Amor Towles (b. 1964) is an American novelist.  Towles was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.  He graduated from Yale College and received an M.A. in English from Stanford University, where he was a Scowcroft Fellow.  When Towles was 10 years old, he threw a bottle with a message into the Atlantic Ocean.  Several weeks later, he received a letter from Harrison Salisbury, who was then the managing editor of The New York Times.  Towles and Salisbury corresponded for many years afterward.  As of this writing, his works include:  The Rules of Civility (2011), Eve in Hollywood (2013), A Gentleman in Moscow (2016), You Have Arrived at your Destination (online novella) (2019) and The Lincoln Highway (2021)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amor_Towles  American pronunciation of Amor Towles sounds like ay·mor tow·uhlz 

Indochina, also called (until 1950) French Indochina or French Indochine Française, the three countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia formerly associated with France, first within its empire and later within the French Union.  The term Indochina refers to the intermingling of Indian and Chinese influences in the culture of the region.  https://www.britannica.com/place/Indochina 

The Oxford English Dictionary attributes the earliest usage of cold feet in this sense to the writer and poet Stephen Crane.  In the 1896 edition of "Maggie:  A Girl of the Streets," Crane writes:  `I knew this was the way it would be.  They got cold feet.'  That is they lost courage or enthusiasm.  By the early 1900s, the phrase was being used on college campuses, and a few years later, the term `coldfooter' was applied to those who were afraid to fight in the Great War.  The wartime usage of `cold feet' has led some to claim that the phrase once referred to soldiers whose frostbitten toes prevented them from entering a battle, but it appeared long before the war in context that had nothing to do with the weather.  The phrase comes up twice in a popular German novel by Fritz Reuter, published in 1862, and both times it involved jokes.  In one case, the person losing his nerve, or getting cold feet, is a shoemaker.  So English-speakers may have translated the German idiom word for word.  Linguists call this a calque, or a loan translation.  The English word `superman,' for example, is a direct translation from the German ubermensch.  So the Germans who arrived in America in the latter half of the 19th century may have brought their cold feet with them.  On the other hand, the phrase may have a longer history.  Ben Johnson uses a similar expression in the play "Volpone" from 1605.  He referred to a Lombard proverb `Cold on my feet,' which means to have no money.  At least in a gambling context, having no money could lead a card player to get cold feet and leave the game.  Daniel Engber   https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630502 

In 1904, Frances Hodgson Burnett interrupted an interviewer.  “Can’t we talk about gardens?” she asked.  “I love them.”  Then she predicted, “I’m going to write a garden book someday.”  It took her twenty years to fulfill her pledge, and she did not live to see it in print.  She had gotten an assignment from The Country Gentleman, a popular magazine, for a series of six gardening essays called “Gardening for Everybody.”  She began as her health was failing.  After her death, Vivian brought the manuscript of the one extended piece she had finished to a publisher.  In a sense, this short book is both gardening memoir and her bequest to the rest of us.  Vivian drew the book’s title from the concluding chapter of The Secret Garden.  It was fitting.  Just as the spirit of Lilias Craven had whispered “in the garden” to her husband to draw him back to their son, Burnett’s final work leaves us with a message to carry forward.  Garden where you are.  Garden with what you have.  Simply garden.  Marta McDowell  https://lithub.com/frances-hodgson-burnett-really-loved-gardens-even-secret-ones/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

brogue  (brohg)  noun  1.  A sturdy shoe typically with ornamental perforations and a wing tip.  2.  A heavy shoe of untanned leather.  3. A strong accent, especially Irish or Scottish when speaking English. 

From Irish and Scottish Gaelic brog (shoe).  The accent sense of the word apparently arose from this kind of shoes worn by the speakers.  Earliest documented use:  1587.

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From:  Suzanne Sweeney  I live in the village of Chittenango (an Iroquois word meaning “water flowing North”).  It is also the birthday place of L. Frank Baum who was the author of The Wizard of Oz.  Yes, our downtown sidewalks are paved with yellow bricks, and we have until recently been the site of an annual Oz Fest including a parade in which children and adults dressed as the characters from the book/movie.

From:  Linda Forrester  I’ve been a faithful and enthusiastic reader for a number of years now, and I’ve never known you to say anything that was incorrect, but there it was today.  Dorothy wore ruby slippers, not silver ones. 
Response from Anu Garg:   Sometimes two people can differ and both can be right.  Dorothy wore silver shoes in the book and ruby in the film.

From:  Donald Ardell  In 2013, I lost first place in a World Triathlon Championship in London by one second, due to wasting minutes fumbling around trying to get my running shoes on in a muddy transition field.  This led to work on the design of a shoe that can be entered without the need for hands, while at the same time doing what needs to be done after the bike leg of a triathlon.  The patented design also works for disabled folks and anyone with difficulty getting feet into shoes.  You can see how it works here and in this 30-second video of an early prototype.
From:  Mike Zim   The mention of shoe-buying always, always, brings to mind a 1946 The New Yorker cartoon.

From:  Scott Chase  During HS and college (early 60s), I sold brogans for Thom McAn and Florsheim.  Same shoe as a brogue and, in fact, we shoe dogs used the words interchangeably.

I watched on Netflix this weekend a documentary about Bob Ross, Bob Ross:  Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed.  Bob Ross was the TV personality who did 30-minute paintings on PBS TV for over 11 years.   His quotation is:  “We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”  Sandra Speizer 

Baseball has been known as America’s “national pastime” since the 1850s.  While the sport may have been surpassed by football in the TV ratings, there’s still something about wooden bats, leather gloves, and grass-and-dirt diamonds that feels distinctly American.  And distinctly literary.  Baseball appears in postmodern comedies like Robert Coover’s The Universal Baseball Association (1968), horror stories like Stephen King’s Blockade Billy (2010), fabulist novels such as W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe (1982), YA fantasy like Michael Chabon’s Summerland (20021), and works of literary realism like Chard Harbach’s The Art of Fielding (2011) and Emily Nemens’s The Cactus League (2020).  Pick a literary genre and you can find baseball books.  Lincoln Michel  https://lithub.com/why-is-baseball-the-most-literary-of-sports/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2447  October 29, 2021 

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania sits in the heart of lush Brandywine Valley.  Beyond, surrounding farms produce roughly 60% of the country’s mushrooms, earning the area its well-earned nickname—the Mushroom Capital of the World.  Originally occupied by Lenape tribe members, the area now known as Kennett Square served an important role in the nation’s history.  British soldiers camped here during the Revolutionary War, the town served as a military encampment during the War of 1812 and many prominent Kennett Square citizens aided with the Underground Railroad.  This rich heritage earned Kennett Square a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.  https://www.visitphilly.com/areas/chester-county/kennett-square/  

Kennett Square's founder is credited with introducing mushroom growing to the area.  He grew carnations, a popular local commodity around 1885, and wanted to make use of the wasted space under the elevated beds.  He imported spawn from Europe and started experimenting with mushroom cultivation.  Kennett Square is the subject and setting of the novel The Story of Kennett, written by 19th-century American author Bayard Taylor, who lived nearby at Cedarcroft.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennett_Square,_Pennsylvania

Loosely translated, pizzelle means “small, flat, and round” and that’s exactly what these cookies are.  An easy pizzelle recipe for the classic Italian cookie, lightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla or anise.  All you need are 6 ingredients and 1 pizzelle maker!  Meggan Hill  https://www.culinaryhill.com/pizzelle-italian-cookies/ 

In biology, an atavism is a modification of a biological structure whereby an ancestral genetic trait reappears after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations.  Atavisms can occur in several ways; one of which is when genes for previously existing phenotypic features are preserved in DNA, and these become expressed through a mutation that either knocks out the overriding genes for the new traits or makes the old traits override the new one.  A number of traits can vary as a result of shortening of the fetal development of a trait (neoteny) or by prolongation of the same.  In such a case, a shift in the time a trait is allowed to develop before it is fixed can bring forth an ancestral phenotype.  Atavisms are often seen as evidence of evolution.  In social sciences, atavism is the tendency of reversion.  For example, people in the modern era reverting to the ways of thinking and acting of a former time.  The word atavism is derived from the Latin atavus—a great-great-great-grandfather or, more generally, an ancestor.  See list of observed atavisms--including color blindness—at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atavism   

The Confederate battle flag was born of necessity after the Battle of Bull Run.  Amid the smoke and general chaos of battle, it was hard to distinguish the Confederate national flag, the “Stars and Bars," from the U. S. national flag, the "Stars and Stripes.”  Confederate Congressman William Porcher Miles suggested that the army have a distinct battle flag.  General Pierre T. Beauregard chose a variation on the cross of St. Andrew.  The battle flag features a blue cross, edged with a white band on a red field.  There are three stars on each arm of the cross and one star in the center.  The stars represented each of the states of the Confederacy, plus one.  Beauregard was betting that one of the states with pro-Confederacy leanings, Maryland, Kentucky, or Missouri, would join the Southern cause.  That never happened, but the flag remained the same for the remainder of the war.  See pictures at https://www.si.edu/object/confederate-battle-flag%3Anmah_439645   

At the outset of the Civil War, there was little coordination of what flag Confederate regiments should carry, and many carried newly created state flags.  The first Confederate national flag, the “Stars and Bars,” resembled the American flag too closely.  The second, known as the “Stainless Banner,” was later abandoned because its white background made it look too much like a flag of surrender.  By 1862, generals were allowed to pick flag designs for the regiments under their command.  Today’s most famous design was used, in a square form, by the Army of Northern Virginia, led by General Robert E. Lee.  But General William Hardee used a blue flag with a full moon in the center.  General Earl Van Dorn had a red flag with a crescent moon and 13 large stars.  At the time these symbols would have been well known, but they have since become less instantly recognizable as symbols of the Confederacy.  Sarah Laskow  See many pictures at   https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/museum-obscure-confederate-battle-flags-southern-cross-stars-bars   

50 Midwest Museums We Love by Jess Hoffert   See slideshow at https://www.midwestliving.com/travel/50-midwest-museums-we-love/   

To be ahead of the curve is to be more advanced or modern than someone or something else, to be on the forefront of a trend, to get a jump-start on a craze or idea and to act upon it before others do.  The phrase ahead of the curve may also mean to be above average in some way.  The idiom ahead of the curve is an abbreviation of the expression ahead of the power curve.  This renders a clue as to the origin of the term.  The power curve is an aviation term which means the interaction between drag and airspeed, or how the engine power of a given aircraft acts upon that aircraft’s airspeed.  The mathematics of the power curve may be plotted in a curve.  When discussing the amount of power a pilot must ask of his aircraft engine in order to maintain speed and altitude, pilots may talk about being ahead of the power curve or maintaining good speed and altitude, or being behind the power curve in which case they lose speed and altitude.  The idiom ahead of the power curve came into use in the 1920s, when more airplanes took to the skies.  The idiom was shortened in the 1960s and 1970s to the phrase ahead of the curve, and was popularized by the Nixon administration.  https://grammarist.com/idiom/ahead-of-the-curve-vs-ahead-of-the-curb/  See also https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/be-ahead-of-the-curve 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2446  October 27, 2021 

Letter frequency is the number of times letters of the alphabet appear on average in written language.  Letter frequency analysis dates back to the Arab mathematician Al-Kindi (c. 801–873 AD), who formally developed the method to break ciphers.  Letter frequency analysis gained importance in Europe with the development of movable type in 1450 AD, where one must estimate the amount of type required for each letterform.  Linguists use letter frequency analysis as a rudimentary technique for language identification, where it is particularly effective as an indication of whether an unknown writing system is alphabetic, syllabic, or ideographic.  The frequency of the first letters of words or names in English is helpful in pre-assigning space in physical files and indexes.  Given 26 filing cabinet drawers, rather than a 1:1 assignment of one drawer to one letter of the alphabet, it is often useful to use a more equal-frequency-letter code by assigning several low-frequency letters to the same drawer (often one drawer is labeled VWXYZ), and to split up the most-frequent initial letters ('S', 'A', and 'C') into several drawers (often 6 drawers Aa-An, Ao-Az, Ca-Cj, Ck-Cz, Sa-Si, Sj-Sz).  The same system is used in some multi-volume works such as some encyclopedias. Cutter numbers, another mapping of names to a more equal-frequency code, are used in some libraries.  Both the overall letter distribution and the word-initial letter distribution approximately match the Zipf distribution and even more closely match the Yule distribution.   Often the frequency distribution of the first digit in each datum is significantly different from the overall frequency of all the digits in a set of numeric data, see Benford's law for details.  An analysis by Peter Norvig on Google Books data determined, among other things, the frequency of first letters of English words.  A June 2012 analysis using a text document containing all words in the English language exactly once, found 'S' to be the most common starting letter for words in the English language, followed by 'P', 'C', and 'A'.  Find charts at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency  Frequency ratings of letters overall in English start with ‘E’ at 13%, ‘T’ at 9.1%, and ‘A’at  8.2%.  You can remember ETA thinking “estimated time of arrival.” 

—Beyond Van Gogh:  The Immersive Experience is the vision of Mathieu St-Arnaud, creative director of Montreal-based Normal Studio, a projection-mapping outfit that has previously worked with the Montreal symphony and brought the Diary of Anne Frank to life.  Beyond Van Gogh promises “300 of Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic artworks,” brought to life with music and “the artist’s own dreams, thoughts, and words.”  —Imagine Van Gogh:  The Immersive Exhibition claims to employ a signature technique of immersive projection so visceral that they do not show videos on their website, because this would fail to capture the experience.  Conceived by Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, associated with the immersive attraction known as the Cathédrale d’Images in France, Imagine Van Gogh is an animated projected collage of some 200 paintings from the final two years of Van Gogh’s life, all accompanied by classical hits by Saint-Saëns, Mozart, Bach, Delibes and Satie.  There is also a “pedagogical room,” conceived with art historian Androulla Michael.  —Immersive Van Gogh is the brainchild of Italian film producer Massimiliano Siccardi.  It promises, via 100 projectors, an hour-long experience completely bathing visitors in Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest hits, accompanied by “experimental electronic music with pure, ethereal and simple-seeming piano” by composer Luca Longobardi.  —Van Gogh Alive comes courtesy Grande Experiences, also the braintrust behind such exhibitions as Monet & Friends and Planet Shark.  Focusing on the period between 1880 and 1890, it promises “more than 3,000 Van Gogh images at enormous scale” via 40 projectors, augmented to show the Dutch artist’s sources of inspiration and set to “a powerful classical score.”  —Finally, Van Gogh:  The Immersive Experience, a partnership between producer Exhibition Hub and “entertainment discovery platform” Fever promises to wrap you in more than 400 Van Gogh works using a trademarked video mapping technology.  On top of the light show, there is a drawing studio, galleries that offer info about Van Gogh’s life and work, and an (optional) 10-minute VR experience called A Day in the Life of the Artist in Arles.  Ads with “Gogh”-themed puns (“Gogh with Mom,” “It’s Safe to Gogh,” “Don’t Wait to Gogh,” etc.) are blanketing nearly 40 different cities across the U.S. and saturating social media feeds.  Find a round-up of U.S. shows based on the best available information at https://news.artnet.com/art-world/immersive-van-gogh-guide-1974038 

Although Amelia Earhart wrote three books about her flights, was the aviation editor for Cosmopolitan, and wrote numerous other pieces of journalism about everything from her experiences flying an autogiro to her musings on clouds, her love of poetry only shows up on rare occasions in her prose.  Harriet Staff  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet-books/2020/02/recollecting-amelia-earharts-lost-verse   As a social worker, Amelia Earhart wrote a poem called “Courage,” about making hard decisions; Eleanor Roosevelt kept a copy of it in her desk drawer: 
Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace
The soul that knows it not, knows no release
From little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings… 
Amelia occasionally submitted poetry to magazines under an assumed name, but she wrote often, mainly for herself.  A few hand-written poems survive, most of them drafts and scraps.  http://www.ameliaearhartbook.net/amelia-earhart-media/blog2/amelias-flights-of-poetry/  Despite her lifelong hobby, Earhart only ever published one poem.  “Courage” went to print in June of 1928, after Earhart’s first trans-Atlantic flight on the Friendship, when she flew as a passenger and first gained celebrity status.  She had submitted other poems, including “To M.,” “Palm Tree,” and “From an Airplane,” for magazine publication in 1926, but they were rejected.  In these instances, Earhart used the pen name, Emil Harte, for her work.  https://flightpaths.lib.purdue.edu/blog/2016/04/25/the-poet-and-the-person/  See also https://www.poemhunter.com/amelia-earhart/

July 6, 2021  Downsizing and shrinkflation both refer to the same thing:  companies reducing the size or quantity of their products while charging the same price or even more.  The original name was downsizing, but economist Pippa Malmgren rechristened it "shrinkflation" about a decade ago, and the term stuck.  Greg Rosalsky  https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/07/06/1012409112/beware-of-shrinkflation-inflations-devious-cousin 

heffalump (plural heffalumps)  noun  (chiefly childish, humorous) (A child's name for) an elephant.  quotations ▼ Something that is elusive.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/heffalump#English  English author A. A. Milne’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, in which Heffalumps were introduced, was first published on October 26, 1926. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2445  October 26, 2021

Nachos are a Mexican regional dish from northern Mexico that consists of heated tortilla chips or totopos covered with melted cheese (or a cheese-based sauce), often served as a snack or appetizer.  More elaborate versions of the dish include other ingredients, and may be substantial enough to serve as a main dish.  Ignacio "El Nacho" Anaya created the dish in 1940.  The original nachos consisted of fried corn tortilla chips covered with melted cheese and sliced jalapeño peppers.  In the United States, National Nacho Day is celebrated on November 6.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachos 

The word surgeon is another spelling for chirurgeon, from Greek cheir (hand).  In Medieval Europe, a pilgrim brought back a palm branch as a token of their pilgrimage and hence was known as a palmer.  A palm tree is called so because of the resemblance of the shape of its frond to the palm of a hand.  What’s common between Boca Raton, Florida, and Oral, South Dakota?  Both are named after the mouth.  Boca Raton is Spanish for a mouse’s mouth.  Anu Garg 

Ellen Price, the early-20th-century Danish ballerina, has two claims to immortality.  Firstly as the model for Edvard Eriksen's statue of The Little Mermaid, the tourist face of Copenhagen; and secondly as one of the very first ballerinas whose dancing has been preserved on film.  Price belonged to one of Denmark's great performing dynasties, founded by an English circus rider and pantomime artist, James Price, who settled in Copenhagen in the late 18th century.  Price's descendents became dominant throughout Danish theatre and ballet:  his granddaughter Juliette was the first ballerina to dance Giselle for the Royal Danish Ballet:  Ellen's mother and father (Juliette's cousin) were themselves principal dancers, and Ellen made her debut with the company in 1895.  It was Ellen's performance of the Little Mermaid in Hans Beck's 1909 ballet that led to her modeling for Eriksen's statue.  And while it was only her face that he copied--she refused to pose nude--on stage she was acclaimed for the full-bodied and full-hearted expressiveness of her dancing.  In this first exquisite fragment, shot in 1903 by pioneering documentary maker Peter Elfelt, Price's animation shines through the jerky speed of the film.  She's dancing the title role of August Bournonville's 1836 version of La Sylphide.  And while the buoyancy and character of her performance is partly a reflection of the naturalistic style in which all Royal Danish Ballet dancers were trained, it's clear that Price herself was an outstanding performer.  Judith Mackrell  Link to videos at https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/sep/05/ellen-price-first-ballet-film-star 

Origin of Bone to Pick   Pick has several meanings.  One of these is to repeatedly pull at something.  This is the sense the word has in this idiom.  Most sources state that this expression comes from a dog trying to pick off the meat from a bone, and one connotation of this idiom is trying to solve a difficult time-consuming problem.  This is likely related to the fact that dogs often gnaw on a bone for very long periods of time, even when most of the meat is gone.  This type of usage dates back to the 1500s.  https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/bone-to-pick 

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an annual plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae.  It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds.  Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, such as soups, sandwiches and wraps; it can also be grilled.  One variety, the celtuce (asparagus lettuce), is grown for its stems, which are eaten either raw or cooked.  In addition to its main use as a leafy green, it has also gathered religious and medicinal significance over centuries of human consumption.  Europe and North America originally dominated the market for lettuce, but by the late 20th century the consumption of lettuce had spread throughout the world.  As of 2017, world production of lettuce and chicory was 27 million tonnes, 56% of which came from China.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce

October 21, 2021  Just hours after releasing a new license plate design unveiled by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, the Ohio Department of Safety assures aviation and history enthusiasts that the design has been corrected.  The last license plate released was the “Ohio Pride” plate introduced in 2013.  The plate features the Wright Brothers’ first powered aircraft along with a banner flown with Ohio’s tag line “The Birthplace Of Aviation.”  The problem was that the banner was attached to the nose of the plane and not the tail.  The new license plate will be available for purchase by the end of the year.  Kathy Laird  See graphic at https://crawfordcountynow.com/local/department-quickly-gets-it-wright/ 

Renowned children’s book illustrator Jerry Pinkney, winner of the Caldecott Medal and five Caldecott Honor citations, widely acclaimed for his picture books honoring his Black heritage as well as for his richly detailed works reimagining well-loved fairy and folktales, died on October 20, 2021.  He was 81.  Jerry Pinkney was born December 22, 1939 in Philadelphia to James H. and Williemae Pinkney, the fourth of six children.  In an autobiographical essay for Something About the Author, he recalled growing up “on an all-black block” in the Germantown section of the city on a street bustling with activity and many other children.  Pinkney took an interest in drawing very early on, imitating his two older brothers who would draw images from comic books and photographic magazines like Life.  He first believed that drawing and art might one day play a big role in his life when he received encouragement from his teachers and classmates whenever he created drawings for his elementary school projects.  Shannon Maughan  https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/87686-obituary-jerry-pinkney.html

 On October 24, 2021, Tom Brady found Mike Evans late in the first quarter for his second touchdown pass of the game and 600th of his career, furthering his record-setting mark and becoming the first player to reach 600 touchdown passes.  While the historic pass extended Tampa Bay's lead over Chicago to 21-0 before the first quarter was up, it was not without some drama.  Evans was apparently unaware of the significance of the pass, and handed the ball to a fan in the front row near the end zone.  Once the gravity of the moment was realized, team staffers were deployed to work out a deal with the fan in return for the ball.  Nick Selbe  https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/10/24/tom-brady-600th-touchdown-pass-bucs-bears-negotiate-fan  Tampa Bay beat Chicago 38-3.  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2444  October 25, 2021 

 Bone up  To renew, refresh, or master a skill quickly, usually before an important event that requires it.  This phrasal verb means to study, to prepare, or to get well acquainted with a subject through close study.  When an exam, quiz, or presentation is imminent, it is common to bone up on the subject to prepare oneself before being required to know and use them.  The phrase was originally military academy slang, which we can see through several early examples that are all connected to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.  It has always meant to refine one’s knowledge and may come from the idea that you use a bone to polish leather as you might polish your mind through study.  The first time we see the phrase used in its current incarnation is 1887, in Elizabeth Custer’s Tenting where she refers to an 1860s phrase:  I have known the General to “bone up,” as his West Point phrase expressed, on the smallest details of some question at issue.  https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/bone-up-on-something   

“Unhurried” would probably be the best word for the way Frédéric Eliot cooks leg of lamb in the kitchens he oversees.  At Scales—restaurateur Dana Street’s classic seafood spot in Portland, Maine—the French-born chef stuffs local lamb with herbs, garlic confit and spices, then roasts it, bone-in, for nearly an hour.  At sister restaurant Fore Street, he either slowly braises or spit-roasts leg of lamb over live coals.  When cooking off the clock, however, Mr. Eliot goes about things quite differently.  In his second Slow Food Fast recipe, he calls for seasoning butterflied leg of lamb with salt and pepper and simply searing it in a heavy pan.  (You can also quickly grill it.)  In just a few minutes, the exterior crisps and caramelizes, while the interior cooks to medium.  “You do it like a steak,” Mr. Eliot said.  “You want this a nice pink.”  While the meat rests, stir up a sauté of summer vegetables with red wine and anchovies—a luxurious, sweet-savory bed for the sliced lamb.  With a really nice piece of lamb, you don’t need a whole lot of fanfare.  Kitty Greenwald  The Wall Street Journal  August 25, 2021  

A zine (short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine.  Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation.  A fanzine (blend of fan and magazine) is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon (such as a literary or musical genre) for the pleasure of others who share their interest.  The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.  Libraries and institutions with notable zine collections include:  Barnard College Library, The University of Iowa Special Collections, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, The Tate Museum, The British Library, and Harvard University's Schlesinger Library.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zine 

Ham hocks are cankles.  A ham hock is pork that’s cut from the bottom part of a pig’s leg where the calf connects to the ankle.  It’s not a super common cut but it’s used a lot in Southern USA and it gives a deep flavour to many dishes.  The actual ham hock isn’t usually the highlight of the dish as it’s not particularly meaty.  Instead, it’s used to give a smoky, salty flavour to meals like stews.  Preheat your oven to 350 ° F.  In an oven safe lidded skillet or braising pan, fry the ham hocks in the oil until brown and crispy on the outside.  Add in the vegetable broth.  (You can use chicken as well if wanted.)  Remove from the stove, cover with a lid and place in the oven.  Cook in the oven for 2-3 hours, until the ham hock meat is tender and falls apart when pulled at with a fork.  Karlynn Johnston  https://www.thekitchenmagpie.com/braised-ham-hocks/   

The forms loath, loathe, and loathed are not interchangeable.  The word loath is an adjective.  It’s from Old English lað which meant “hostile, repulsive.”  It’s related to German Leid (sorrow) and French laid (ugly).  Its most frequent modern usage is in the expression “to be loath to do something,” in which the meaning is not much stronger than “reluctant.”  Ex.  I am loath to admit my mistake. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath tells the story of the “loathly lady.”  A young man must choose between an ugly (loathly) bride who will be faithful, and a beautiful one who will not be.  The word loathe is a verb.  It’s from Old English laðian which had the meaning “to hate, to be disgusted with.”  The modern meaning is about the same: “to feel strong aversion for; have extreme disgust at.”  The form loathed is the participle form.  Ex.  The child loathed the cruel teacher.  A variant spelling of the adjective loath is loth.  The th in the adjective has the unvoiced sound heard in thin.  The verb loathe (despite the tutor’s note at Answers.com) has a different pronunciation.  The th in loathe has the voiced sound heard in this.  The silent final e is what signals the difference in pronunciation.  The Kingdom of Loathers is an online game.  The Loathers is a music group.  

Browse more than 80 recipes with lima beans (also known as butter beans) complete with ratings, reviews and cooking tips at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipes/1840/fruits-and-vegetables/beans-and-peas/lima-beans/

Warren William (born Warren William Krech 1894–1948) was a Broadway and Hollywood actor, immensely popular during the early 1930s; he was later nicknamed the "King of Pre-Code".  The studios capitalized on William's popularity by placing him in multiple "series" films, particularly as detectives and crime solvers.  William was the first to portray Erle Stanley Gardner's fictional defense attorney Perry Mason on the big screen, starring in four Perry Mason mysteries.  He played Raffles-like reformed jewel thief The Lone Wolf in nine films, beginning with The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939), and appeared as Detective Philo Vance in two of the series films, The Dragon Murder Case (1934) and the comedic The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939).  He also starred as Sam Spade (renamed Ted Shane) in Satan Met a Lady (1936), the second screen version of The Maltese Falcon.  Other roles included Mae West's manager in Go West, Young Man (1936); a jealous district attorney in another James Whale film, Wives Under Suspicion (1938); copper magnate Jesse Lewisohn in 1940's Lillian Russell; the evil Jefferson Carteret in Arizona (also 1940); and the sympathetic Dr. Lloyd in The Wolf Man (1941).  In 1945, he played Brett Curtis in cult director Edgar G. Ulmer's 1945 modern-day version of Hamlet, called Strange Illusion.  In what would be his last film, he played Laroche-Mathieu in The Private Affairs of Bel Ami in 1947.  On radio, William starred in the transcribed series Strange Wills, which featured "stories behind strange wills that run the gamut of human emotion."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_William 

That is what learning is.  You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. - Doris Lessing, novelist, poet, playwright, Nobel laureate (22 Oct 1919-2013)  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2443  October 22, 2021