to rain in the seventh inning. This was the first
ever perfect game in Major League Baseball history, and it was the second ever no-hitter in league
history (the first being in 1876). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Richmond%27s_perfect_game
Three-ingredient
cookies: Butter, Chocolate-Hazelnut and
Peanut Butter https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/dining/three-ingredient-cookies-coronavirus.html
The Queens Museum,
formerly the Queens Museum of Art,
is an art
museum and
educational center located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens in New
York City. The museum was founded in 1972, and has among
its permanent exhibitions, the Panorama of the City of New York, a
room-sized scale model of the five boroughs originally built for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and repeatedly updated since
then. It also has a large archive of
artifacts from both World's Fairs, a selection of which is on display. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Museum As of this writing in May 2020, the Queens Museum is closed due to
COVID-19. Link to online exhibits and
more at https://queensmuseum.org/ Contact information: T 718
592 9700, F 718 592 5778, E info@queensmuseum.org
A perfectly preserved
ancient Roman mosaic floor has been discovered near the northern Italian city
of Verona. Archaeologists were
astonished by the find as it came almost a century after the remains of a villa,
believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above
the town of Negrar di Valpolicella.
After the discovery in 1922, the site was mostly left abandoned until a
team from the Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona
resumed digging in the summer of 2019.
The team returned to the site in October and again in February, 2020
before the excavation was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic. The mosaic was found a few metres beneath a
row of vines a week after work got going again.
Angela Giuffrida
Christo Vladimirov Javacheff, who was known for his monumental
environmental artworks with his late wife, Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon,
has died. He was 84 years old. Together, known simply as Christo and
Jeanne-Claude, they wrapped iconic landmarks in fabric, such as the Pont Neuf
in Paris in 1985 and the Reichstag in Berlin in 1995; and mounted thousands of
orange gates in Central Park, redolent of Japan's sacred torii gates, in 2005. Christo
passed away May 31, 2020 at his home in New York. He is survived by his son, Cyril Christo, a
photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist. Jacqui Palumbo https://www.cnn.com/style/article/christo-artist-dead/index.html
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2277 June 1,
2020
No comments:
Post a Comment