The Museum of the American Revolution has an impressive collection of several thousand objects, works of art, manuscripts, and printed works from the period of the American Revolution.  The collection began more than a century ago when a history-minded minister in Valley Forge raised funds from around the nation to purchase the original tent that George Washington used as his command center during the American Revolution.  It was the beginning of a rich and diverse collection that continues to grow.  The collection includes objects that span the scope of the war—from British, French, and American arms used in battles to a soldier's wooden canteen branded "UStates," at a time when the phrase was merely an aspiration.  Find location and link to information on hours, admission and exhibits at https://www.amrevmuseum.org/collections-and-resources

Federal law and many state wiretapping statutes permit recording if one party (including you) to the phone call or conversation consents.  Other states require that all parties to the communication consent.  Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell which law applies to a communication, especially a phone call.  For example, if you and the person you are recording are in different states, then it is difficult to say in advance whether federal or state law applies, and if state law applies which of the two (or more) relevant state laws will control the situation.  Therefore, if you record a phone call with participants in more than one state, it is best to play it safe and get the consent of all parties.  However, when you and the person you are recording are both located in the same state, then you can rely with greater certainty on the law of that state.  In some states, this will mean that you can record with the consent of one party to the communication.  In others, you will still need to get everyone's consent.  For details on the wiretapping laws in the fifteen most populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia, see the State Law: Recording section.  In any event, it never hurts to play it safe and get the consent of all parties to a phone call or conversation that you intend to record.  https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations 

Tilting at windmills means fighting imaginary enemies.  The idiom tilting at windmills is first seen in the English language in the 1640s as “fight with the windmills ”.  The verb tilting was soon substituted for the word fight.  The term is taken from the classic Spanish novel, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.  In the novel, the main character becomes enamored with the idea of chivalry, and spends his time fighting with windmills that he imagines to be giants.  Tilting is the medieval sport of jousting with a lance.  https://grammarist.com/idiom/tilting-at-windmills/ 

The pot calling the kettle black is often used to refer to someone who is guilty of the very same thing in which they accuse another of doing.  The roots of the phrase date back to the Medieval period, when both pots and kettles—commonly used kitchen tools from the era—were made from sturdy cast iron and would become black with soot from the open fire.  The earliest appearance of the phrase came in the year 1620 from Thomas Shelton’s translation of the Spanish novel, Don Quixote (1605).  Though this is one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase, the meaning of the term as we know it today is more closely associated with its use in 1693 when William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania (what was then an American colony), wrote in his Some Fruits of Solitude, “For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality… is for the Pot to call the Kettle black.”  Find history of other idioms at https://www.invaluable.com/blog/popular-english-idioms/ 

An interesting custom involving fish kettles was described in a book called A Tour in England and Scotland, in 1785, by an English Gentleman.  The book was written by a baron named William Thomson, who was also known as Thomas Newte.  It's available on the Google Books site.  Thomson described a social event customarily held by Scottish gentry.  People gathered beside a river in a group and ate freshly caught and cooked fish.  Tents were erected, creating a party-like atmosphere, and the fish were boiled in kettles over a fire.  Today the event might be called a picnic, but at that time it was known as a "kettle of fish."  The idiom fine or pretty kettle of fish means a troublesome or awkward situation.  A different kettle of fish is also a common idiom in some countries.  It's used to describe a person or thing that differs in a notable way from another person or thing.  The idiom is also used to describe something that is different from the situation that has just been discussed.  In this case, the North American term "a whole new ball game" means the same thing. Linda Crampton  Read more and see pictures at https://owlcation.com/humanities/A-Red-Herring-and-a-Fine-Kettle-of-Fish-Idioms-and-History 

Quixotic  adjective  Possessing or acting with the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism and practicality.  adjective  Impulsive.  adjective  Like Don Quixote; romantic to extravagance; absurdly chivalric; apt to be deluded.  https://www.wordnik.com/words/quixotic

Quixotic Fusion is an ensemble of artists that brings together aerial acrobatics, dance, theater, film, and music.  Watch as they perform three transporting dance pieces at TED2012.  https://www.ted.com/talks/quixotic_fusion_dancing_with_light  12:04 

An interviewer once asked me, “If flash fiction were an animal, which animal would it be?”  I considered a chicken because you can peck at the stories.  Perhaps a badger because short shorts sometimes have to be more tenacious than their larger brethren.  I thought a fish was apt because tiny stories often swim together.  I almost decided upon a cat because a cat can fit perfectly in your lap, and even as you pet it and listen to its purrs, it stares at you with a mysterious menace.  In the end, I decided upon a coyote that strangely appears in your backyard and stares into your kitchen window.  You lock eyes, and the world is suddenly a little dangerous, a little less predictable.  Something wild has briefly entered the safety of your domestic space and changed it forever with its feral threat.  Perhaps my favorite metaphor for flash stories, though, comes from flash master Molly Giles:  they are fireflies, flickering in the darkness of a summer night.  The definition of numinous, otherworldly beauty.  Ephemeral and captivating at once.  Of all of the forms of fiction, “flash fiction,” which is typically defined as being a story less than 1,000 words, is the only one described with a metaphor.  As James Thomas, the editor of several seminal anthologies of flash fiction, tells the story, he was talking with his wife about what to call these short stories of under 1,000 words.  He’d been calling them “blasters,” but that moniker didn’t ring with any poetic allure.  Right at that moment, a bolt of lightning struck, and the dark night lit up with a flash.  “Call them flash,” his wife said.  And the name of a genre was born.  Grant Faulkner  https://lithub.com/13-ways-of-looking-at-flash-fiction/ 

JOIN US ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 3 FOR OUR *FIRST* VIRTUAL EVENT:  A DISCUSSION OF HENRY C. BRINTON'S WORK ON THE CASSINI MISSION TO MARS!  Victoria Wyatt is a NASA mechanical engineering intern and a senior at Olin College of Engineering.  During her internship at NASA, she worked on sounding rockets, the same type of technology Henry C. Brinton started his career working with.  Victoria will provide an overview of the Cassini missions, and discuss Brinton's involvement in the project and his legacy.  EVENT WILL BE HELD VIA ZOOM AND THE COST IS $10.00/PERSON.  Register at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/shoppingcart?flowlogging_id=6058453e4bc53&mfid=1601072746774_6058453e4bc53#/checkout/openButton 

Group terms:  crescendo of pianists, volume of librarians, stack of pancakes, plenitude of pumpkins 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2264  September 29, 2020