Joseph Moncure March (1899-1997) was a poet, essayist and Hollywood screenwriter who is best known for his long narrative poems The Wild Party and The Set-Up.  http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/amherst/ma210.html 

List of films based on poems (such as Beowulf (1999, USA); Beowulf (2007, USA); Beowulf & Grendel (2005, Iceland, United Kingdom, Canada); Braveheart (1995, USA), from The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace, by Blind Harry; Casey at the Bat (1927, USA); El Cid (1961, USA, Spain, Charlton Heston); The Set-Up (1949, United States) based on the narrative poem The Set-Up by Joseph Moncure March; The Shooting of Dan McGrew (1924, United States); Troy (2004, United States), from the poem The Iliad by Homer; Ulysses (1954, Italy) based on the epic poem Odyssey by Homer; and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944, United States) based on the poem The White Cliffs by Alice Duer Miller with additional poetry by screenwriter Robert Nathan at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_based_on_poems 

If a palindrome is a word that reads the same backwards as forwards, then a semordnilap is a word that spells out a different word when read backwards, like stressed and desserts, or diaper and repaid.  That definition makes the word semordnilap a semordnilap itself—but whereas most semordnilaps are little more than sheer coincidence, a word or name that is intentionally invented by reversing another existing word is properly called an ananym.  Words coined by reversing others aren’t quite as rare as they might seem.  It’s a technique used to invent everything from place names, like Adanac in Canada and Adaven in Nevada, to first names:  the Scots name Segna is thought to have been invented by (mostly) reversing the name Agnes, while Nevaeh, coined by reversing the word heaven, recently crept into the top 100 girls’ names in America.  It’s also a popular source of brand names, like Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.  Fiction writers too often call on ananyms when it comes to inventing characters and settings, like Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (a mangled reversal of nowhere) or Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood (set in the fictional Welsh village of Llareggub, a none-too-subtle reversal of “bugger all”).  And when a mysterious Hungarian aristocrat named Count Alucard turns up in New Orleans in the 1943 film Son of Dracula—well, you can guess what happens next.  Paul Anthony Jones  Find ten examples of ananyms at https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/91206/10-backwards-words-ended-dictionary 

South America’s palm trees provide coquitos.  These tiny treats are the full-sized fruits of the Chilean wine palm—a tree Darwin once called “very ugly.”  According to varying reports, these gargantuan plants can live from a century to a millennia.  Locals enjoy the flavor both raw and cooked, though some tasters say the skin leaves a residue on the tongue.  The fruit’s firm, white insides have a crunchy sweetness, reminiscent of an almond.  And unlike a mature coconut, a whole coquito nut can be eaten in one bite.  (Just be sure to crack its shell open first.)  Like its full-size brethren, these marble-sized coconuts are put to myriad uses.  Chileans add them to cookies, cakes, ice cream, and jellies for texture and nuttiness.  Peruvians incorporate them in traditional ranfañote, a coquito- and salty cheese-topped bread pudding.  Puerto Ricans also know coquito, but as something different.  It’s a cousin of eggnog, made with coconut milk on the island.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/coquito-nuts-mini-coconuts 

In the German language, Schwein gehabt or “having a pig” means being lucky, and giving away little porkies made of sugar and almond paste is a New Year’s tradition meant for good fortune.  If you've ever been to Germany around Christmastime, you've probably seen a marzipan pig.  Giving away little porkies made of sugar and almond paste is a New Year's tradition meant for good fortune.  In the German language, Schwein gehabt or "having a pig" means being lucky.  It's an expression that comes from medieval times, when a farmer who had bred a lot of pigs would be having a banner year.  Marzipan is a sweet delicacy that became popular in Germany around the same time, especially in the northern city of Lübeck.  Once an important medieval trading town, Lübeck's become regarded over the years as one of the best places in the world to get this smooth, sugary candy.  Barbara Woolsey  See pictures at https://www.vice.com/en/article/gvmjxw/marzipan-pigs-are-the-sweetest-way-to-celebrate-new-years-in-germany 

Founded in 1744, Sotheby’s is the oldest and largest internationally recognised firm of fine art auctioneers in the world.  It has a global network of 80 offices and the company’s annual worldwide sales turnover is currently in excess of $4 billion.  Sotheby’s founder, Samuel Baker, was an entrepreneur, occasional publisher and successful bookseller who held his first auction under his own name on 11 March 1744.  The dispersal of “several Hundred scarce and valuable Books in all branches of Polite Literature” from the library of Sir John Stanley fetched a grand total of £826.  In 1767 Baker went into partnership with George Leigh. Leigh was a natural auctioneer with an actor’s sense of timing.  His ivory hammer is still on display at Sotheby’s London galleries.  On Baker’s death in 1778, his estate was divided between Leigh and Baker’s nephew John Sotheby, whose family remained involved in the business for more than 80 years.  During that time the company extended its role to take in the sale of prints, coins, medals and antiquities.  In 1842 John Wilkinson, the firm’s senior accountant, became a partner and when the last of the Sotheby family died in 1861, Wilkinson took over as head of the business.  Three years later he promoted Edward Grose Hodge, and restyled the company Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, the name it carried until 1924.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.sothebys.com/en/about/our-history 

March 8, 2021  A rare self-published cookbook by Andy Warhol—one of only 34 color copies made—is up for auction this month at Bonhams.  Warhol collaborated on the book with his friend Suzie Frankfurt, who wrote the text, and his mother, who did the calligraphy, adding deliberate misspellings.  The cookbook is a parody of late 50s haute cuisine cookbooks, inventing dishes like “Omelet Greta Garbo” (which is “always to be eaten alone in a candlelit room”) and “Seared Roebuck” (“roebuck shot in ambush infinitely better than roebuck killed after a chase”).  This was in 1959, before Warhol was famous; the team couldn’t even sell 34 copies, and most were given away to their friends.  The copy up for auction bears the inscription, in Warhol’s hand, “To De De”—it was a gift to the fashion editor D.D. Ryan.  Walker Caplan  See some of the recipes at https://lithub.com/take-a-look-inside-this-rare-self-published-andy-warhol-cookbook/ 

The first virtual Non-Fungible Token (NFT) artwork to be sold at a major auction house closed at $69,346,250 during an online auction by Christie's on March 11, 2021.  The record-breaking sale of "Everydays:  The First 5000 Days" catapults the creator, Mike Winkelmann, who goes by Beeple, near the summit of the most expensive living artists to date, placing him just below David Hockney and Jeff Koons. Hockney's painting "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)" sold for $90.3 million in 2018, while Koons' stainless steel sculpture "Rabbit" topped the list at $91.1 million in 2019.  Jacqui Palumbo  See picture at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/beeple-first-nft-artwork-at-auction-sale-result/index.html 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2337  March 12, 2021