According to food lore, freekeh’s fiery story dates back thousands of years, possibly as far back as 2,300 BC.  Allegedly, a Middle Eastern village came under enemy attack and their crops of young, green wheat caught fire during the siege.  The villagers ingeniously found they were able to salvage their food supply by rubbing away the burned chaff to reveal the roasted wheat kernels inside.  This is what we know today as freekeh, which means “to rub” or “the rubbed one.”  Freekeh is essentially wheat that has been harvested early, while the grains are still tender and green.  The kernels are then parched, roasted, dried and rubbed.  Technically, the term freekeh is actually the name of a process used to prepare grains, and not the name of a specific grain variety.  However, it typically refers to wheat, and generally to durum wheat.  The exact cooking instructions actually vary a bit, depending on the manufacturer (so we recommend you follow the instructions on your package).  In general, though, whole freekeh will need to cook for about 35-45 minutes, whereas cracked freekeh will need only about 10-25 minutes (depending on how finely cracked it is).  Different manufacturers also recommend slightly different ratios of freekeh to water.  Generally, it’s about 1 part freekeh to 2 or 2 1/2 parts water.  Some companies suggest that you cook the freekeh until all of the water is absorbed (similar to the way rice is often cooked), while others have you use a larger proportion of water and then drain away the excess water at the end of cooking (similar to how you’d cook pasta).  Shelley and Gretchen  https://twohealthykitchens.com/what-is-freekeh-and-how-do-you-cook-it/

"Tell me how you talk for a minute without using the letter A . . .  Easy.  Just start counting one two three four five six.  And so on.  You don’t hit a letter A until you get to a hundred and one.”  “Imagine the uproar if the Federal government tried to make everyone wear a radio transmitter around their neck so we can keep track of their movements.  But people happily carry their cell phones in their purses and pockets.”  “Iowa had a quarter of America’s best-grade topsoil all to itself, and therefore it was at the head of the list when it came to corn and soybeans and hogs and cattle.”  Reacher says:  “I like information.  I like facts.  Denver was named after James W. Denver, who was governor of the Kansas Territory at the time.”  A Wanted Man, the seventeenth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child

A simile is saying something is like something else.  A metaphor is often poetically saying something is something else.  An analogy is saying something is like something else to make some sort of an explanatory point.  You can use metaphors and similes when creating an analogy.  A simile is a type of metaphor.  All similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes.  https://www.masterclass.com/articles/metaphor-similie-and-analogy-differences-and-similarities#what-is-an-analogy 

A rhombus is a flat shape with 4 equal straight sides.  All sides have equal length.  Opposite sides are parallel and opposite angles are equal.  It is a parallelogram.  Some people call it a rhomb or even a diamond.  The plural is rhombi or rhombuses, and, rarely, rhombbi or rhombbuses (with a double b).  The name "rhombus" comes from the Greek word rhombos:  a piece of wood whirled on a string to make a roaring noise.  See graphics at https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/rhombus.html   

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  locavore  (LOH-kuh-vohr)  noun  One who eats locally grown food.  Coined by Jessica Prentice (b. 1968), chef and author.  From local, from Latin locus (place) + -vore (eating), from vorare (to devour).  Earliest documented use:  2005.    

A chicane is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography.  Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety.  For example, one form of chicane is a short, shallow S-shaped turn that requires the driver to turn slightly left and then slightly right to continue on the road, requiring the driver to reduce speed.  The word chicane is derived from the French verb chicaner, which means "to create difficulties" or "to dispute pointlessly", "quibble", which is also the root of the English noun chicanery.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane 

Nicholas Bracegirdle (born 28 February 1971), known professionally as Chicane, is an English musician, composer, songwriter, and record producer.  Among his works are singles "Offshore", an Ibiza trance anthem included in many compilations in both chill-out and dance versions; "Saltwater", which featured vocals by Clannad member Máire Brennan, and the UK number-one hit "Don't Give Up", featuring vocals by Bryan Adams, which also became a top ten hit on singles charts across Europe and Australia.  Far from the Maddening Crowds, Chicane's debut studio album from 1997, is still considered a seminal release among the trance music community, and his second studio album, 2000's Behind the Sun, was certified gold in the UK.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane_(musician)  

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (“TCLF”) announced on October 14, 2021 that Julie Bargmann, UVA School of Architecture Professor of Landscape Architecture and founder of D.I.R.T. (“Dump It Right There”) studio, is the inaugural winner of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (“Oberlander Prize”).  The biennial Oberlander Prize, which includes a $100,000 award, two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate’s work and landscape architecture more broadly and is named for the late landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, is bestowed on a recipient who is “exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary” and has “a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture.”  Bargmann, a native of Westwood, New Jersey, attended Carnegie Mellon University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where she graduated with a Master of Landscape Architecture in 1987.  She was named winner of the 1989-90 Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture and began her prolific teaching career in 1992 following seminal years early in her career at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.  In 1995 she joined the faculty of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and throughout her nearly thirty years teaching at the A-School she has created innovative and experimental studios, including many that focused on Superfund sites in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that have examined how industrial sites and their social histories combine to create the connective tissue that reforms and revitalizes communities.  See pictures at https://www.arch.virginia.edu/news/the-uva-school-of-architectures-julie-bargmann-wins-the-inaugural-cornelia-hahn-oberlander-international-landscape-architecture-prize   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2441  October 19, 2021