The Institute for Catalan Studies, also known by the acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture".  It is based in Barcelona, Spain.  Enric Prat de la Riba, who was to become the first President of the Commonwealth of Catalonia, signed the founding document of the Institute, as president of the Provincial Deputation of Barcelona on June 17, 1907.  The IEC is one of a number of cultural and scientific institutions created at that time to lend greater prestige to the Catalan language and culture; others include the Biblioteca de Catalunya (Library of Catalonia), the Escola Industrial (Industrial School), the Hiking Club of Catalonia, the Escola Superior de Belles Arts (Higher School of Fine Arts) and the Escola del Treball (School of Labour), el Centre de Recerca Matemàtica.  Prat de la Riba also founded the Escola de l'Administració Local (School of Local Administration), in order to create a body of Catalan civil servants for the regional government.  The IEC was admitted to the Union Académique Internationale in 1922, shortly after the establishment of the latter.  During the dictatorship of Franco, along with many other Catalan cultural institutions, the Institut lived a semiclandestine existence, and was not officially restored to its previous status in the field of language standardisation until a 1991 bill was passed by the (also restored) Catalan Parliament.  The IEC inspired the creation of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans in Occitania.  Occitania is an area in southern France where Occitan (often called Provençal) has historically been spoken.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Catalan_Studies  See also https://guides.library.illinois.edu/c.php?g=694872&p=4925818

William Wordsworth was not merely the most admired English poet of the 19th century:  his poetry made many things happen.  Locally, the ecology and economy of the vale of Grasmere, and the wider Lake District, were changed as a result of his canonization.  Nationally, he made new claims for the power of poetry that shaped the minds of the most influential thinkers in Victorian Britain.  Globally, his influence extended to John Muir’s passion for the preservation of Yosemite.  Adapted from Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World by Jonathan Bate, published by Yale University Press.  Copyright © 2020 Yale University Press.  Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press.  Read extensive article at https://lithub.com/on-the-radical-afterlives-of-william-wordsworth/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

hyponym  (HY-puh-nim) noun  A more specific term in a general class.  For example, “purple” is a hyponym of “color”.  From Greek hypo- (under) + -nym (name).  Earliest documented use:  1963.

swashbuckle  (SWASH-buhkl)  verb intr.:  To swagger, bluster, behave recklessly, etc.  Back-formation from swashbuckler (one who makes a noise by striking a sword on a shield), from swash (of imitative origin) + buckler (a small round shield), from boucle (a boss on a shield), from Latin buccula, diminutive of bucca (cheek).  Earliest documented use:  1897.  Swashbuckler is from 1560.

A hypostyle is a room with many rows of columns or pillars that support a flat ceiling or roof.  In the ancient world, hypostyles were used in architecture in places like Egypt, Persia, India and other parts of the Near and Middle East.  The word 'hypostyle' comes from the Greek language and it means 'beneath pillars.'  Hypostyle halls made for impressive interior spaces but often also dark ones, because all those columns blocked light's ability to penetrate.  Hypostyle halls sometimes held heavy symbolism.  Early builders often created hypostyles for rooms that led to inner sanctuaries, and ceremonial processions could take place that used the geometry of the columns to great advantage.  But these halls also needed the columns simply to support heavy flat ceilings.  Sometimes, to allow at least a little light in, the columns in the middle of the hypostyle were taller and the ceilings along the sides were lower.  This created wall areas above the central rows of columns that had rows of small clerestory windows added to allow light into the hall's middle.  An example of this is the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, built some time between 1290 and 1224 BC.  See illustrations at https://study.com/academy/lesson/hypostyle-definition-architecture.html

There are taxidermists driving taxis, there are bears picnicking on cub scouts.  It can mean only one thing:  the return of Far Side creator Gary Larson, publishing his first new work in 25 years.  Larson retired The Far Side, which was syndicated in almost 2,000 daily papers around the world for 15 years, in 1995, saying at the time that he feared that “if I continue for many more years my work will begin to suffer or at the very least ease into the Graveyard of Mediocre Cartoons”.  After promising a “new online era” last September with the launch of an online archive, on July 8, 2020 he shared three new Far Side strips, alongside a personal essay explaining why he’d come out of retirement.  Announcing his retirement in 1995 “felt good”, he said, as he had enjoyed not having to meet daily deadlines, and “after moving on to other interests, drawing just wasn’t on my to-do list”.  Lo and behold, within moments, I was having fun drawing again.  I was stunned at all the tools the thing offered, all the creative potential it contained.  I simply had no idea how far these things had evolved,” he wrote.  “Perhaps fittingly, the first thing I drew was a caveman.”  Learning how to draw digitally had been “a bit of learning curve”.  He wrote: “I hail from a world of pen and ink, and suddenly I was feeling like I was sitting at the controls of a 747.  But as overwhelmed as I was, there was still something familiar there--a sense of adventure.  That had always been at the core of what I enjoyed most when I was drawing The Far Side, that sense of exploring, reaching for something, taking some risks, sometimes hitting a home run and sometimes coming up with ‘Cow tools’.  (Let’s not get into that.)”  For now, Larson said, he is having fun, “exploring, experimenting, and trying stuff”--although the new venture is not, he stressed, a resurrection of his daily deadlines.  “So here goes.  I’ve got my coffee, I’ve got this cool gizmo, and I’ve got no deadlines.  And--to borrow from Sherlock Holmes--the game is afoot,” he wrote.  Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/09/gary-larson-first-new-far-side-cartoons-25-years

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2297  July 10, 2020