Lake Balaton is a freshwater lake in the Transdanubian region of Hungary.  It is the largest lake in Central Europe, and one of the region's foremost tourist destinations.  The Zala River provides the largest inflow of water to the lake, and the canalised Sió is the only outflow.  The mountainous region of the northern shore is known both for its historic character and as a major wine region, while the flat southern shore is known for its resort towns.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Balaton

nib  noun  the point of a pen, or either of its divisions.  a penpoint for insertion into a penholder.  a point of anything.  a bill or beak, as of a bird; neb.  any pointed extremity.  a piece of sintered tungsten carbide used as a die for drawing wire or the like.  a compact at any stage of its manufacture.  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/nib

his nibs  The Oxford English Dictionary, usually the definitive word on origins, defines “his nibs” as “an employer, a superior; a self-important person.”  But as to the genesis of the phrase, the OED closed the door politely but firmly with the comment “origin obscure.”  “His nibs” was a common slang phrase among English college students in the 19th century, usually a sarcastic reference to someone seen as aloof or stuck-up.  Along with an earlier form “nabs,” “nibs” was based on “nob,” an alternate spelling of “knob” and an 18th century slang term for “head.”  The “head” in question was both literally the human head and “head man,” or an important person.  “Nab” was also a slang term for “hat,” and the verb “to nab” may be related to the same root, in the sense of “capturing the head” of someone.  http://www.word-detective.com/2012/01/nibs/ 

A practical cloffice starts with a desk or tabletop surface where you can place your computer and spread out paperwork.  If you have room, push a desk into the closet against the back wall.  In a walk-in closet, you can position the desk along a wall, in front of a window, or in the center of the room.  If a full desk won't fit in your cloffice, try mounting a piece of plywood, medium-density fiberboard (MDF), or butcher block to the wall with brackets to create a DIY floating desk.  Keep in mind that the average desk height is between 28 and 30 inches, and be sure to screw into wall studs for added support.  Next, add comfortable seating.  To allow the closet doors to close, choose a seat that fits completely inside the closet when it's not in use.  A rolling swivel chair, for example, can easily slide into the closet when the workday is done.  If space is really tight, consider a stool that can tuck under the desk in lieu of a chair.  Jessica Bennett  https://www.bhg.com/rooms/home-office/makeovers/cloffice-ideas/

A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky.  It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc.  Rainbows caused by sunlight always appear in the section of sky directly opposite the Sun.  Rainbows can be full circles.  However, the observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground and centered on a line from the sun to the observer's eye.  In a primary rainbow, the arc shows red on the outer part and violet on the inner side.  This rainbow is caused by light being refracted when entering a droplet of water, then reflected inside on the back of the droplet and refracted again when leaving it.  In a double rainbow, a second arc is seen outside the primary arc, and has the order of its colours reversed, with red on the inner side of the arc.  This is caused by the light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet before leaving it.  A rainbow is not located at a specific distance from the observer, but comes from an optical illusion caused by any water droplets viewed from a certain angle relative to a light source.  Thus, a rainbow is not an object and cannot be physically approached.  Indeed, it is impossible for an observer to see a rainbow from water droplets at any angle other than the customary one of 42 degrees from the direction opposite the light source.  Even if an observer sees another observer who seems "under" or "at the end of" a rainbow, the second observer will see a different rainbow—farther off—at the same angle as seen by the first observer.  Rainbows span a continuous spectrum of colours.  Any distinct bands perceived are an artefact of human colour vision, and no banding of any type is seen in a black-and-white photo of a rainbow, only a smooth gradation of intensity to a maximum, then fading towards the other side.  For colours seen by the human eye, the most commonly cited and remembered sequence is Isaac Newton's sevenfold red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, remembered by the mnemonic Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain (ROYGBIV).  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow 

Our shared experiences with food connect us with the past, present, and future of what it means to be American.  From pickle stands to tacos to TV dinners, American food reflects the American Experience.  In 1785, Thomas Jefferson told John Jay that, "Cultivators of the earth are the most virtuous and independent citizens."  Link to podcasts and videos at https://americanhistory.si.edu/american-food-history-project 

Wanted: Hard workers who can hoist 50 pounds and repeatedly bend, squat and lift in hot spaces.  The ability to vigorously beat a blob with a 4-foot paddle is a plus.  No, this isn’t the concrete industry, but the new rigorous workout of the summer tourism season—shifts at a fudge shop.  Americans are flocking back to tourist towns and hankering for fudge, that dense, sugary vacation mainstay.  At the same time, a national labor crunch means fewer fudge producers are toiling extra hard, nursing sore bodies and building fudge muscles.  Jennifer Levitz  Wall Street Journal  July 2, 2021 

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass stood before the 600-odd members of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society in Central New York and delivered what would become one of his most famous speeches, best known today as “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”  You may have already noticed that this was a Fourth of July speech given on the Fifth of July—Douglass was originally invited to address the group on July 4th, but he asked to speak the following day instead, in order (as others have pointed out) to commemorate another, related, occasion:  July 5, 1827, the day after New York’s emancipation law finally took effect, when 4,000 Black citizens marched along Broadway, accompanied by an honor guard, to celebrate their long-sought freedom.  Douglass knew the speech was going to be a hit; he had it printed right after he gave it and sold it on his travels for 50 cents a copy.  He continued to deliver versions of the address, with changes and additions, on future Fourths and Fifths of July, even as late as 1872.  It’s not surprising that it has weathered the years:  if you read the speech in full, its conclusions about the ongoing American quest to live up to its own stated ideals of equality and justice for all—and the hypocrisy of not living up to those ideals—are almost as relevant now as they were then.  https://link.lithub.com/view/602ea8ce180f243d6536ae8dei21q.278x/7a2f8dbc 

In 2020, a group of Frederick Douglass’s descendants gathered to read his speech in this video produced by NPR.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBe5qbnkqoM 

We must believe in luck.  For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? - Jean Cocteau, author and painter (5 Jul 1889-1963)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2386  July 5, 2021