Shea butter is fat that’s extracted from the nuts of the shea tree.  It’s solid at warm temperatures and has an off-white or ivory color.  Shea trees are native to West Africa, and most shea butter still comes from that region.  Shea butter has been used as a cosmetic ingredient for centuries.  Its high concentration of vitamins and fatty acids—combined with its easy-to-spread consistency—make it a great product for smoothing, soothing, and conditioning your skin.  Find 22 reasons to use shea butter and how to use it at https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/what-is-shea-butter

“Skedaddle” first appeared in written accounts of battles in the American Civil War used to mean “to retreat quickly; to flee” (“As soon as the rebs saw our red breeches … coming through the woods they skedaddled,” 1862).  In military use there were definite overtones of cowardice under fire in “skedaddle,” but as the word quickly percolated into civilian usage, it came to mean simply “to leave quickly” or “to run away.”  There are a number of theories about the origin of “skedaddle,” but no definite answer to the puzzle.  The relatively sudden appearance of “skedaddle” as a fully-formed word, with no known ancestors in English, tends to argue for its importation from another language.  There are theories that attempt to trace “skedaddle” to various Swedish or Danish words but fail on lack of evidence.  It is more probable that “skedaddle” is rooted in the Irish word “sgedadol,” meaning “scattered,” or the Scots word “”skiddle,” meaning “to spill or scatter.”  http://www.word-detective.com/2009/06/skedaddle/

Before it became the sweet summertime treat it is today, the watermelon was one foul, functional fruit.  In fact, the wild watermelons of ancient times would hardly be recognizable to even the most seasoned Citrullus connoisseurs of today.  Firm, seedy, and pale green on the inside, they were characterized by their bland or bitter taste.  But despite their rather unpalatable flesh, they were evidently important fruits to keep around.  In fact, they were cultivated for hundreds of years before they began to taste like something worth plating.  But if not a flavorful fruit, what were these watermelons good for?  According to the work of Harry S. Paris, a horticulturalist at the Agricultural Research Organization in Israel, ancient Egyptians likely harvested the round fruit for its water.  Wild or “spontaneous” plants, Paris writes, can be sources of clean water during the long, dry season, and can provide food for livestock and animals.  Abbey Perreault   https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/where-are-watermelons-from?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=fdb9f41ad8-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_27&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-fdb9f41ad8-71793902&mc_cid=fdb9f41ad8&mc_eid=aef0869a63

Israeli couscous may be Israeli, but it’s definitely not couscous.  Couscous is ground semolina (crucially without being mixed with either egg or water) rubbed together with wet hands until tiny granules form and are then dried.  Israeli couscous, on the other hand, is tiny balls (about the size of larger peppercorns) of true pasta made from both wheat flour and semolina then toasted.  Asparagus is a natural mate to Israeli couscous.  Its brightness and astringency pairs well with the earthiness of the pasta.  Tomato confit completes the picture by bringing sweetness, acidity, and color to the dish.  Excerpted from Modern Kosher by Michael Aaron Gardiner. Copyright 2020 Rizzoli New York.   https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/israeli-couscous-with-asparagus-and-tomato-confit  serves 4

Cinéma vérité ('truthful cinema') is a style of documentary filmmaking, invented by Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about Kino-Pravda.  It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality.  Many film directors of the 1960s and later adopted use of the handheld camera, techniques and cinéma vérité styles for their fiction films based on screenplays and actors.  They often had actors using improvisation to get a more spontaneous quality in their talks and action.  Influential examples include director John Cassavetes, who broke ground with his film Faces.  The techniques (if not always the spirit) of cinéma vérité can also be seen in fiction films from The Blair Witch Project to Saving Private Ryan.  Cinéma vérité was also readily adapted to use in TV fiction programs, such as Homicide: Life on the Street, NYPD Blue, both the UK and American versions of The Office, Parks & Recreation and Modern Family.  It has also been the subject ripe for parodies and spoofs such as the acclaimed mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap and Emmy-nominated TV series Documentary Now (the latter paying homage to the style of such CV classics as Grey Gardens and The War Room).  See comparisons of cinéma vérité to observational cinema and direct cinema at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cin%C3%A9ma_v%C3%A9rit%C3%A9

The Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) program, part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is a growing consortium of 44 sites established in 1999 out of an initiative developed by Dr. Wanda Corn, a professor of art history at Stanford University, that acknowledged that artists’ homes and studios were unique museums, not only housing collections of artists’ works but also exploring artists’ relationships with the built environment—and preserving that built environment.  See Inside the Homes and Studios of 13 American Artists by Stefanie Waldek--a new book guides readers through the historic spaces of artists from Edward Hopper to Jackson Pollock at https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/inside-homes-studios-american-artists  Enjoy beautiful pictures.  Thank you, Muse reader!

Thanks to its odd appearance and elusive history, the Mexican sour gherkin is always confused with a cucumber or pickled cucumber.  To confuse matters even further, it is also referred to as “cucamelon” or “mouse melon”.  And did you know:  A commercial London skyscraper is also nicknamed gherkin due to its resemblance to the fruit?  But we need to say it upfront:  The Mexican sour gherkin is NOT a cucumber.  Yes, they both belong to the same gourd family “Cucurbitaceae” and the gherkin is often called a “miniature cucumber” but they are from different cultivar groups.  Only one species i.e. Cucumis Sativus is considered a cucumber, but the Mexican sour gherkin which is 1-3 inches in size belongs to Melothria, another genus entirely.  So it is not an actual cucumber, but an honorary one.  https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/what-is-a-gherkin-is-it-different-from-a-pickled-cucumber-1620893

Writing better user stories with Gherkin and Cucumber by Michael Williams  https://medium.com/@mvwi/story-writing-with-gherkin-and-cucumber-1878124c284c

The public library is no stranger to crisis and has often flourished in times of wider emergency.  The idea of providing tax-based local libraries was born during the first major crisis of industrial capitalism, against the backdrop of Chartist agitation.  Whereas some European countries got bourgeois revolutions (in 1848), Britain got public libraries; the Public Libraries Act, which allowed local authorities to establish free public libraries, arrived on the statute book in 1850.  In 1850, in looking forward to the Great Exhibition scheduled for the following year, the Art Journal warned that Britain had yielded the ‘palm of excellence’ to French, German and Bohemian manufacturers in respect of goods that contained a critical artistic-design element.  Library promoters argued that increased exposure to art and design through the provision of art books and artefacts in attached museums would improve the quality of manufacturers because taste would be universally elevated and workers’ skills improved.  While acknowledging the economic power of art, Edward Edwards, the country’s first public librarian, believed libraries could help relieve the alienating, dehumanising effect of industrialisation.  He suggested that giving artisans access to books would not only ‘solace the intervals of toil’ but also ‘put new meaning in the toil, and new life in the toiler’.  Linked to this was the idea that a library offered sanctuary from an urbanising society in which the pace and stresses of life were rapidly increasing.  In 1914, many librarians went to war, and there were other interruptions to service, but reading for light relief as well as about the causes of the conflict and other international matters increased in popularity.  Technical and commercial departments were inaugurated in the context of the reconstruction effort, which was partly aimed at guarding against the spread of revolutionary ideas.  Reconstruction also gave rise to reformed legislation (in 1919), which allowed county councils to open libraries, thereby giving library access to millions in rural areas for the first time.  During the Great Depression of the 1930s, libraries offered distraction from the misery of daily life.  In the Second World War, 50 libraries were destroyed or severely damaged.  Those that survived the bombing were blacked out, but the opening hours of many were lengthened and a massive boom in reading was accommodated, as people sought diversion and ways to maintain morale.  Alistair Black  https://www.apollo-magazine.com/public-libraries-in-times-of-crisis-covid-pandemic/?utm_source=editorial&utm_medium=LJTW&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=articles

THOUGHT FOR JULY 20  The most valuable possession you can own is an open heart.  The most powerful weapon you can be is an instrument of peace. - Carlos Santana, musician (b. 20 Jul 1947)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2231  July 20, 2020