The squash had traveled a thousand miles to rest quietly on Henrietta Gomez’s arms.  The farmer from Taos Pueblo, a 1,000-year-old Indigenous town in northern New Mexico, held the light-green vegetable like a baby.  Before that bright October morning, it had been several decades since the people of Taos Pueblo had seen a squash like the one in Henrietta’s arms, even though it had been part of the town’s diet since time immemorial.  Along with a seed bundle, the squash had been shipped from Decorah, Iowa, where it had been planted in the gardens of Seed Savers Exchange, the nonprofit that found the variety among the 30,000 kinds of seeds in its seed bank.  Rowen White, an Indigenous seed keeper and the chair of the nonprofit’s board, had personally shipped the giant seed-and-squash-filled box a few days before.  The Taos Pueblo event, held in 2018, was the first of at least 60 rematriations organized by the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network that have returned varieties of ancient seeds to Native American communities that had been lost to colonialism and violence.  Maria Paula Rubiano A.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/native-seed-rematriation

Pickleball is a paddleball sport (similar to a racquet sport) that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis.  Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, with 26-40 round holes, over a net.  The sport shares features of other racquet sports:  the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules somewhat similar to tennis, with several modifications.  Pickleball was invented in the mid 1960s as a children's backyard game.  The sport is growing internationally too.  Many European and Asian countries have started adding pickleball courts.  The game started during the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the home of Joel Pritchard, who later served in Congress and as lieutenant governor.  He and two of his friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, returned from golf and found their families bored one Saturday afternoon.  They attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock.  They improvised with a perforated plastic ball, lowered the badminton net, and fabricated paddles of plywood from a nearby shed.  McCallum made the first paddles that were specifically for paddleball on his basement bandsaw.  He tried several alternative paddles, but one he called “M2” became the paddle of choice for most players.  In 1972, McCallum incorporated Pickle-Ball, Inc. and manufactured wooden paddles to help grow the sport.  His son David McCallum now runs the business, which is headquartered in Kent, Washington.  Some sources claim that the name "Pickleball" was derived from that of the Pritchard's family dog, Pickles, or from the term "pickle boat".  According to Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife, “The name of the game became Pickle Ball, after I said it reminded me of the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.  Somehow the idea the name came from our dog Pickles was attached to the naming of the game, but Pickles wasn’t on the scene for two more years.  The dog was named for the game, but stories about the name’s origin were funnier thinking the game was named for the dog."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickleball 

Moxie means force of character, determination, or nerve.  It’s the perfect name for the cure-all drink that its inventor claimed “cured drunkards by the thousands, effectively too; made more homes happy; cured more nervous, prostrated, overworked people; prevented more crime and suffering in New England than all other agencies combined.”  Moxie is such an excellent name because the descriptive word is actually a product of the drink’s marketing.  Moxie Nerve Food, the original name for the beverage, was invented before moxie was conversationally used at all.  In fact, the first recorded use of the word was in 1930, while the beverage was invented and patented in 1885.  When Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine, noticed a lack of medicinal elixirs that didn’t use cocaine or alcohol, he set out to to create his own.  He used a medley of herbs, relying on gentian root as the unique ingredient in his proprietary blend.  (He said his friend Lieutenant Moxie sent gentian root from his posting in South America, but the lieutenant was entirely fictional.)  Gentian root is responsible for Moxie’s characteristically bitter, polarizing aftertaste—the same distinctive flavor in Angostura bitters.  He also added sassafras, which was banned in 1960 by the FDA for its carcinogenic properties.  In 1906, when the Pure Food and Drug Act prevented Moxie from being sold as a medicinal product, it was reborn as a soft drink likened to “root beer on steroids.”  Moxie’s marketing team built a 32-foot-tall bottle for the New England Food Fair that same year, and the bottle still stands in Maine today.  Moxie’s new identity as a soda did nothing to derail its popularity, and in 1920, it actually outsold Coca-Cola.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/moxie-soda-maine 

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "Europeans" and "non-Europeans".  It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948.  Subsequent legislation, especially the Population Registration and Immorality Acts of 1950, facilitated its implementation by requiring all individuals living in South Africa to register as a member of one of four officially defined racial groups and prohibiting extramarital sexual relationships between those classified as "white" on the one hand and those classified as "non-White" (Blacks, Coloureds, later also Asians) on the other.  The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was repealed by the Immorality and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act, 1985, which was passed during the presidency of P. W. Botha.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_of_Mixed_Marriages_Act,_1949 

Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.  He is the host of The Daily Show, an American satirical news program on Comedy Central.  Born in Johannesburg, Noah began his career as a comedian, presenter, and actor in South Africa in 2002.  He has since had several television hosting roles with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and was the runner-up in the fourth season of South Africa's iteration of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008.  From 2010 to 2011, he acted as the creator and host of the late-night talk show Tonight with Trevor Noah, which aired on M-Net and DStv.  After his stand-up comedy career attained international success, Noah began appearing on American late-night talk shows and English panel shows.  In 2014, Noah became the Senior International Correspondent for The Daily Show, and the following year, he succeeded long-time host Jon Stewart, and is set to remain in this position until 2022.  His autobiographical comedy book Born a Crime was published in 2016 and garnered critical acclaim.  Trevor Noah was born on 20 February 1984 in Johannesburg, South Africa.  His father, Robert, is of Swiss ancestry, and his mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, is of Xhosa ancestry.  Noah claimed that (following antisemitism accusations) his mother converted to Judaism when he was 10 or 11 years old, although she did not have him convert.  Under apartheid legislation, Noah's mother was classified as Black, and his father was classified as White.  Noah himself was classified as Coloured.  At the time of his birth, his parents' interracial relationship was illegal under apartheid law, and Noah highlights this in his autobiography.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Noah

American Utopia starts with David Byrne, barefoot in a silver-gray suit, holding a model of the brain and pondering different ideas of connection.  He's gradually joined by his equally barefoot co-stars, also uniformed in silver-gray suits, who sing, dance and play hand-held instruments as they perform nearly 20 Byrne songs, from his Talking Heads classics to his more recent solo work.  Thanks to wireless technology, everyone moves around the stage in seemingly total freedom.  Byrne points out that many of his cast members are immigrants, as is he—a naturalized American born in Scotland.  For Byrne, utopia is about embracing difference.  It's about men and women from a diversity of races and cultures coming together to create something new, alive and beautiful that helps people connect.  While Byrne starts alone on the stage, by the grand finale, he and his co-stars are marching through the aisles singing the cheery song "Road to Nowhere."  Everybody's together on-screen—even the audience.  John Powers  https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923258756/david-byrne-and-spike-lee-conjure-up-a-joyous-vision-of-american-utopia  See David Byrne's American Utopia (2020):  Official Trailer | HBO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg4hcgtjDPc  1:19 

A THOUGHT FOR OCTOBER 19  Life is mostly froth and bubble, / Two things stand like stone, / Kindness in another's trouble, / Courage in your own. - Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (19 Oct 1833-1870)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2273  October 19, 2020