According to legend, a sister at the cloistered convent of Santa Rosa in Conca dei Marini, on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, accidentally invented one of the country’s most iconic pastries some 400 years ago.  She mixed together semolina flour and ricotta cheese.  Some accounts say she was trying to mold it into the shape of a monk’s hood, fallen against his back.  Others say her intention was to make biancomangiare (a Sicilian almond pudding), but in a fit of inspiration, she spread the sweet filling between lard-covered, sugar-coated dough.  However the story goes, it ends with the birth of the layered, sweet ricotta–filled pastry known as sfogliatella.  Santa Rosa’s most influential semolina-slinging nun allegedly passed the recipe to a relative from behind the convent walls.  A century after her revelation, a pastry chef from Naples acquired the recipe and began offering the pastries in his shop.  Sfogliatelle quickly became fashionable in neighboring bakeries.  Pastry chefs simply inverted the direction of the dough folds to resemble a then-trendy seashell, as monks’ hoods were apparently not trendy.  But sfogliatella means neither “monk’s hood” nor “seashell.”  Rather, it’s named after “layers” or “leaves,” a reference to its layers of dough.  The pastry features a sweet ricotta filling, scented with citrus peel and cinnamon, housed inside either frolla (“smooth”) or riccia (“curly”) dough.  Italian-American bakers make a larger version of this sweet called a Lobster Tail (Coda d’Aragosta), which uses diplomat cream (pastry cream lightened with whipped cream) in place of sweet cheese.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/sfogliatella 

It was a deep gorge between the Iblei Mountains from which the town of Modica, Sicily sprung, long ago when it was not traffic that flowed down Corso Umberto but the two rivers, Ianni Mauro and Pozzo dei Prun.  A flood-prone valley meant that early settlers had little choice but to seek shelter in hill top caves, and the town was originally carved into stone; a warren of winding alleys and grey rock that became known as Modica Alta--or Upper Modica.  As the town grew, the decision was taken to cover the problematic rivers, and the newer Modica Bassa (Lower Modica) was born, tumbling down the steep slopes and into the valley below.  Many scenes from the super popular Sicilian detective show--Inspector Montalbano--were filmed here, and fans may recognise several of Modica’s most famous sites, such as the Church of San Giorgio and the facade of Palazzo Polara.  For many years, Sicily was part of the Spanish Kingdom.  And so when the Conquistadors ‘discovered’ cocoa on their voyages to Latin America, the island was one of the first to receive this new bounty, alongside the ancient Aztec methods of chocolate making.  400 years later, and Modica remains the custodian of this age-old practice and the very best place to enjoy authentic Sicilian chocolate.  For those that are more accustomed to the sweet, milky stuff produced in the rest of Europe it’s important to note that what you will enjoy here is quite different, often flavoured with chilli, cinnamon, vanilla or even the local red wine, ‘Nero d’Avalo’, and processed in a way where the sugar remains granulous--meaning that the chocolate crumbles more so than melts in your mouth.  It’s an absolute must try for even those that tend to prefer savoury treats.  Be sure to head over to Antica Dolceria Bonajuto, the oldest chocolate shop in Sicily.  There are plenty of samples for you to try and a wide variety to buy.  A word of warning to vegetarians:  avoid the Mpanatigghi, a traditional Modican biscuit that contains a meaty surprise alongside honey, almonds and chocolate.  If you’d like to discover more about the history of chocolate making in the region (or take a look at the rather bizarre collection of cocoa sculptures), don’t miss the small Museo del Cioccolato di Modica.  https://www.alongdustyroads.com/posts/guide-modica-sicily 

The 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms at the Art Institute of Chicago enable one to glimpse elements of European interiors from the late 13th century to the 1930s and American furnishings from the 17th century to the 1930s.  Painstakingly constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot, these fascinating models were conceived by Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago and constructed between 1932 and 1940 by master craftsmen according to her specifications.  See pictures at https://www.artic.edu/departments/PC-15/thorne-miniature-rooms 

A kipper is a whole herring, a small, oily fish, that has been split in a butterfly fashion from tail to head along the dorsal ridge, gutted, salted or pickled, and cold-smoked over smouldering woodchips (typically oak).  In Britain, Ireland and some regions of North America, kippers are most commonly consumed for breakfast.  In Great Britain, kippers, along with other preserved smoked or salted fish such as the bloater and buckling, were also once commonly enjoyed as a high tea or supper treat, most popularly with inland and urban working-class populations before World War II.  The English philologist and ethnographer Walter William Skeat derives the word from the Old English kippian, to spawn.  The word has various possible parallels, such as Icelandic kippa which means "to pull, snatch" and the Germanic word kippen which means "to tilt, to incline".  Similarly, the Middle English kipe denotes a basket used to catch fish.  Another theory traces the word kipper to the kip, or small beak, that male salmon develop during the breeding season.  As a verb, kippering ("to kipper") means to preserve by rubbing with salt or other spices before drying in the open air or in smoke.  Originally applied to the preservation of surplus fish (particularly those known as "kips," harvested during spawning runs), kippering has come to mean the preservation of any fish, poultry, beef or other meat in like manner.  The process is usually enhanced by cleaning, filleting, butterflying or slicing the food to expose maximum surface area to the drying and preservative agents.  A kipper is also sometimes referred to as a red herring, although particularly strong curing is required to produce a truly red kipper.  The term appears in a mid-13th century poem by the Anglo-Norman poet Walter of Bibbesworth, "He eteþ no ffyssh But heryng red."  Samuel Pepys used it in his diary entry of 28 February 1660 "Up in the morning, and had some red herrings to our breakfast, while my boot-heel was a-mending, by the same token the boy left the hole as big as it was before."  The dyeing of kippers was introduced as an economy measure in the First World War by avoiding the need for the long smoking processes.  This allowed the kippers to be sold quickly, easily and for a substantially greater profit.  Kippers were originally dyed using a coal tar dye called brown FK (the FK is an abbreviation of "for kippers"), kipper brown or kipper dye.  Today, kippers are usually brine dyed using a natural annatto dye, giving the fish a deeper orange/yellow colour.   European Community legislation limits the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of Brown FK to 0.15 mg/kg.  Not all fish caught are suitable for the dyeing process, with mature fish more readily sought, because the density of their flesh improves the absorption of the dye.  Kippers from the Isle of Man and some Scottish producers are not dyed:  The smoking time is extended in the traditional manner.  In the children's books The Railway Series, and in the television show Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, The Flying Kipper is a nickname for a fast fish train usually pulled by Henry the Green Engine.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper#:~:text=A%20kipper%20is%20a%20whole,smouldering%20woodchips%20(typically%20oak). 

October 5, 2020   The final possible legal challenge to Led Zeppelin's ownership of Stairway To Heaven has been defeated.  The band were sued for copyright in 2014 over claims they had stolen the song's opening riff from Taurus, by a US band called Spirit.  Led Zeppelin won the case in 2016, but it was revived on appeal in 2018.  A court of appeals upheld the original verdict earlier this year.  Now, the US Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, definitively ending it.  Stairway To Heaven regularly appears on lists of the greatest rock songs ever written, and the case has been one of the music industry's most closely-watched disputes.  Millions of dollars were potentially at stake, with the song estimated to have earned $3.4m (£2.6m) in the five-year period that was at issue during the trial.  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-54423922 

Northern Ireland-born poet Derek Mahon, whose verse brought consolation to many during the coronavirus pandemic, died on October 1, 2020 at the age of 78.  One of Mahon’s poems, “Everything Is Going to be All Right,” gained new fame when it was read at the end of Ireland’s main news program in March as the coronavirus outbreak took hold. Mahon’s description of looking out a window at daybreak and reflecting that “the sun rises in spite of everything” struck a chord with many anxious people.  https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/derek-mahon-poem-consoled-pandemic-dies-78-73403573  Read “Everything is Going to be All Right" at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/471793-everything-is-going-to-be-all-right-how-should-i 

October 5, 2020  Two of crime fiction’s most famous storytellers, Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie, also knew how to get a laugh.  Chandler, beyond the terse and cynical narratives of such Philip Marlowe novels as “The Big Sleep” and “The Long Goodbye,” was able to poke fun at his own life. His rarely seen “Advice to an Employer” is a list of suggestions for how you can ruin the day for those stuck on your payroll.  Christie’s detective Hercule Poirot enjoys an amusing holiday in the 1923 story “Christmas Adventure,” only now being released in the U.S.  It’s an easygoing tale of a Christmas gathering and a foiled attempt to fool the wily sleuth.  When a guest calls out to him, “Come down at once, please.  Someone’s been killed,” Poirot calmly replies, “Aha, this is serious.”  Both pieces appear in the new issue of Strand Magazine, a quarterly which has published obscure work by John Steinbeck, Mark Twain and William Faulkner among others.  The magazine’s focus is on crime and mystery, but managing editor Andrew Gulli said he wanted to offer some relief during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.  “We decided early on that we needed to publish an issue that will provide something light-hearted for our readers,” Gulli said.  Christie’s piece, the basis for the longer “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding,” was originally part of a series called “The Little Grey Cells of Hercule Poirot.” According to Tony Medawar, producer of the International Agatha Christie Festival (in Devon, England), Christie likely drew upon her own childhood in setting a playful atmosphere, with the kids showing proper irreverence for the supposedly world famous detective.  “Christmas Adventure” also is appearing in the upcoming Christie collection “Midwinter Murder,” which comes out Oct. 20.  Hillel Italie  https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-agatha-christie-raymond-chandler-archive-fiction-ee9a445e165ae1c42d5c96f1c1e6edb1 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES  “S.N.L.” followed New York reopening guidelines by “casting” members of the live audience for its season premiere on Saturday—the show’s first live episode since March 7—and paying them for their time.  (NY Times  10/7/20)  Early voters in Toledo, Ohio began to line up at 4:30 a.m. and waited about two hours before getting inside.  (Toledo Blade  10/7/20) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2268  October 7, 2020