A mercy rule, slaughter rule, knockout rule, or skunk rule ends a two-competitor sports competition earlier than the scheduled endpoint if one competitor has a very large and presumably insurmountable scoring lead over the other.  It is called the mercy rule because it spares further humiliation for the loser.  It is common in youth sports in North America, where running up the score is considered unsporting.  It is especially common in baseball and softball in which there is no game clock and a dominant team could in theory continue an inning endlessly.  The rules vary widely, depending on the level of competition, but nearly all youth sports leagues and high school sports associations and many college sports associations in the United States have mercy rules for sports including baseball, softball, American football and association football.  However, mercy rules usually do not take effect until a prescribed point in the game (like the second half of an association football game).  Thus, one team, particularly if it is decidedly better than a weaker opponent, can still "run up the score" before the rule takes effect.  For instance, in American football, one team could be ahead by 70 points with three minutes left in the first half; in baseball, the better team could have a 20-run lead in the second inning, but the game would still continue.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercy_rule

Books entitled Mercy Rule:  Tom Leveen (story of high school students) and John Lescroart  (5th in the Dismas Hardy series) 

The expression straight from the horses’s mouth, which means reliable or on good authority, has two possible origins.  The most likely is that it comes from horse-racing circles:  a tipster supposedly has inside information so good that it comes straight from the horse.  According to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the expression goes back to 1917.  The second possibility is that a smart buyer examines a horse’s teeth to determine its age and general health, so reliable information about the animal comes from its mouth.  This, by the way, is the origin of the expression “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” (don’t quibble about something you aren’t paying for).  https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2006/11/straight-from-the-horses-mouth.html 

Hematite, also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils.  The name hematite is derived from the Greek word for blood due to the red coloration found in some varieties of hematite.  The color of hematite is often used as a pigment.  Ochre is a clay that is colored by varying amounts of hematite, varying between 20% and 70%.   Red ochre contains unhydrated hematite, whereas yellow ochre contains hydrated hematite (Fe2O3 · H2O).  The principal use of ochre is for tinting with a permanent color.  The red chalk writing of this mineral was one of the earliest in the human history.  The powdery mineral was first used 164,000 years ago by the Pinnacle-Point man, possibly for social purposes.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite 

Barbara Newhall Follet wrote of a little girl called Eepersip, who loves the outdoors as much as she did, who doesn’t want to be confined in a house with walls and windows, binding her life.  The world of brick and glass is too restrictive for the wild child, and Eepersip longs to shed the trappings of civilisation.  So she runs away from home.  She runs first to the meadow, then to the sea, and last to the mountains, and she gives her heart in equal measure to all of them.  She lives in these wild places without fear, learning how to be free, and she sees joy and glory everywhere.  It was Barbara’s custom, on her own birthday, to give her mother a gift.  At the age of eight she decided that on her ninth birthday this gift would take the form of a book.  And so, alone in her room, with the door shut tight, she worked at her typewriter, shaping her tale until it was almost perfect.  She was educated at home so she had plenty of time to write.  Day after day, week after week, she wrote.  She hoped to make a handful of copies, to share with friends, but the original copy was for her mother.  It was a story about a small child in the wilderness.  It was called The House Without Windows.  Just a few days after she finished writing, while the family were sleeping, a fire broke out in the kitchen.  The Folletts were lucky to escape with their lives.  Most of their belongings were destroyed, along with the fresh manuscript, so lovingly typed.  Every word Barbara had written--gone.  At this point many children would have given up.  Not Barbara.  Immediately she began the long task of reconstructing her story, word by carefully chosen word, from memory.  Three years she spent, sometimes leaving her text for months at a time, but always returning to it.  In 1926, Barbara was 12 and the book was finally complete (again).  Her father was so impressed that he took the manuscript to work with him.  He was, at this time, working for the publisher Alfred Knopf.  Imagine the excitement when a blue letter arrived, and within it the offer to publish Barbara’s story:  2,500 copies were printed, and all sold out.  Her story of Eepersip and her life in the house without windows went on to become a bestseller, and Barbara was hailed as a child genius.  By 18, Barbara was hiking the Appalachian Trail in the company of a young man called Nickerson Rogers, each night sharing his small tent or lying together beneath the ceiling of stars.  Later they travelled to Europe, wandering through Spain, France, Germany, sometimes working, always writing, keeping notes for future manuscripts.  And what things they must have seen, as they worked and walked their way through this turbulent time between the wars.  On their return to America they settled into an apartment, marrying in 1934 and taking jobs.  And Barbara began to feel her dreams slipping away to the familiar tune of work and domesticity.  She still wrote, but her work was no longer in favour with publishers and the rejections hurt.  And then, in 1939, on 7 December, Barbara Rogers, née Newhall Follett, walked out of the apartment she shared with her husband.  She left no note, took only a few dollars and some shorthand notes.  She was never seen again.  Jackie Morris  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/14/house-without-windows-barbara-newhall-follett-jackie-morris 

The second Saturday of May in 2021, is the first of the two World Migratory Bird Days in the year.  These days were established by the Secretariats of the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals to highlight the importance of protecting migratory birds and their habitats.  The arctic tern has the longest migration known in the animal kingdom, travelling between the Arctic and Antarctic.  Wikipedia 

The Social Security press office announced on May 7, 2021 that the top ten girl names in 2020 are Olivia, Emma, Ava, Charlotte, Sophia, Amelia, Isabella, Mia, Evelyn and Harper.  The top ten boy names in 2020 are Liam, Noah, Oliver, Elijah, William, James, Benjamin, Lucas, Henry and Alexander.  The Social Security office also compiled the top five boy and girl names that are rising in popularity the fastest and have been affected by pop culture.  The girl names include Avayah, Denisse, Jianna, Capri and Rosalia.  The boy names include Zyair, Jaxtyn, Jakobe, Kylo and Aziel.  Lexi Lonas  https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/552342-olivia-and-liam-are-most-popular-us-baby-names-for-second-year 

Archaeologists discovered the fossilized remains of nine Neanderthals at a prehistoric cave site south of Rome, the Italian Cultural Ministry announced on May 8, 2021.  The oldest of the remains date from between 90,000 and 100,000 years ago, while the other eight are believed to be younger, dating from 50,000 to 68,000 years ago.  The findings include skulls, skull fragments, two teeth and other bone fragments.  The fossilized bones were found at the Guattari Cave in San Felice Circeo, which is roughly 56 miles southeast of Rome.  Neanderthals died out roughly 40,000 years ago, but small traces of their DNA still exist in modern humans.  H.J. Mai  https://www.npr.org/2021/05/09/995214254/an-extraordinary-discovery-archeologists-find-neanderthal-remains-in-cave-near-r 

The softer you sing, the louder you're heard. - Donovan, musician (b. 10 May 1946) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2362  May 10, 2021