Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without. --  Abraham Cowley  *  Gustave Flaubert wrote the short piece "Bibliomania" in 1836, when he was 14 years of age, and it became his first published work in 1837 when it appeared in the magazine Le Colibri.  The story is a fictionalized version of the true story of Don Vicente, a Spanish monk, "Giacomo” the bookseller.  *  Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.  --  Anatole France.  *  M. Boulard filled his house with 600,000 books, and when it began to collapse, bought more houses (six in all) filling them all with books.  A Passion for Books by Harold Rabinowitz and Rob Kaplan  

Near the end of the 19th century, New Yorkers out for a drink partook in one of the more unusual rituals in the annals of hospitality.  When they ordered an ale or whisky, the waiter or bartender would bring it out with a sandwich.  Generally speaking, the sandwich was not edible.  It was “an old desiccated ruin of dust-laden bread and mummified ham or cheese,” wrote the playwright Eugene O’Neill.  Other times it was made of rubber.  Bar staff would commonly take the sandwich back seconds after it had arrived, pair it with the next beverage order, and whisk it over to another patron’s table.  Some sandwiches were kept in circulation for a week or more.  Bar owners insisted on this bizarre charade to avoid breaking the law—specifically, the excise law of 1896, which restricted how and when drinks could be served in New York State.  The so-called Raines Law was a combination of good intentions, unstated prejudices, and unforeseen consequences, among them the comically unsavory Raines sandwich.  Darrell Hartman  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/raines-sandwich?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=57b4d63c47-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-57b4d63c47-71793902&mc_cid=57b4d63c47&mc_eid=aef0869a63

The United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, with the consent of the United Kingdom, as required by the Quebec Agreement.  The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the only uses of nuclear weapons in armed conflict.  In the final year of World War II, the Allies prepared for a costly invasion of the Japanese mainland.  This undertaking was preceded by a conventional and firebombing campaign which devastated 67 Japanese cities.  The war in Europe had concluded when Germany signed its instrument of surrender on May 8, 1945, and the Allies turned their full attention to the Pacific theater.  The Allies called for the unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945, the alternative being "prompt and utter destruction." Japan ignored the ultimatum and the war continued.  By August 1945, the Allies' Manhattan Project had produced two types of atomic bombs, and the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was equipped with the specialized Silverplate version of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that could deliver them from Tinian in the Mariana Islands.  The Allies issued orders for atomic bombs to be used on four Japanese cities on July 25.  On August 6, one of the modified B-29s dropped a uranium gun-type bomb ("Little Boy") on Hiroshima.  Another B-29 dropped a plutonium implosion bomb ("Fat Man") on Nagasaki three days later.  The bombs immediately devastated their targets.  Over the next two to four months, the acute effects of the atomic bombings killed between 90,000 and 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 39,000 and 80,000 people in Nagasaki; roughly half of the deaths in each city occurred on the first day.  Large numbers of people continued to die for months afterward from the effects of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness and malnutrition.  In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizable military garrison.  Japan surrendered to the Allies on August 15, six days after the Soviet Union's declaration of war and the bombing of Nagasaki.  The Japanese government signed the instrument of surrender on September 2 in Tokyo Bay, which effectively ended World War II.  The Target Committee nominated five targets:  Kokura (now Kitakyushu), the site of one of Japan's largest munitions plants; Hiroshima, an embarkation port and industrial center that was the site of a major military headquarters; Yokohama, an urban center for aircraft manufacture, machine tools, docks, electrical equipment and oil refineries; Niigata, a port with industrial facilities including steel and aluminum plants and an oil refinery; and Kyoto, a major industrial center.  Edwin O. Reischauer, a Japan expert for the U.S. Army Intelligence Service, was incorrectly said to have prevented the bombing of Kyoto.  In his autobiography, Reischauer specifically refuted this claim:  . . . the only person deserving credit for saving Kyoto from destruction is Henry L. Stimson, the Secretary of War at the time, who had known and admired Kyoto ever since his honeymoon there several decades earlier.  On May 30, Stimson asked Groves to remove Kyoto from the target list due to its historical, religious and cultural significance, but Groves pointed to its military and industrial significance.  Stimson then approached President Harry S. Truman about the matter.  Truman agreed with Stimson, and Kyoto was temporarily removed from the target list.  Groves attempted to restore Kyoto to the target list in July, but Stimson remained adamant.  On July 25, Nagasaki was put on the target list in place of Kyoto.  It was a major military port, one of Japan's largest shipbuilding and repair centers, and an important producer of naval ordnance.  Read much more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki 

Japanese has relatively easy pronunciation rules.  Sounds are created by combining the five standard vowel sounds, a, i, u, e and o, with one of the 19 consonant sounds (eg ka, ki, ku, ke, ko).  These sounds are always pronounced in the same way and so, once learned, are easy to remember and use.  This headline will help you to remember the vowel sounds:

Man	hits	two	extra	shots!
a	I	u	e	o

Unlike English, there is no stress accent; in other words, every syllable has equal stress.  For example, the city name Hiroshima should be pronounced Hi-ro-shi-ma and not Hi-RO-shi-ma or Hi-ro-SHI-ma.  To make your accent sound more authentic, try not to stress parts of words as you do in English; instead give equal stress to each syllable.  Some Japanese words using identical sounds are distinguished in pronunciation through use of high and low pitch.  The word hashi can mean either 'bridge' or 'chopsticks'.  Hàshi means 'chopsticks' and hashì means 'bridge' (the accent above the syllable shows it has high pitch).  This pitch is neither as strong nor as complex as tonal languages such as Chinese.  https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/feb/06/learn-japanese-pronunciation-guide 

Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote).  In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vote is called active suffrage, as distinct from passive suffrage, which is the right to stand for election.  The combination of active and passive suffrage is sometimes called full suffrage.  Suffrage is often conceived in terms of elections for representatives.  However, suffrage applies equally to referenda and initiatives.  Suffrage describes not only the legal right to vote, but also the practical question of whether a question will be put to a vote.  The utility of suffrage is reduced when important questions are decided unilaterally without extensive, conscientious, full disclosure and public review.  In most democracies, eligible voters can vote in elections of representatives.  Voting on issues by referendum may also be available.  For example, in Switzerland this is permitted at all levels of government.  In the United States, some states such as California and Washington have exercised their shared sovereignty to offer citizens the opportunity to write, propose, and vote on referendums and initiatives; other states and the federal government have not.  Referendums in the United Kingdom are rare.  Suffrage is granted to qualifying citizens once they have reached the voting age.  What constitutes a qualifying citizen depends on the government's decision. Resident non-citizens can vote in some countries, which may be restricted to citizens of closely linked countries (e.g., Commonwealth citizens and European Union citizens) or to certain offices or questions.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffrage 

100 Years Later:  How Women Got the Right to Vote Girl Scout Gold Award Suffrage Centennial Event   On August 18, Emma Skog, local South County High School student and Girl Scout, will host her Gold Award project called “100 Years Later:  How Women Got the Right to Vote.”  For her project, she developed children’s educational materials for the new Lucy Burns Museum in Lorton Virginia.  Many people may not realize that women suffragists were imprisoned--simply for peacefully protesting.  When the public gained knowledge of how harshly these brave women were treated there, more people began to empathize with the suffragists, leading to a turning point in history.  On Tuesday, August 18, 2020 at 2:00 OR 7:00 pm, she will host a 30-45 minute long virtual session.  Link to more information, videos, hours, and location of the Lucy Burns Museum at https://www.workhousearts.org/lucyburnsmuseum/ 

It's early August, which means the annual Perseid meteor shower is active, and it's about ready to peak.  In 2020, the Perseids are expected to peak on Aug. 11 and 12, when the moon should be a little less than half full.  The popularity of the shower is a combination of the fact that it's one of the strongest, with up to 100 visible meteors per hour on average, and it's coinciding with warm summer nights in the northern hemisphere.  The waning moon is likely to wash out many otherwise visible meteors, but that still leaves plenty that should be easy to see if you do a little planning.  It can take about 20 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the dark, so be sure to be patient.  It doesn't really matter where in the sky you look, so long as you have a broad view.  That said, the Perseids will appear to radiate out from the constellation of Perseus, the Hero.  Eric Mack  https://www.cnet.com/how-to/the-2020-perseid-meteor-shower-peaks-this-week-how-to-watch-the-show/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2240  August 10, 2020