2021 is the Year of the Ox according to Chinese zodiac.  This is a Year of Metal Ox, starting from Feb. 12, 2021 (Chinese New Year) and lasting to Jan. 31, 2022.  Ox is the second in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac sign.  Years of the Ox include 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033 . . . Oxen used to be capable farming tools in an agricultural society, which attach to the symbol of diligence, persistence, and honesty.  In Chinese culture, Ox is a faithful friend that made great contributions to the development of the society.  Like the ox, people born in the Year of the Ox are industrious, cautious, hold their faith firmly, and always glad to offer help.  It is said that Ox ranks the second among the Chinese zodiacs because it helped the Rat but was later tricked by it.  The myth goes that the Jade Emperor declared the order of zodiac signs would be based on the arrival orders of 12 animals.  Ox could have arrived first but it kindly gave a ride to Rat.  However, when arriving, Rat just jumped to the terminus ahead of Ox, and thus Ox lost the first place.  https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/zodiac/ox.htm 

At the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, American Walter Winans took the podium and waved proudly to the crowd.  He had already won two Olympic medals—a gold for sharpshooting at the 1908 London Games, as well as a silver for the same event in 1912—but the gold he won at Stockholm wasn’t for shooting, or running, or anything particularly athletic at all.  It was instead awarded for a small piece of bronze he had cast earlier that year:  a 20-inch-tall horse pulling a small chariot.  For his work, An American Trotter, Winans won the first ever Olympic gold medal for sculpture.  For the first four decades of competition, the Olympics awarded official medals for painting, sculpture, architecture, literature and music, alongside those for the athletic competitions.  From 1912 to 1952, juries awarded a total of 151 medals to original works in the fine arts inspired by athletic endeavors.  Joseph Stromberg  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-the-olympics-gave-out-medals-for-art-6878965/ 

The Poodle Dog restaurant opened in 1849; one of San Francisco s first, certainly its most famous French restaurant.  The origin of the name remains obscure.  One legend claims the restaurant gained its name from the owner s longhaired pet poodle because the locals just wouldn't attempt the French name.  Another story suggested the poodle was a stray that hung around the establishment soon to be adopted as the restaurant s mascot.  A third story put forth that a Frenchman who arrived from New Orleans in 1849 managed the restaurant of this tale, Le Poulet d' Or.  At the turn of the century, the owners published a brochure in celebration of the Poodle Dog's fiftieth anniversary.  They stated that a couple of Frenchmen, Messrs. Peguillan and Langsman opened the restaurant.  The dog, a small, white poodle owned by the wife of Francois Peguillan was a rarity, drawing almost as much attention to the restaurant as its cuisine.  That first restaurant, housed in a wooden shanty with sanded floors, rough wooden table covered in oilcloth, a rudimentary bar at one end, offered a menu and price list that belied its fine cuisine; a fine dinner cost just fifteen cents.  The meal began with a rich peasant soup, soon followed by a fish course of local catch, freshest sole, rock cod, flounder or smelt, served with a tasty French sauce.  The meat course, served en bloc allowed each guest to slice their own portion from a large roast or boiled joint, served with a pot of mustard and two large dishes of vegetables.  The chef followed that course with a big bowl of his own mixed salad, served with ceremony.  The final course was "fruit in season," all each guest could eat.  A pint of the owner's new, watered claret accompanied the meal, the wine pressed and fermented from local mission grapes.  The restaurant offered a large beer stein full of coffee for an additional five cents.  By the middle of the 1850s, food prices had dipped dramatically, providing an enviable level of quality.  Californians pressed the finest olive oil, grew luscious fruit just below the city's borders, and raised healthy sheep and cattle on the grassy hills.  They raised fat, healthy pigs and chickens within the city limits.  The gold miners found they could make a better living tapping the state’s other natural resources.  In less than a decade, the state economy hinged more on agriculture and trade than it did on gold.  Jim Smith  Link to Part 2 of the story at http://www.historysmith.com/tales_lost_poodledog_01_part1.html 

The Nobel Prize Museum (formerly the Nobel Museum) is located in the former Stock Exchange Building (Börshuset) on the north side of the square Stortorget in Gamla Stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.  (The Swedish Academy and the Nobel Library are also in the same building.)  The Nobel Prize Museum showcases information about the Nobel Prize and Nobel prizewinners, as well as information about the founder of the prize, Alfred Nobel (1833–1896).  The museum's permanent display includes many artifacts donated by Nobel Laureates, presented together with personal life stories.  The Nobel Museum opened in the spring of 2001 for the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize.  Its name was changed to Nobel Prize Museum in 2019, in conjunction with Erika Lanner becoming the museum's new director.  According to the manifesto of the museum, the intentions are to be a “reflecting and forward-looking and spirited memory of Nobel laureates and their achievements, as well as of the Nobel Prize and Alfred Nobel.”  To achieve these aims, the museum offers exhibitions, films, theatre plays, and debates related to science; in addition to its bistro and shop.  Museum exhibitions feature prominent Nobel laureates such as Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela, and Winston Churchill.  The museum frequently offers creative exhibitions such as “Sketches of science”, a photo exhibition with 42 Nobel laureates photographed with their own sketch of their Nobel discovery.  This exhibition has also been shown in other parts of the world as well, including Dubai and Singapore.  For visitors who want to bring a piece of the museum home, a souvenir shop is available that contains items about Alfred Nobel and the museum.  One of the most popular items is Alfred Nobel's gold medal made in dark fair trade chocolate.  Another one is the Swedish “dynamite” candy that is flavored with jalapeño pepper.  During 2011, the souvenir shop collaborated with the artist Artan Mansouri who made paintings that symbolized Nobel's life.  Besides that, the shop offers a lot of educational toys for children, books by and about Nobel Prize laureates, and also unique items only found in the Nobel Museum shop.  There is also Bistro Nobel featuring Nobel chocolate, Swedish cakes, and also lunch and dinner.  At the bistro, Nobel ice cream is served as well; this ice cream can only be found in the Nobel Bistro.  The Nobel tea is usually served every year at the Nobel banquet.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_Museum 

'Milk of human kindness' means care and compassion for others.  From Shakespeare's Macbeth, 1605:  "Yet doe I feare thy Nature, It is too full o' th' Milke of humane kindnesse."  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/247200.html 

Scrooge:  The Musical is a 1992 stage musical with book, music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse.  Its score and book are closely adapted from the music and screenplay of the 1970 musical film Scrooge starring Albert Finney and Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.  Bricusse was nominated for an Academy Award for the song score he wrote for the film, and most of those songs were carried over to the musical.  In Act II of the musical, Scrooge sings The Milk of Human Kindness.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_(musical) 

The Krueger-Scott Mansion in Newark, New Jersey, has a history of immigrant and African-American entrepreneurship.  The 40-room home was built in 1888 for German immigrant Gottfried Krueger, who made his fortune brewing beer.  In 1958, Louise Scott purchased it to run a beauty school on the lower floors, while living in the rooms above.  She is thought to be the first female African-American millionaire in New Jersey.  When Scott died in 1982, the imposing mansion passed to the city and it fell into significant disuse and disrepair.  That is, until in September 2020, when Newark Mayor Ras Baraka led a groundbreaking to transform the property into an innovative economic and housing development designed to give Newark entrepreneurs with limited resources access to affordable housing, office space and business support.  When the mansion re-opens in 2021 it will be known as a Makerhood, a term coined by Avi Telyas, an immigrant entrepreneur and real estate developer.  Telyas worked five years with the city to refine a housing and economic development model he believes can scale to other cities.  Emily Nonko  https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/converted-mansion-offer-affordable-live-work-space-for-newark-makers

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2324   February 10, 2021