Bing is a cultivar of the wild or sweet cherry (Prunus avium) that originated in the Pacific Northwest, in Milwaukie, Oregon.  It is the most produced variety of sweet cherry in the United States.  The cultivar was created as a crossbred graft from the Black Republican cherry in 1875 by Oregon horticulturist Seth Lewelling and his Manchurian Chinese foreman Ah Bing, for whom the cultivar is named.  Ah Bing was reportedly born in China and immigrated to the U.S. in about 1855.  He worked as a foreman in the Lewelling family fruit orchards in Milwaukie for about 35 years, supervising other workers and caring for trees.  He went back to China in 1889 for a visit.  Due to the restrictions of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 he never returned to the United States.  Sources disagree as to whether Ah Bing was responsible for developing the cultivar, or whether it was developed by Lewelling and named in Bing's honor due to his long service as orchard foreman.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bing_cherry 

Matzah ball soup is consummate comfort food.  It’s a bowl full of love.  Purists prefer it the traditional way:  only chicken broth and matzah balls (dumplings made of matzah meal, which is simply ground up matzah—the unleavened flour-and-water flatbreads eaten at Passover).  Mary Bilyeu  Find recipe for one at https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/food/2020/12/05/dinner-for-one-matzah-ball-soup/stories/20201101001 

Czech playwright Karel Čapek coined the expression robot for artificial men in 1921.  Now they are far more than science fiction.  “Listen Josef,” said the Czech playwright Karel Čapek to his brother.  “I have an idea for a play.”  Josef, an artist of some renown, was painting furiously and unimpressed by his brother’s intrusion.  “What kind of play?” he asked, sharply.  Karel set out the plot.  In the future, humans have created synthetic, humanoid creatures to increase productivity in the factories and fight wars on the battlefield.  Built as slave workers, they will eventually rise up and wipe out the human race.  “Then write it!” he said.  But Karel was stuck.  He could not think of the appropriate word to describe his artificial workers.  “Call them roboti,” said Josef.  This was the Czech word for serf or forced labourer.  Karel decided the word robot was a perfect fit.  The play, Rossum’s Universal Robots (RUR), premiered in Prague in January 1921.  The exchange with his brother was relayed by Karel Čapek in a newspaper some years later, reflecting on how he introduced the word robot to the world when the play premiered in January 2021--now exactly 100 years ago.  It’s easy to see how RUR has influenced science fiction storytelling, from Philip K Dick’s androids dreaming of electric sheep to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s perpetually returning terminator.  There is even a Rocky Horror Picture Show-style rock musical inspired by RUR.  Rob Susman, creator of Save the Robots, says:  “It was a play I read in school that always stuck with me.”  Although, as co-writer Jacques Lamarre points out, the overt campness wasn’t necessarily apparent in Čapek’s original.  RUR also featured in the burgeoning career of a British film icon.  In 1986, Michael Caine appeared on the Wogan show and told how his father, a fishmonger, had advised him:  “‘Never do a job where you can be replaced by a machine” [pause].  So I became an actor [laughter].  And the first play I ever did, I played a robot [more laughter].  Very esoteric in the amateur dramatics society, it was a play called Rossum’s Universal Robots, RUR.  A critic in the South London Press said, Mr Caine was very convincing as a robot.”  To commemorate RUR’s centenary, a Prague-based project, TheAItre, will stream a live performance of the first play ever written by robots.  It will be available, for free, on 26 February 2021.  Simon Lowe  https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/jan/10/art-meets-tech-to-mark-first-100-years-of-the-robot   

The 1998 movie Practical Magic stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as sisters descended from a long line of witches.  It was based on Alice Hoffman’s 1995 novel of the same name, and since then, she’s written two prequels on the Owens clan, The Rules of Magic (2017) and  Magic Lessons.  The author, who is based outside of Boston and has written more than 30 novels, three works of short fiction, and eight children/YA titles.  Rita Cruz  See list of titles recommended by Alice Hoffman at https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a34919199/alice-hoffman-book-recommendations/   

The informal passel is a great way to talk about a large but vague number of things or people, like a passel of cousins at Thanksgiving or a passel of puppies at the local animal shelter.  Passel is a nineteenth century invention, a US dialect version of parcel, "quantity, part, or portion."   See synonyms at https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/passel 

Welcome to Project Gutenberg   Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks.  Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online.  You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.  Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for you to enjoy.  http://www.gutenberg.org/  Thank you, Muse reader!

French chef Sylvain Sendra’s restaurant has been closed for months, and his employees are on furlough, but on January 18, 2021 he received a morsel of good news:  his restaurant had kept its star in the annual Michelin guide.  With restaurants ordered shut to try to contain the spread of the virus, Sendra’s only revenue is from private dinners he prepares for some loyal customers.  In this year’s guide, one new restaurant was elevated to the most coveted ranking of three Michelin stars.  The AM par Alexandre Mazzia in the southern city of Marseille joined the other 29 restaurants in France that already hold the distinction.  Two restaurants were given two stars for the first time, and 54 establishments received one star for the first time.  https://www.reuters.com/article/france-michelin-stars/michelin-guide-offers-crumb-of-comfort-to-frances-covid-hit-chefs-idINKBN29N1ID

January 19, 2021  A vegan restaurant in south-west France has been awarded a coveted Michelin star, the first of its kind in the country to receive the distinction.  ONA--which stands for Origine Non-Animale ("animal-free origin")--in the town of Arès, near Bordeaux, is run by chef Claire Vallée.  Michelin has previously awarded stars to vegetarian and some vegan restaurants around the world, noting that vegetables and plant-based cuisine are finding their place in high-end establishments where meat and fish had traditionally taken pride of place.  A former archaeologist, the 41-year-old chef is self-taught and became vegan after a trip to Thailand.  See pictures at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55717253 

"It's hard sometimes to remember, but that's how we heal.  It's important to do that as a nation," Joe Biden said in brief remarks before 400 lights were illuminated along the edges of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on January 19, 2021, marking the more than 400,000 Americans who have died from Covid-19.   Maeve Reston  https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/biden-covid-victims-memorial/index.html

On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be respectively inaugurated as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the United States.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2315  January 20, 2021