Insects have appeared in literature from classical times to the present day, an aspect of their role in culture more generally.  Insects represent both positive qualities like cooperation and hard work, and negative ones like greed.  Among the positive qualities, ants and bees represent industry and cooperation from the Book of Proverbs and Aesop's fables to tales by Beatrix Potter.  Insects including the dragonfly have symbolised harmony with nature, while the butterfly has represented happiness in springtime in Japanese Haiku, as well as the soul of a person who has died.  Insects have equally been used for their strangeness and alien qualities, with giant wasps and intelligent ants threatening human society in science fiction stories.  Locusts have represented greed, and more literally plague and destruction, while the fly has been used to indicate death and decay, and the grasshopper has indicated improvidence.  The horsefly has been used from classical times to portray torment, appearing in a play by Aeschylus and again in Shakespeare's King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra; the mosquito has a similar reputation.  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insects_in_literature

What's the difference between ignorance, apathy, and ambivalence?  I don't know and I don't care one way or the other.  https://dadjokes.org/whats-the-difference-between-ignorance-apathy-and-ambivalence  

Discover 44 unusual museums and collections in New York City at https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/new-york/museums-and-collections 

egg spoon noun (plural egg spoons)  A spoon, usually smaller than a teaspoon, which is used for eating a boiled egg from a hole made in the shell; the bowl of the spoon is shaped to make it easier to scoop out the contents of the eggshell.  quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/egg_spoon#English

People use both further and farther to mean “more distant.”  However, American English speakers favor farther for physical distances and further for figurative distances.  Shundalyn Allen  https://www.grammarly.com/blog/farther-further/ 

Meet the Real-Life Inspiration Behind “Mr. Toad”  The real-life inspiration for Mr. Toad may well have been William K. Vanderbilt II, an American millionaire and car enthusiast.  He caught the motoring bug in 1888, aged ten, when he rode a steam-powered tricycle in the south of France.  Ten years later he ordered a motor tricycle—built by the Count de Dion’s company, no less, and powered by an internal combustion engine—and had it shipped to New York.  (Around 15,000 of these de Dion tricycles were sold between 1897 and 1901, making it one of the first motor vehicles to be widely distributed.)  Vanderbilt acquired a large collection of vehicles, and his Toad-like motoring escapades are said to have led to the imposition of the first speed limits near his home in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1900, and on Long Island, in 1902.  There were some attempts to ban cars altogether in the 1890s and early 1900s, though most such efforts were either short-lived or never actually enforced.  Parts of Germany and Switzerland banned cars on Sundays to preserve the sanctity of the Sunday stroll.  For the most part, however, the advent of the car was met with a growing body of rules regulating its use:  speed limits, the registration of vehicles, licensing of drivers, requiring the use of lights at night, and so on.  In Britain, for example, the infamous Red Flag law was withdrawn in 1896.  In its place came new rules allowing road vehicles weighing less than three tons to drive no faster than 14 mph, with a reminder that they should keep to the left.  The Motor Car Act of 1903 updated these rules, introducing vehicle registration and the licensing of drivers (though no test was required), increasing the speed limit from 14 mph to 20 mph, and making reckless driving an offense for which drivers could be imprisoned for up to three months.  The threat of imprisonment was deemed necessary because fines were failing to deter wealthy “road hogs” or “motor scorchers,” as dangerous motorists were starting to become known, from bad behavior.  But ultimately it was not laws that would change attitudes toward the automobile, but familiarity.  Hostility toward cars and drivers began to diminish as vehicles became more affordable.  Excerpted from A Brief History of Motion by Tom Standage  reprinted with permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury Publishing.  Copyright © 2021 by Tom Standage   https://lithub.com/meet-the-real-life-inspiration-behind-mr-toad/ 

“Say no to cynicism.”  “There’s no escalators--there’s only staircases to success.  There is no substitute for hard work.”  Lilly Singh

Lilly Singh (born September 26, 1988) is a Canadian comedian, former talk show host, and YouTuber who formerly appeared under the pseudonym Superwoman (stylized iiSuperwomanii), her long-time YouTube username.  Born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Singh began making YouTube videos in 2010.  In 2016, she was included in Forbes list of world's highest paid YouTubers ranking third and earning a reported $7.5 million.  By 2017, she was ranked tenth on the Forbes list of the world's highest paid YouTube stars, earning a reported $10.5 million; as of September 2019 she has 14.9 million subscribers and over three billion video views.  Singh has been featured in the annual YouTube Rewind every year since 2014 (except for 2019).  Forbes named her one of the 40 most powerful people in comedy in 2019.  She has received an MTV Fandom Award, four Streamy Awards, two Teen Choice Awards, and a People's Choice Award.  In 2016, Singh released her first film, a documentary chronicling her world tour, entitled A Trip to Unicorn Island.  In March 2017, she released her first book, How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life, which reached number one on the New York Times best-seller list.  From September 2019 to June 2021, Singh acted as executive producer and host of the NBC late-night talk show A Little Late with Lilly Singh.  She is the first person of Indian descent to host an American major broadcast network late-night talk show.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilly_Singh

Staten Island is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County.  Located in the southwest portion of the city, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and from the rest of New York by New York Bay.  With an estimated population of 476,143 in 2019, Staten Island is the least-populated of the boroughs but is the third-largest in land area at 58.5 sq mi (152 km²).  A home to Lenape natives, the island was settled by Dutch colonists in the 17th century.  It was one of the 12 original counties of New York State.  Staten Island was consolidated with New York City in 1898.  It was formally known as the Borough of Richmond until 1975, when its name was changed to Borough of Staten Island.  Staten Island has sometimes been called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staten_Island 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2427  September 24, 2021