In trick-taking games, to ruff means to play a trump card to a trick (other than when trumps were led).  According to the rules of most games, a player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff.  Since the other players are constrained to follow suit if they can, even a low trump can win a trick.  In some games, like Pinochle and Preferans, the player who cannot follow suit is required to ruff.  In others, like Bridge and Whist, he may instead discard (play any card in any other suit).  Normally, ruffing will win a trick.  But it is also possible that a subsequent player will overruff (play a higher trump).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_(cards)   

KINGS OF CAMOUFLAGE  One of the most mystifying creatures of the deep, the cuttlefish has abilities and even senses that are alien to us humans.  This versatile animal can change its appearance at will, mimicking floating vegetation or rocks on the seafloor.  Yet when danger looms, the animal can jet away at great speeds, shooting out a smoke screen of ink or using its ink to create decoys of itself.  See many pictures at https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/camo/anat-nf.html   

Lady Mary Wroth (1597-1653) was the first Englishwoman to write a complete sonnet sequence as well as an original work of prose fiction.  Although earlier women writers of the 16th century had mainly explored the genres of translation, dedication, and epitaph, Wroth openly transgressed the traditional boundaries by writing secular love poetry and romances.  Her verse was celebrated by the leading poets of the age, including Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Josuah Sylvester, and others.  Despite the controversy over the publication in 1621 of her major work of fiction, The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania, Wroth continued writing a second part of her romance and composed a five-act pastoral drama, Love’s Victory.  By 1613 Wroth had begun her writing career—as revealed in Josuah Sylvester’s elegy for Prince Henry, Lachrymæ Lachrymarum (1613), in which he refers to her verse and praises her as “AL-WORTH Sidnëides / In whom, her Uncle’s noble Veine renewes.”  Her poems apparently circulated in manuscript long before their publication in 1621.  Ben Jonson refers to “exscribing,” or copying out, her verses in one of his poems addressed to her.  An early version of her sonnet sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus survives in a single manuscript, neatly copied in Wroth’s own formal italic hand, now at the Folger Shakespeare Library.  This autograph version of Wroth’s sequence consists of 110 songs and sonnets, plus 7 miscellaneous pieces.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-wroth   

A pocket watch with an engraved gold-plated case was found on the body of John Starr March (1861-1912), an American sea post clerk assigned to the RMS Titanic.  The watch’s hands point to 1:27, probably having stopped on the morning of April 15, 1912, as the ocean liner sank in the North Atlantic.  Eyewitnesses stated that the postal clerks worked to rescue the mail as the ship was going down.  None of the five postal clerks survived the disaster.  See picture of John March’s watch at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/object/npm_1998.2021.1.1   

In December, 2020, a bill passed by both houses of Congress designated America's 63rd national park.  The move upgraded West Virginia's New River Gorge from a national river to a federally protected tourist destination.  The existing New River Gorge area spans more than 70,000 acres, but according to Congress' designation act, it'll be divided into two sections:  the park and the preserve.  The park, which includes some of the most scenic slivers of waterfront, will only be 7,021 acres.  The remaining 65,165 acres will make up the preserve, providing ample space for people to continue hunting and fishing legally.  You may be surprised to learn that the creation of the new park was tied to the COVID-19 relief bill, but there's actually a very good reason:  National parks drive tourism dollars.  Kyler Alvord  https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/west-virginia-new-river-gorge-national-park-announcement

Ann Axtell (1900-1945) was a prominent archeologist, artist, and author.  After graduating from Smith College, Ann met Earl Halstead Morris and they married in 1923.  During the 1920’s and 1930’s, "archeology power couple" Ann and Earl worked together during extensive multi-year excavations throughout the American Southwest and in Mexico, including five seasons at Chichen Itza, Yucatan in partnership with the Carnegie Institution of Washington.  Although Earl's work tended to eclipse Ann's, she played a critical role in his research.  She is significant as a pioneer in archeology at a time when the discipline largely did not accept women's participation.  Ann spent much of her time recording and painting architecture, petroglyphs and pictographs, and landscapes; as well as the everyday tasks of expedition life.  She developed methods and standards for pictoral documentation that are still in use today.  At a time when archeologists used black-and-white photography to record sites and artifacts, Ann's colorful drawings captured information that would have been lost.  She also conducted ethnographic studies of indigenous people who had historically lived near archeological places.  Along with her artwork, Ann wrote two books about her experiences as an archeologist and the significance of her findings.  “Digging the Yucatan” and “Digging in the Southwest” show her extensive knowledge and skill as an archeologist and provide a glimpse into her vibrant world.  Ann worked at archeological excavations in places that are now national parks, including Aztec Ruins National Monument, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, and Mesa Verde National Park.  https://www.nps.gov/people/ann-axtell-morris.htm   

50 Slang Terms for Money by Mark Nichol  List includes Benjamins, bucks, clams, lettuce, sawbucks, scratch, and smackers.  https://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-slang-terms-for-money/  See also http://www.fun-with-words.com/money_words.html and https://www.therichest.com/luxury/money-slang-terms-origins/   

When Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. on April 14, 1865, he was carrying two pairs of spectacles and a lens polisher, a pocketknife, a watch fob, a linen handkerchief, a brown leather wallet containing a five-dollar Confederate note, and eight newspaper clippings, including several favorable to the president and his policies.  Given to his son Robert Todd upon Lincoln's death, these everyday items, which through association with tragedy had become like relics, were kept in the Lincoln family for more than seventy years.  Because it is quite unusual for the Library to keep personal artifacts among its holdings, they were not put on display until 1976 when then Librarian of Congress Daniel Boorstin thought their exposure would humanize a man who had become "mythologically engulfed."  https://www.loc.gov/item/myloc16/   

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. - Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (29 Sep 1547-1616)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2430  September 29, 2021