The flag of the United Nations and the emblem of the United Nations (which is part of the UN flag design) have become symbols of the Organization as it carries out its work.  With a pair of olive tree branches and a map of the world, the emblem and the flag on which it rests are also aspirational symbols for people all over the world, for they speak to their hopes and dreams of peace and unity.  The emblem and flag of the United Nations have the practical effect of identifying the Organization in areas of trouble and conflict, to any and all parties concerned.  The original emblem of the United Nations was created by a team of designers during the United Nations Conference on International Organization in 1945.  The design team was led by Oliver Lincoln Lundquist. The UN emblem was designed to be "a map of the world representing an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, inscribed in a wreath consisting of crossed conventionalized branches of the olive tree, in gold on a field of smoke-blue with all water areas in white.  The projection of the map extends to 60 degrees south latitude, and includes five concentric circles".   The “UN blue” colour was also chosen at this time.  Although slightly different than the UN Blue used today (Pantone Matching System 279), this colour choice became an integral part of the visual identity of the Organization.  Blue represents peace in opposition to red, for war.  Read more and see picture at https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-emblem-and-flag 

emptive (comparative more emptive, superlative most emptive)  adjective  (rare) Responding to or acting to counteract something when it happens (rather than beforehand).  quotations ▼  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/emptive

COMIC STRIP HUMOR  preemptive nap (Garfield)  erroring wordage (Get Fuzzy)  

For many people simply knowing that the film “Wings” (William Wellman, 1927) is the only silent film (from the silent era) to ever win the Academy Award for best picture is enough to warrant any current day interest in it, but the truth is the film still holds interest on many levels.  Considering it was made by a cast and crew of twenty somethings, one might be surprised that it wound up a film of any merit, let alone the impressive feature that it is.  The most important special feature of “Wings” that has never been recreated was a technique called Magnascope, which would increase the size of the screen and was used for the aerial battle sequences.  A standard 15 foot by 20 foot screen would expand out to 25 foot by 40 foot.  Dino Everett  https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/wings.pdf 

Paramount paid William Wellman $250 a week to direct "Wings".  He also gave himself a role as a German pilot, and flew one of the German planes that landed and rolled over.  The massive production employed 3,500 soldiers, 65 pilots and 165 aircraft.  It also went over budget and over schedule due to Wellman's perfectionism, and he came close to being fired more than once.  The film took a year to complete, but when it was released it turned out to be one of the most financially successful silent pictures ever released and helped put Gary Cooper, whom Wellman personally cast in a small role, on the path to stardom.  “Wings" and Wellman's next flying picture, The Legion of the Condemned (1928)--in which Cooper had a starring role--initiated the genre of the World War One aviation movie, which included such famous works as Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930) and Howard Hawks' The Dawn Patrol (1930).  Despite his success in bringing in the first Best Picture Oscar winner, Paramount did not keep Wellman under contract.  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0920074/bio  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Wellman 

Edith Head (1897-1981)  Her birth name was Edith Claire Posener; her nickname was The Doctor.  Her 35 Oscar nominations and eight awards make her both the most honored costume designer and woman in Academy Award history to date.  The Costume Department building on the Paramount Pictures lot is named after her.  The character "Edna Mode" in Disney/Pixar's The Incredibles (2004) was modeled on her.  She is tied with composer Alan Menken for third most Academy Awards won.  Each of them have eight.  Amassed 500 costume credits over her long career.  In 1973, her real Academy Awards were shown during an episode of "Columbo".  Seven awards as she has yet to win her last one the following year for The Sting (1973).  On the album "Mink Car" (2001) by They Might Be Giants, there is a song called "She Thinks She's Edith Head".  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372128/bio?ref_=nm_dyk_trv_sm#trivia 

Tristan and Isolde, Tristan also called Tristram or Tristrem, Isolde also called Iseult, Isolt, or Yseult:  principal characters of a famous medieval love-romance, based on a Celtic legend (itself based on an actual Pictish king).  Though the archetypal poem from which all extant forms of the legend are derived has not been preserved, a comparison of the early versions yields an idea of its content.  The archetypal poem, which has not survived, seems to have been a grim and violent work containing episodes of a coarse and even farcical character.  Two adaptations, made in the late 12th century, preserved something of its barbarity.  About 1170, however, the Anglo-Norman poet Thomas, who was probably associated with the court of Henry II of England, produced an adaptation in which the harshness of the archetype was considerably softened.  A mellifluous German version of Thomas’ adaptation, by Gottfried von Strassburg, is considered the jewel of medieval German poetry.  Renewed interest in the legend during the 19th century followed upon discovery of the old poems.  Richard Wagner’s opera Tristan und Isolde (first performed in 1865) was inspired by the German poem of Gottfried von Strassburg.  Read about other versions at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tristan-and-Isolde 

In South Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries, skilled miniature painters packed epic scenes onto canvases the size of a playing card, using brushes made from a single squirrel hair.  But by the late 1980s, when Shahzia Sikander was a teenager in Pakistan, the once-celebrated art form had faded into kitsch, tarnished by a colonial period that saw major works divided and sold in the West.  “I gravitated to it because I wanted to understand where that stigma comes from,” says Sikander, whose “neo-miniatures” are the subject of a retrospective opening this month at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum--June 18 through September 26, 2021.  Sikander spent two years learning the technique, which she used to explore modern themes like gender and the legacy of colonial histories.  As her work won worldwide acclaim in the 1990s and early 2000s, it inspired a rehabilitation of the genre.  Amy Crawford  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/reinvention-art-miniature-180977707/  See also Shahzia Sikander:  Extraordinary Realities  June 18 through September 26, 2021 at https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/shahzia-sikander 

 Noël Coward’s play Blithe Spirit premiered in the West End of London  on July 2, 1941. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2385  July 2, 2021