Looking back, 1828 turned out to be a big year for book lovers.  Literary giants Leo Tolstoy and Jules Verne were born, and Baker & Taylor began binding and publishing books.  Later, Baker & Taylor began distributing books.  Libraries have a long history, perhaps dating to ancient Egypt, of keeping cats.  In the 19th century, the British government paid libraries to house felines, who earned their room and board by keeping rodents from eating the glue and binding off of the books.  We have our own cat history. Librarians know us by our beloved cat mascots, named--of course!--Baker and Taylor.  Both have passed away, but Baker and Taylor were the pride of the Douglas County Public Library in Minden, Nevada.  The first of the pair took up residence there in 1983 and was named Baker, because he slept in a Baker & Taylor box.  The librarians told a Baker & Taylor sales director that Baker needed a friend. Taylor followed two months later, thanks to a grant from Baker & Taylor.  See a picture of library cats Baker and Taylor at https://www.baker-taylor.com/home_aboutus_details.cfm?sideMenu=Our%20History&home=home_aboutus_details.cfm 

“There is nothing on God’s green earth that someone won’t complain about, including both God and green earth.”  “When times are tough, you either pull together or fall apart.”  “A great library provides.  It is enmeshed in the life of a community in a way that makes it indispensable.”  “Find your place.  Be happy with what you have.  Live a good life.  It’s isn’t about material things:  it’s about love.”  Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter  See also https://hacklibraryschool.com/2020/10/19/a-brief-history-of-library-cats/ 

Celebrities from Spencer, Iowa:  Dewey Readmore Books, Library Cat; Vicki Myron, co-author of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World; Roger Neumann, jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer, arranger, music educator; Robert Suderburg, composer, conductor, pianist; Richard L. Tierney, author and poet.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer,_Iowa 

In computer science, a data buffer (or just buffer) is a region of a physical memory storage used to temporarily store data while it is being moved from one place to another.  Typically, the data is stored in a buffer as it is retrieved from an input device (such as a microphone) or just before it is sent to an output device (such as speakers).  However, a buffer may be used when moving data between processes within a computer.  In the distributed computing environment, data buffer is often implemented in the form of burst buffer that provides distributed buffering service.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_buffer 

Silverview, a final full-length novel by John le Carré, in which the late author delves into “the soul of the modern Secret Intelligence Service”, will be published in October, 2021.  Le Carré, the author of seminal thrillers including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, died in December 2020 aged 89.  Born David Cornwell, he had been working on Silverview, his 26th novel, alongside A Legacy of Spies and Agent Running in the Field.  He had completed the full-length manuscript of the book when he died.  Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/may/19/final-john-le-carre-novel-silverview-to-be-published-in-october 

“ . . . the true value of any gift does not depend on its worth to the receiver, but rather to the giver.”  The Islander, a Romance of the Future by Charles Whittlesey  

Samphire is a juicy green shoot eaten as a delicacy with fish dishes.  It has a briny taste because it grows in saltwater.  After the summer solstice is the traditional start of the samphire harvest.  The shoots are picked at dawn each day on mudflats along the coast and river estuaries, especially in the Wash of Norfolk, and then rushed to market.  Samphire is such an unassuming plant, almost prehistoric-looking, with tiny leaves and small thin flowers.  But this humble little plant is also our first line of defence against storms and rising sea levels that batter the coastline and lead to serious erosion.  Samphire’s remarkable strength is colonising muddy coasts and estuaries, where its mat of roots binds the soft mud and creates a foothold for other salt-loving plants to grow therefore aiding the development of salt marshes.  In olden days, the plant was also used for glassmaking because its ashes are rich in sodium carbonate, which is needed for melting sand into glass, hence the plant’s other name:  glasswort.  Paul Simons  https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/23/plantwatch-samphire-sea-defence-coastal-marsh-erosion-glasswort 

On June 23, 1996, Haruki Murkami, the world’s most famous running novelist, ran his first (and only) ultramarathon, at Lake Saroma, in Hokkaido, Japan.  An ultramarathon, if you don’t know, is sixty-two miles.  As Murakami would later write in his running memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, “No normal person would ever do something so foolhardy.”  (Well, after all, “normal” is perhaps not the first word that comes to mind when thinking of ways to describe the author of Kafka on the Shore.)  https://link.lithub.com/view/602ea8ce180f243d6536ae8deesnf.2gi4/433882bd

Prolific children’s book author-illustrator and fine artist Robert M. Quackenbush died on May 17, 2021.  He was 91.  Quackenbush was born on July 23, 1929 in Hollywood, Calif., and grew up in Phoenix, Ariz.  In his autobiography, Quackenbush recalled a childhood love of drawing, painting, and listening to stories and noted that his was a family of storytellers and readers.  He continued with his art and enjoyed copying the paintings of famous artists like Diego Rivera and some of the WWII art that ran in Life magazine at the time.  He also found creative outlet in his early teens by building furniture for his bedroom as well as painting and decorating the space.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/86654-obituary-robert-m-quackenbush.html

When Ross Bollinger posted a video of an animated stick figure online in 2004, YouTube didn’t exist and the 16-year-old artist didn’t envision a web show.  As of June 2021, Mr. Bollinger’s stick figure—who is named Pencilmate and has Curious George’s mischievous energy—is the star of a YouTube series with 19 million subscribers.  The “Pencilmation” channel on YouTube has more subscribers than the Pixar (6.24 million) and Walt Disney Animation Studios (4.83 million) channels combined.  YouTube doesn’t publish animation-channel audience tallies, but Ramin Zahed, editor in chief of Animation Magazine, says he believes “Pencilmation” is the platform’s most popular animated series.  When YouTube announced the creators with the most views globally in 2019—its most recent such figures—“Pencilmation” was third, with 2.8 billion.  Taner Halicioglu  https://techilive.in/how-pencilmation-became-a-youtube-sensation/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2381  June 23, 2021