The idiom knock one’s socks off originated in the mid-1800s, though with a different meaning than it carries today.  Knocking a person’s socks off  today mostly has to do with impressing or surprising someone.  However, in the mid-19th century, there is an example of it used with the meaning of “someone or something that is thoroughly defeated.”  This example comes from the Logansport Democractic Pharos newspaper, January 1856:  “The promptness and certainty with which the Ague King’s American remedy for Chills and Fever, knocks the socks off that disease.”  https://knowyourphrase.com/knock-your-socks-off

The legend of Faust is based upon a real person, Johann Georg Faust (c. 1480-1540), a magician, astrologer, and alchemist.  The story has been tackled countless times, from Christopher Marlow in his play Doctor Faustus and Goethe in his play Faust to The Simpsons episode “Bart Sells His Soul”.

Around the World in 130 Chicken-Soup Recipes--a new cookbook is devoted entirely to the soothing, healing meal by Kayla Stewart  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/international-chicken-soup-recipes

cheftestant  Competitor on a cooking show.  Coined by recapper Keckler on televisionwithoutpity.com, it is the combination of the words "chef" and "contestant."  Inspired by Bravo channel's "Top Chef."  posted by missmez June 21, 2007  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheftestant 

QUOTES BY PLAYWRIGHT GEORGE BERNARD SHAW  “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”  Man and Superman * “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend . . . if you have one."  Shaw to Winston Churchill  "Cannot possibly attend first night; will attend second, if there is one." *  Churchill to Shaw  “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” * “You see things; you say, 'Why?'  But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?”  Back to Methuselah *  “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.” * “I often quote myself.  It adds spice to my conversation.” * https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/33134-i-often-quote-myself-it-adds-spice-to-my-conversation

The suborder Myomorpha contains 1,137 species of mouse-like rodents, nearly a quarter of all mammal species.  Included are mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, lemmings, and voles.  They are grouped according to the structure of their jaws and molar teeth.  They are characterized by their myomorphous zygomasseteric system, which means that both their medial and lateral masseter muscles are displaced forward, making them adept at gnawing.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myomorpha 

FROM ELLIE KRIEGER  Cool Cucumber Soup   https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/cool-cucumber-soup-recipe-1939996  Leeks and fresh dill take cozy split pea soup from drab to fab  Split Pea Soup With Leeks and Dill  https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/split-pea-soup-leeks-and-dill/17720/

March 26, 2021  Returning to Riva:  Close Reading a Little-Known Short Story by Franz Kafka:  Daniel Heller-Roazen on Fleeting Narrators, Disappearing Text, and "The Hunter Gracchus."  Between 1916 and 1917, a most unusual person makes a small number of fleeting appearances in Franz Kafka’s unpublished papers.  From Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons by Daniel Heller-Roazen.  Used with the permission of Princeton University Press.  Copyright © 2021 by Daniel Heller-Roazen.  Read extensive article on four versions of a short story by Kafka at  https://lithub.com/returning-to-riva-close-reading-a-little-known-short-story-by-franz-kafka/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20March%2026%2C%202021&utm_term=lithub_master_list 

Larry McMurtry, the prolific and popular author who took readers back to the old American West in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lonesome Dove” and returned them to modern-day landscapes in works such as his emotional tale of a mother-daughter relationship in “Terms of Endearment,” died March 25, 2021 at the age of 84.  McMurtry, who had in his later years split his time between his small Texas hometown of Archer City and Tucson, Arizona, wrote dozens of books, including novels, biographies and essay collections.  He simultaneously worked as a bookseller and screenwriter, co-writing the Oscar-winning script for the movie “Brokeback Mountain.”  He wrote his first novel, “Horseman, Pass by,” at the age of 25 in 1961.  It was made into the movie “Hud” starring Paul Newman that came out two years later.  McMurtry opened his first used and rare bookstore in 1971 in Washington, D.C., and later opened other stores in Houston, Dallas and Tucson.  In the mid-1980s, lured by cheap real estate, he opened his Booked Up store in Archer City.  Eventually, the store in Archer City was the only one remaining.  He downsized the store—both in volume and storefronts—in an effort dubbed The Last Book Sale, but retained about 200,000 volumes.  He had about 28,000 books in his nearby home in Archer City.  “I’m very attached to the books.  I need them.  I need to be among them,” he told The Associated Press in 2014.  Jamie Stengle  https://apnews.com/article/arizona-dallas-larry-mcmurtry-movies-tucson-c42dce8a2ef5882d3695c6b5e9356ba2 

Children's author Beverly Cleary died March 25, 2021 at the age of 104.   Cleary was the creator of some of the most authentic characters in children's literature—Henry Huggins, Ralph S. Mouse and the irascible Ramona Quimby.  Generations of readers tore around the playground, learned to write in cursive, rebelled against tuna fish sandwiches and acquired all the glorious scrapes and bruises of childhood right along with Ramona.  Cleary's simple idea—to write about the kids in her own neighborhood—ensured that her books have never gone out of print.  "I think children want to read about normal, everyday kids.  That's what I wanted to read about when I was growing up," Cleary told NPR's Linda Wertheimer in 1999.  "I wanted to read about the sort of boys and girls that I knew in my neighborhood and in my school.  And in my childhood, many years ago, children's books seemed to be about English children, or pioneer children.  And that wasn't what I wanted to read.  And I think children like to find themselves in books."  Her writing style—clear, direct, uncomplicated—mirrored the author's own trajectory.  Cleary was still a young girl when she decided to become a children's book author.  By the 1940s she'd become a children's librarian in Portland, Ore., and she remembered boys in particular would ask her:  "Where are the books about kids like us?"  Zoe Chace  https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/311881785/beverly-cleary-creator-of-ramona-quimby-dies-at-104 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2344  March 29, 2021