Theodore Chaikin Sorensen (1928-2010) was an American lawyer, writer, and presidential adviser.  He was a speechwriter for President John F. Kennedy, as well as one of his closest advisers.  President Kennedy once called him his "intellectual blood bank".  Sorensen was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the son of Christian A. Sorensen (1890-1959), who served as Nebraska attorney general (1929–33), and Annis (Chaikin) Sorensen.  He graduated from Lincoln High School during 1945.  He earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and attended University of Nebraska College of Law, graduating first in his class.  During January 1953, the 24-year-old Sorensen became the new Senator John F. Kennedy's chief legislative aide.  He wrote many of Kennedy's articles and speeches.  In his 2008 autobiography Counselor:  A Life at the Edge of History, Sorensen said he wrote "a first draft of most of the chapters" of John F. Kennedy's 1956 book Profiles in Courage and "helped choose the words of many of its sentences.  Sorensen was President Kennedy's special counsel, adviser, and primary speechwriter, the role for which he is remembered best.  He helped draft the inaugural address in which Kennedy said famously, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."  Although Sorensen played an important part in the composition of the inaugural address, "the speech and its famous turn of phrase that everyone remembers was," Sorensen has stated (counter to what the majority of authors, journalists, and other media sources have claimed), "written by Kennedy himself."  In his 2008 memoir, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, Sorensen claimed, "The truth is that I simply don't remember where the line came from."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Sorensen 

Published in 1894, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book proved to be a hit with young and old alike.  The Jungle Book’s stories of a human boy named Mowgli raised by animals in the wild made for riveting reading.  In these tales, the animals proved to be both Mowgli’s allies and adversaries.  Baloo the bear, Bagheera the panther and Shere Khan the tiger have all become famous characters in children’s literature.  They even appeared in Kipling’s sequel, The Second Jungle Book, which debuted in 1895.  Kipling wrote The Jungle Book while living in the United States.  Despite spending years in India, he chose to set his stories in the Seonee jungle (now known as Seoni), an area he’d never visited.  Wendy Mead  https://www.biography.com/news/the-jungle-book-rudyard-kipling-facts  See extensive biography and link to poems at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/rudyard-kipling 

There’s no telling if Marlborough pie truly originated in Marlborough, Massachusetts, or even Marlborough, England.  But what is certain is that if you come across a slice, find a fork and dig in.  This historic pie is rarely sold at the store today, but it appeared on the American table with the early English settlers.  Mostly, the invention of Marlborough pie is credited to the necessity of using up apples nearing spoilage.  A single-crust pie with a custard filling, Marlborough pie was initially called Marlborough pudding, in the English manner.  The first recipe on record is as old as 1660, appearing in an English cookbook called The Accomplisht Cook.  It was a whopper, calling for the yolks of 24 eggs, beaten with cinnamon, sugar, and butter, to which minced apples and citron were added.  Find out where to try Marlborough pie and link to a video of the recipe at https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/marlborough-pie?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=b2d3a8e029-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-b2d3a8e029-71793902&mc_cid=b2d3a8e029&mc_eid=aef0869a63 

Lens is a noun.  A lens is a curved piece of glass for viewing, and often magnifying, objects.  The plural form of lens is lenses.  Lenses are an important part of many devices, like cameras, binoculars, microscopes, eyeglasses, and telescopes.  Eyes themselves also contain a type of lens, although it is not made of glass.  Lens is sometimes used figuratively, as a synonym of perspective or viewpoint.  Lense is a misspelling of lens.  It rarely appears in edited writing and should be avoided across the board.  https://writingexplained.org/lens-or-lense

 The final collection of early stories from the late Terry Pratchett, written while the Discworld creator was a young reporter, will be published in September 2020.  The tales in The Time-travelling Caveman, many of them never released in book form before, range from a steam-powered rocket’s flight to Mars to a Welsh shepherd’s discovery of the resting place of King Arthur.  “Bedwyr was the handsomest of all the shepherds, and his dog, Bedwetter, the finest sheepdog in all Wales,” writes the young Pratchett, with typical flourish.  The stories appeared in the Bucks Free Press and Western Daily Press in the 60s and early 70s.  Pratchett left school at 17, in 1965, to work at the Bucks Free Press, writing a weekly Children’s Circle story column as part of his new job.  He published his first novel, The Carpet People, in 1971, when he was only 23.  Editions of the newspapers containing the stories sell for hundreds of pounds online.  Dragons at Crumbling Castle, a first collection of the stories, was published in 2014.  Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/07/terry-prachett-the-time-travelling-caveman-published-september 

Fernet con coca ("Fernet and Coke"), also known as fernando, its diminutive fernandito or several other nicknames, is a long drink consisting of the Italian amaro liqueur fernet and cola, served on ice.  Although typically made with Fernet-Branca and Coca-Cola, several amaro brands have appeared since its popularization, as well as ready-to-drink versions.  The cocktail first became popular among the youth of college town Córdoba, Argentina, in the 1980s and—in part due to an advertising campaign led by Fratelli Branca—its consumption grew in popularity during the following decades to become widespread throughout the country, surpassed only by that of beer and wine.  It is now considered a cultural icon of Argentina and is especially associated with its home province of Córdoba, where the drink is most consumed.  The popularity of fernet con coca is such that Argentina currently consumes more than 75% of all fernet produced globally.  The drink can also be found in some of its bordering countries, such as Uruguay and Bolivia.  In 2020, fernet con coca became the first Argentine drink to be recognized as an IBA official cocktail, listed under the name "fernandito" in the "new era drinks" category.  Fernet was introduced to Argentina by Italians during the great European immigration wave to the country of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period in Argentine history characterized by vast economic growth and rapid social change.  The popularity of fernet in Argentina is representative of the lasting influence Italian immigrants had in the broader consumer tastes and culture of the country.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernet_con_coca 

The Netherlands is the globe’s number two exporter of food as measured by value, second only to the United States, which has 270 times its landmass.  The Dutch have created the most advanced area in the world for controlled environment agriculture and have become world leaders in agricultural innovation.  However, there are also consequences this growing method brings with it, like light pollution or growing crops out of season and ship them around the world, so people can eat strawberries year-round.   Ordinances have been developed in which up to 98% of the electric lighting must be contained within a greenhouse facility by using blackout screens and curtains along the sides and roofs.

© 2010 - 2019 | TOM HEGEN  See pictures of “The Greenhouse Series” at http://tomhegen.de/fotodesign/the-greenhouse-series/ 

In Italian, the letter combination of CH is pronounced as a hard K (chianti = kee-ahn-tee, chiuso = kee-oo-soh, Pinocchio = pin-oh-kee-oh), and SCH is simply S+K (Schiaparelli = skappa-relli).  CI and CE are pronounced as “CH” (Ciao = chow, cello = chello, Montepulciano = Mon-tay-pull-chee-ahno, cent’anni = chent-ahnee), but SCH is SK.  Hence, “bruschetta” is pronounced “broo-sketta”.  Michael Bauer  https://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2008/07/07/how-do-you-pronounce-bruschetta/ 

Balsamic Bruschetta by Kathy Bias  Simple appetizer--the balsamic vinegar gives it a little kick.  Best if the mixture has 1 or 2 hours to blend flavors before serving.  Link to other bruschetta recipes at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/54165/balsamic-bruschetta/

William Kirk English (January 27, 1929–July 26, 2020) was an American computer engineer who contributed to the development of the computer mouse while working for Douglas Engelbart at SRI International's Augmentation Research Center.  He would later work for Xerox PARC and Sun Microsystems.  William, or Bill as he was known, attended a boarding school in Arizona and then studied electrical engineering at the University of Kentucky.  He served in the US Navy until the late 1950s, including postings in northern California and Japan.   English joined SRI in the 1960s to work on magnetic drives, and built one of the first all-magnetic arithmetic units with Hewitt Crane.  In 1964, he was the first person to join Douglas Engelbart's lab, the Augmentation Research Center.  He and Douglas Engelbart share credit for creating the first computer mouse in 1963; English built the initial prototype, and was its first user, based on Engelbart's notes.   English led a 1965 project, sponsored by NASA, which evaluated the best way to select a point on a computer display; the mouse was the winner.  English was also instrumental at The Mother of All Demos in 1968, which showcased the mouse and other technologies developed as part of their NLS (oN-Line System).  In particular, English figured out how to connect a terminal in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium to the host computer at SRI, and also transmitted audio and video between the locations.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_English_(computer_engineer) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2237  August 3, 2020