The scuppernong is a large variety of muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia), a species of grape native to the Southern United States.  It is usually a greenish or bronze color and is similar in appearance and texture to a white grape, but rounder and larger and first known as the 'big white grape'.  The grape is commonly known as the "scuplin" in some areas of the Deep South.  It is also known as the "scufalum", "scupanon", "scupadine", "scuppernine", "scupnun", or "scufadine" in some parts of the South.  The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina.   The name comes from the Scuppernong River in North Carolina mainly along the coastal plain.  It was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the Cape Fear River Valley in 1524.  He wrote " . . . Many vines growing naturally there . . . ".   Sir Walter Raleigh's explorers, the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was " . . . so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them . . . in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found."  He may have been referring to Sargasso seaweed from coral reefs, which can be seen washed up on shore after a major storm off the NC coast.  The seaweed has berrylike gas-filled bladders looking much like grapes to keep the fronds afloat.  However, in 1585, Governor Ralph Lane, when describing North Carolina to Raleigh, stated that "We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring rich and pleasant, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater . . . ".  It was first cultivated during the 17th century, particularly in Tyrell County, North Carolina.  Isaac Alexander found it while hunting along the banks of a stream feeding into Scuppernong Lake in 1755; it is mentioned in the North Carolina official state toast.  The name itself traces back to the Algonquian word ascopo meaning "sweet bay tree".   Scuppernong is a piece for piano in three movements by John Wesley Work III.  Scuppernongs are mentioned in chapters 5 and 22 of To Kill a Mockingbird.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuppernong 

The word algorithm sounds hi-tech, but in fact it’s very old:  imported into English, via French and Latin, from the name of the ninth-century Arab mathematician al-Khwarizmi.  Originally algorithm simply meant what is now called the “Arabic” system of numbers (including zero).  Only later did it acquire the more specific sense in mathematics of a procedure or set of rules: a writer in 1811 called for an algorithm for establishing theorems.  To this day, algorithm is still just a fancy name for a set of rules.  In finance, especially, the word is often shortened to “algo”, which via “algae” evokes a sense of inexorable biological growth.  But perhaps if we thought of algorithms as mere humdrum flowcharts, drawn up by humans, we’d be better able to see where responsibility really lies if, or when, they go wrong.  Steven Poole  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/sep/20/from-arabic-to-algae-like-ai-the-alarming-rise-of-the-algorithm- 

Music for Chameleons (1980) is a collection of short fiction and non-fiction by Truman Capote.  Capote's first collection of new material in fourteen years, Music for Chameleons spent sixteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, unprecedented for a collection of short works.  The book is divided into three sections. Part one, titled "Music for Chameleons", includes the short story after which the section and book are named, as well as five other stories ("Mr. Jones", "A Lamp in a Window", "Mojave", "Hospitality" and "Dazzle").  Part two, the core of the book, consists of a single piece: "Handcarved Coffins", ostensibly a "nonfiction account of an American crime" that suggests certain parallels with his best-known work, the difference being that Capote did not include himself as a character in the narrative when he wrote In Cold Blood.  In the third section, "Conversational Portraits", Capote recalls his encounters with Pearl Bailey, Bobby Beausoleil, Willa Cather, Marilyn Monroe and others.  These seven essays are titled "A Day's Work", "Hello, Stranger", "Hidden Gardens", "Derring-Do", "Then It All Came Down", "A Beautiful Child" and "Nocturnal Turnings."  "A Day's Work" was Capote's account of a shift he spent with a New York day maid, an idea his friend Slim Keith recalled him having before he set out to work on In Cold Blood.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_Ch

"Music for Chameleons" is a 1982 single by Gary Numan from his album, I, Assassin.  The song peaked at number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.  The song was composed during Numan's round-the-world trip in a light aircraft, which he undertook together with another pilot.  Numan states in his autobiography that he kept singing it to himself so much that it got on the nerves of his co-pilot.  The song is highly unusual in using fretless bass as the main melody instrument.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_for_Chameleons_(song) 

The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Miskito Coast and the Miskito Kingdom, historically included the kingdom's fluctuating area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras.  It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone.  It was named after the local Miskito Amerindians and was long dominated by British interests.  The Mosquito Coast was incorporated into Nicaragua in November 1894; however, in 1960, the northern part was granted to Honduras by the International Court of Justice.  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_Coast 

The Mosquito Coast is an American drama television series developed by Neil Cross and Tom Bissell based on the novel of the same name by Paul Theroux published in 1981.  It also loosely adapted from the 1986 film which starred Harrison Ford.  It premiered on Apple TV+ on April 30, 2021.   The series stars Justin Theroux, nephew of Paul, and Melissa George in lead roles, with Logan Polish and Gabriel Bateman rounding out the main cast.  Justin Theroux also serves as executive producer of the series, along with Rupert Wyatt who directed the first two episodes.  The first season of the series consists of seven episodes and concluded on June 4, 2021.  In June 2021, the series was renewed for a second season.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mosquito_Coast_(TV_series) 

The phrase "knowledge is power" is often attributed to Francis Bacon, from his Meditationes Sacrae (1597).  Thomas Jefferson used the phrase in his correspondence on at least four occasions, each time in connection with the establishment of a state university in Virginia.  https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/knowledge-power-quotation   

A ["Knowledge is power" magnet] search on Google July 28, 2021 brought up 7,530,000 results.  I have a magnet from The New York Public Library with these words and an outline of a lion’s head.  Thank you, Muse reader!  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2397  July 30, 2001