In 1933, Girl Scouts of Greater Philadelphia Council baked cookies and sold them in the city's gas and electric company windows.  The price was just 23 cents per box of 44 cookies, or six boxes for $1.24!  Girls developed their marketing and business skills and raised funds for their local Girl Scout council.  A year later, Greater Philadelphia took cookie sales to the next level, becoming the first council to sell commercially baked cookies.  In 1935, the Girl Scout Federation of Greater New York raised money through the sale of commercially baked cookies.  Buying its own die in the shape of a trefoil, the group used the words “Girl Scout Cookies” on the box.  In 1936, the national Girl Scout organization began the process of licensing the first commercial bakers to produce cookies that would be sold nationwide by girls in Girl Scout councils.  https://www.girlscouts.org/en/cookies/all-about-cookies/Cookie-History.html 

GIRL SCOUT COOKIE FROM 1917 recipe by LilPinkieJ  https://www.food.com/recipe/girl-scout-cookie-from-1917-331069

ORIGINAL 1922 GIRL SCOUT COOKIE RECIPE  http://oldschoolpastry.pastrysampler.com/original-1922-girl-scout-cookie-recipe/ 

The term "goldbricking" originates from the unethical practice of coating bricks with gold plates, to pass them off as solid gold (hiding the cheap metal they were actually made of).  At first, it referred to outright fraud.  By the turn of the 20th century, the meaning had expanded to be something or someone deceptive.  In World War I, incompetent U.S. Army officers appointed from civilian life with only minimal training were called "gold bricks" by enlisted men (possibly inspired by the gold rectangle that signified the rank of second lieutenant).  Goldbricking in the modern sense of malingering developed around the time of World War II, in the U.S. Army.  The term was extended to refer to anybody not pulling his weight—a loafer who gives the appearance of working without actually accomplishing much (presumably, they'd do anything, including sell fake gold bricks, rather than an honest day’s work).   After the war, "goldbricking" and "goldbricker" started getting applied in civilian life as well.  https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/goldbricking.asp 

Greenroom  Etymologists trace the origin of this term for an actors' lounge to what was called "the assembly room" at London's Dorset Garden theater during the late 1600s.  We don't know whether this assembly room was painted green or decorated with green plants.  But when the Dorset merged with the Drury Lane theater in 1682 and shifted its performances to the Drury, the Dorset actors complained about missing their "greenroom" at the Dorset (along with a lot of other things, like not getting a larger percentage of the international box office gross).  By the early 1700s, "greenroom" had become a generic term for a holding room in a theater.

Blue Streak  Early European settlers of North America found the intensity and frequency of its lightning storms, well . . . striking.  Seeing a bolt of lightning instantaneously zap a barn left two key impressions on pioneers:  Lightning bolts were speedy and they were bluish in color.  So, by the early 1840s, anything that moved fast—a horse, a train and a farmer fleeing lightning—was said to be galloping, chugging or running "like a blue streak."  And when someone talked rapidly, like a mine promoter, for instance, he was said to be "talking a blue streak."  https://www.courant.com/hc-xpm-2012-10-21-hc-word-watch-1021-20121021-story.html   

The term “viscose” refers to the viscous organic liquid which is regenerated into fibers for making the fabric.  Viscose rayon is derived from cellulose, the main constituent of plant cell walls.  Cellulose is treated with chemicals to make a fiber mimicking the qualities of natural fibers, such as silk and cotton.  Viscose fabric often looks like silk and feels like cotton.  Some of the common trees and plants from which viscose rayon is derived:  Beech, Pine, Spruce, Hemlock, Eucalyptus, Bamboo, Soy and Sugarcane.  https://amerisleep.com/blog/what-is-viscose/

Martha Ann (sometimes Anne) Honeywell (1786–1856) was an American disabled artist, who produced silhouettes and embroidery using only her mouth and her toes, often in public performances.  A native either of Lempster, New Hampshire, or of Westchester, New York, Honeywell was born without hands or forearms, and had only three toes on one foot.  One of her advertisements claimed she stood only three feet tall.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Ann_Honeywell

Namby-pamby is a term for affected, weak, and maudlin speech/verse.  It originates from Namby Pamby (1725) by Henry Carey.  Carey wrote his poem as a satire of Ambrose Philips and published it in his Poems on Several Occasions.  Alexander Pope had criticized Philips repeatedly (in The Guardian and in his Peri Bathos, among other places), and praising or condemning Philips was a political as much as poetic matter in the 1720s, with the nickname also employed by John Gay and Jonathan Swift.  Carey's Namby Pamby had enormous success.  It became so successful that people began to call Philips himself "Namby Pamby" (as, for example, in The Dunciad in 1727), as he had been renamed by the poem, and Carey was referred to as "Namby Pamby Carey".  The poem sold well and he used this style in various other short poems.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namby-pamby  See also https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/namby-pamby.html

The New York Public Library system will not charge fines on overdue materials, and all library card holders have had their accounts cleared of any prior late fees or fines, including replacement fees for lost materials, the NYPL announced on October 5, 2021, in what it called a change intended to level the playing field for all library patrons and encourage use of library resources.  In April, the Boston Public Library system committed to eliminating all late fees after previously nixing overdue fines for minors.  The Burbank Public Library system in California wiped all patron accounts clean in July and announced that it would no longer charge late fees, in a move intended to increase access.  "While fines for overdue items may seem like a small burden, they can create a major barrier to service for those who are struggling financially," the Burbank release stated.  "Too many people have made the choice to stop using the Library because of inability to pay or fear of accruing fines."  The San Diego Public Library scrapped fines back in 2019, as did the Chicago Public Library.  And these increasingly popular initiatives have been proven successful:  After the policy change, Chicago public libraries saw an increase in returned materials as well as library card renewals, according to a previous NPR report.  Sharon Pruitt-Young  https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043412502/library-fees-eliminated-new-york   

Columbus Day commemorates the date when Christopher Columbus first set foot in the Americas.  In the USA it is observed on the Second Monday in October.  Though Columbus Day is one of the 10 U.S. legal federal holidays, it is not considered a major one.  There will be no postal service.  It is a Federal Reserve Bank holiday, so while banks may open, some transactions will not be processed.  Most businesses remain open and retail stores may run special sales.  The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq remain open on this federal holiday.  In addition to a state level, in many cities, the day is now celebrated as Native Americans’ Day or Indigenous People’s Day.  Link to state by state guide and Columbus Day quiz at https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/usa/columbus-day   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2436  October 11, 2021