A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on a second party.  The term is popular amongst conspiracy theory promoters in referring to covert operations of various governments and cabals.  The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as a purely figurative expression to mean "a deliberate misrepresentation of someone’s affiliation or motives".  It was later used to describe a ruse in naval warfare whereby a vessel flew the flag of a neutral or enemy country in order to hide its true identity.  The tactic was originally used by pirates and privateers to deceive other ships into allowing them to move closer before attacking them.  It later was deemed an acceptable practice during naval warfare according to international maritime laws, provided the attacking vessel displayed its true flag once an attack had begun.  The term today extends to include countries that organize attacks on themselves and make the attacks appear to be by enemy nations or terrorists, thus giving the nation that was supposedly attacked a pretext for domestic repression and foreign military aggression.  Operations carried out during peacetime by civilian organizations, as well as covert government agencies, can (by extension) also be called false flag operations if they seek to hide the real organization behind an operation.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag#:~:text=A%20false%20flag%20operation%20is,of%20various%20governments%20and%20cabals. 

Brian Donnelly (born November 4, 1974), known professionally as Kaws (stylized as KAWS), is an American artist and designer.  His work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs, some dating back to the beginning of his career in the 1990s, initially painted in 2D and later realized in 3D.  Some of his characters are his own creations while others are reworked versions of existing icons.  Kaws' sculptures range in size from a few inches to ten meters tall, and are made from various materials including fiberglass, aluminum, wood, bronze, and a steel pontoon inflatable raft.  Kaws' influences come from traditional high art painters like Gerhard Richter, Claes Oldenburg, and Chuck Close, and he has been compared to the likes of Andy Warhol for his cross-market appeal and ability to blur lines between commercial and fine art.  His work is exhibited in galleries and museums, held in the permanent collections of public institutions, and avidly collected by individuals including music producer Swizz Beatz, internet figure PewDiePie, rapper Pharrell Williams, and members of South Korean group BTS.  A number of books illustrating his work have been published.  Kaws lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, creating sculptures, acrylic paintings on canvas, and screen prints while also collaborating commercially, predominantly on limited edition toys, but also clothing, skateboard decks, and other products.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaws 

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body, accounting for about one-third of its protein composition.  It’s one of the major building blocks of bones, skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments.  Collagen is also found in many other body parts, including blood vessels, corneas, and teeth.  You can think of it as the “glue” that holds all these things together.  In fact, the word comes from the Greek word “kólla,” which means glue.  You may be able to help your body produce this important protein by making sure you get plenty of the following nutrients:  Vitamin C.  Large amounts are found in citrus fruits, bell peppers, and strawberries.  Proline. Large amounts are found in egg whites, wheat germ, dairy products, cabbage, asparagus, and mushrooms.  Glycine. Large amounts are found in pork skin, chicken skin, and gelatin, but glycine is also found in various protein-containing foods.  Copper.  Large amounts are found in organ meats, sesame seeds, cocoa powder, cashews, and lentils.  https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/collagen   

A pig in a poke is a thing that is bought without first being inspected, and thus of unknown authenticity or quality.  The idiom is attested in 1555:  I wyll neuer bye the pyg in the poke Thers many a foule pyg in a feyre cloke.  "Poke" is a bag, so the image is of a concealed item being sold.  Starting in the 19th century, this idiom was explained as a confidence trick where a farmer would substitute a cat for a suckling pig when bringing it to market.  When the buyer discovered the deception, he was said to "let the cat out of the bag", that is, to learn of something unfortunate prematurely, hence the expression "letting the cat out of the bag", meaning to reveal that which is secret.  In common law, buyers have the right to inspect goods before purchase.  Find similar expressions in other languages at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_in_a_poke 

Colorful, comforting and infinitely tasty, it's little wonder that pizza is one of the world's most beloved dishes.  It's a food that has transcended its Italian origins to find new takes--from pineapple-topped pizzas to deep dish Chicago-style pies.  No wonder it has whole days devoted to it around the globe--from January's World Pizza Day to National Pizza Day, which takes place in the United States every February 9.  But while we think of it as a 20th-century global phenomenon, pizza didn't only start traveling when it crossed the Atlantic.  In fact, it made its first cross-cultural journey about 2,000 years earlier.  "The term and concept is a very old one," says Diego Zancani, emeritus professor of medieval and modern languages at Oxford University and author of "How We Fell in Love with Italian Food."  "The Ancient Greeks had 'pissa' or 'pita', and a recent study connected the term 'pizza' with the various 'pita' that exist all over the Mediterranean.  So the concept is very old--but [ancient pissa] was bread, sometimes fried and sometimes baked, possibly with condiments on it."  The food popped up again--this time as "pizza"--in 997 CE.  A rental document for a house in Gaeta, north of Naples, promised to pay the owner pork meat and pizza--but even then, Zancani says, the mysterious "pizza" would have been pieces of bread.  Fast forward to 1570, and the Pope's head chef had a recipe for pizza--but it was "essentially a cake," says Zancani, made with almond and sugar.  Julia Buckley  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/pizza-day-history-naples/index.html   

WORDPLAY  embarrassment of riches  (An embarrassment of riches is an idiom that means an overabundance of something, or too much of a good thing, that originated in 1738 as John Ozell's translation of a French play, L'Embarras des richesses (1726), by Léonor Jean Christine Soulas d'Allainval.  The idiom has also inspired other works and been included in their titles.  This includes:  The Embarrassment of Riches (1906), a play by Louis K. Anspacher, and a 1918 drama film of the same name based on the Anspacher play; a 2006 music album of this name by Elephant Micah; the history book The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age by Simon Schama; and An Embarrassment of Riches, a 2000 novel written by Filipino author Charlson Ong.)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassment_of_riches#:~:text=This%20includes%3A%20The%20Embarrassment%20of,a%20play%20by%20Louis%20K.  *  blizzard of litter  *  riches of the earth (plants growing from dirt)  *  no good deed goes unpunished (The phrase 'No good deed goes unpunished' is a sardonic commentary on the frequency with which acts of kindness backfire on those who offer them.  In other words, those who help others are doomed to suffer as a result of their being helpful.  It has been attributed to several luminaries, including Billy Wilder, writer Clare Booth Luce, American financier John P. Grier, banker Andrew W. Mellon, and Oscar Wilde, although its actual origin has never been established.  The phrase appears in Brendan Gill's 1950 book The Trouble of One House.  The phrase is featured prominently in the song "No Good Deed" from the hit Broadway musical Wicked.  A satirical poem by Franklin Pierce Adams with the title, "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (So Shines a Good Deed in a Naughty World)", also exists.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_good_deed_goes_unpunished)   

A series of paintings and sketches created by JRR Tolkien while he was writing The Lord of the Rings are to be included in the epic fantasy novel for the first time since its publication in 1954.  Tolkien was always modest about his abilities as an artist: although a handful of his illustrations were featured in The Hobbit, the author described himself as “rather crushed” by comments from one critic that the images “show no reflection of his literary talent and imagination”, adding:  “all the more so because I entirely agree with him” (CS Lewis reviewed the pictures and maps as “admirable”).  In the middle of writing The Lord of the Rings, in 1939, he told his publisher that the work was “laborious”, and that “I should have no time or energy for illustration.  I never could draw, and the half-baked intimations of it seem wholly to have left me.  A map (very necessary) would be all I could do.”  But he went on to create a range of drawings, illustrations, maps and sketches as he told the story of Frodo and Sam’s quest, many as pictorial aids as he wrote his expansive story, and some for his own pleasure.   Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/25/jrr-tolkiens-own-illustrations-appear-in-lord-of-the-rings-for-the-first-time   

March 25, 2021  Deep in the former royal forest of Bercé, in France's Loire region, a 230-year-old tree comes crashing to the ground with thunderous intensity.  Just a sapling during the French Revolution, the 65-foot-tall oak tree is one of many being felled as part of ongoing efforts to rebuild Notre Dame.  The tree eventually will join 1,000 other oaks being used to reconstruct the wooden lattice of the roof and replace the base of the fallen spire engulfed by the blaze that devastated the Gothic building almost two years ago, in April 2019.  French president Emmanuel Macron dropped the idea of a contemporary redesign for Notre Dame's 315-foot spire--originally added by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc in 1859--before opting instead for an identical restoration.  Saskya Vandoorne  See pictures at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/notre-dame-rebuild-oak-trees/index.html  Thank you, Muse reader!   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2343  March 26, 2021