Much of Frank Lloyd Wright’s genius lay in his ability to be a fearless innovator.  His idea of building decentralized, affordable communities in harmony with nature eventually led to his design of the “Usonian” house.  Usonian is a term usually referring to a group of approximately sixty middle-income family homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright beginning in 1936 with the Jacobs House.  The “Usonian Homes” were typically small, single-story dwellings without a garage or much storage.  They were often L-shaped to fit around a garden terrace on unusual and inexpensive sites.  Constructed with native materials, flat roofs and large cantilevered overhangs for passive solar heating and natural cooling, natural lighting with clerestory windows, and radiant-floor heating.  A strong visual connection between the interior and exterior spaces is an important characteristic of all Usonian homes.  The word carport was coined by Wright to describe an overhang for sheltering a parked vehicle.  See many pictures and link to information on nine Usonian homes at http://www.midcenturymodernhudsonvalley.com/frank-lloyd-wright/ 

March 26, 2021  Flashes of light pierce the dark night.  On board large pick-ups, slowly, private guards patrol the avocado fields of a South African farm, a "green gold" that has become the target of large-scale thefts.  At the wheel, eyes narrowed on the hundreds of avocado trees more than two meters high, carefully aligned, Marius Jacobs draws on his cigarette.  "There are more and more thieves, they load whole trucks," he breathes.  The looting of orchards in recent years can be counted in thousands of tonnes and losses in millions of euros for South African producers.  The boom in avocado consumption, particularly in the United States and in Europe, has caused the prices of this confirmed star of plates to explode, the price of which on these markets can climb up to 10 euros per kilo.  https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2021-03-26-%22green-gold%22--the-juicy-trafficking-of-avocado-theft-in-south-africa---france-24.By8nGRboV_.html

ENGAGEMENT ROAST CHICKEN (BAREFOOT CONTESSA)  Recipe by Scoutie  serves 3-4  https://www.food.com/recipe/engagement-roast-chicken-barefoot-contessa-413946 

The Historic Buxton Inn in Granville, Ohio was built in 1812 and known as The Tavern for many years before serving as the final stop on a stagecoach line heading west into Columbus.  Over the years, it has welcomed famous guests ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Henry Ford and served as a place of safety for those seeking freedom on the Underground Railroad.  One of the inn’s former owners, Ethel “Bonnie” Houston, became known as The Lady in Blue after her apparition was spotted in a light blue dress a few times.  The ghost is known to evoke the scent of gardenias, even in the dead of winter.  Houston’s cat is said to appear in Room 9, which used to be the inn owner’s apartment.  (The cat is said to jump on the bed and cuddle up with whomever is spending the night in the room.)  Major Buxton, the previous owner for which the inn is named, has been spotted accompanied by the smell of cigar smoke.  The Historic Buxton Inn encourages its guests to explore the property and learn about the history of the spirits said to reside there during its Ghostory Tours.  Lindsey Sellman 

https://www.ohiomagazine.com/travel/article/haunted-ohio-historic-buxton-inn

 

The Music Box Theatre is located in the bustling Southport area of Chicago’s Lakeview district.  When it was opened on August 22, 1929 with Morton Downey in “Mothers Boy”, the Music Box Theatre was considered small compared to the much larger movie palaces that were being built in Chicago around that time.  Many of these larger theatres, like the Uptown Theatre, were often too large to stay in business throughout the rest of the 20th century.  The Music Box Theatre was designed in an Atmospheric style which was themed with a Spanish Renaissance style, the work of architects Louis I. Simon & Edward Steinborn.  It was designed and opened as a ‘talkie’ theatre, but had provision for organ chambers to hold the pipes, which were not put to use until 1984 when a custom made 3 manual electronic organ was installed with its speakers housed in the organ chambers.  The Music Box Theatre later played mainly second and third-run movies as well as closing and reopening several times.  The theatre had become more than a bit rough around the edges when it was closed on July 16, 1978 with William Holden “Omen II: Damien”.  It then went over to screening Spanish Language movies, porn movies and Arabic movies. 

Renovated in 1982, the Music Box Theatre reopened in 1983 and has been showing an eclectic mix of classic, foreign, and art house films ever since.  In 1991, a small theatre was built in an existing storefront adjacent to the lobby.  This second screen was designed to echo the architecture of the main auditorium, as an Atmospheric style, but because of the 13-foot ceiling height, the feel is that of sitting under a garden trellis with stars in the night sky beyond.  Contributed by Alan Van Landschoot  http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/274

 Mayonnaise as a term first appears in the famous 1806 cookbook by Alexandre Viard, though he doesn’t give a recipe for mayonnaise.  There is no documentary evidence that the sauce existed prior to the 19th century.  That’s not to say that it didn’t, but its origin stories are apocryphal.  One version of its genesis, from Larousse Gastronomique, says that the term comes from the old French, moyeu, meaning egg yolk.  That sounds plausible, as does the story that it comes from the Catalan word, maonesa, named after the town of Mahon in Menorca, Spain.  While mayo is egg yolks plus oil (usually olive oil, sometimes sunflower), béarnaise and hollandaise feature egg yolks plus clarified butter.  Add a bit of white wine and lemon juice for hollandaise, a sauce most often associated with eggs benedict but a treat on asparagus, broccoli, salmon, or just about anything you can think of.  Its origins are said to be based on a sauce made for the King of the Netherlands’ visit to France, hence the name.  With hollandaise on hand, add shallots pepper, tarragon and chervil to make béarnaise, with its origins in the Bearn province of France, a delight atop steak frites.  Bearnaise sauce was invented by chef Jean-Louis-François Collinet, of the famous restaurant outside of Paris, Le Pavillon Henri IV, which opened in 1836.  Noah Charney  https://www.finedininglovers.com/article/behind-secrets-aise-sauces 

One-liners and zingers are humorous forms of the epigram (a brief, pithy or startling statement).   What does this colorful crowd of characters have in common:  Woody Allen, Aristotle, Yogi Berra, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Johnny Carson, Winston Churchill, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, JFK, MLK, Abraham Lincoln, Groucho Marx, Marilyn Monroe, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Will Rogers, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire and Oscar Wilde?  They all produced immortal epigrams.  Other masters of the zinger include Alexander the Great, Brutus, Julius Caesar, Albert Einstein, FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, Gandhi, Bob Hope, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Martial, Steve Martin, Plato, Dorothy Parker, Dolly Parton, Don Rickles, Sappho, Socrates, Jonathan Swift, Mae West and Jonathan Winters.  Zingers by Oscar Wilde:  One should always play fairly, when one has the winning cards. * The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on.  It is never any use to oneself.  * It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal. * If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.  compiled by Michael R. Burch  Find many more zingers at http://www.thehypertexts.com/Best%20One-Liners%20and%20Zingers.htm  “Quiver full of zingers” is a frequently-used phrase. 

Life is an adventure in forgiveness. - Norman Cousins, author, editor, journalist, and professor (24 Jun 1915-1990) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2382  June 25, 2021