The snark is a fictional animal species created by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark.  According to Carroll, the initial inspiration to write the poem--which he called an agony in eight fits--was the final line, For the snark was a boojum, you see.  Carroll was asked repeatedly to explain the snark.  In all cases, his answer was he did not know and could not explain.  The poem describes several varieties of snark.  Some have feathers and bite, and some have whiskers and scratch.  The boojum is a particular variety of snark, which causes the baker at the end of the poem to "softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again".  The snark's flavour is meager and hollow, but crisp (apparently like a coat too tight in the waist), with a flavour of will-o-the-wisp.  It is sometimes served with greens.  It also sleeps late into the day.  While the snark is very ambitious, and has very little sense of humor, it is very fond of bathing-machines, and constantly carries them about wherever it goes.  It is also handy for striking a light; the Annotated Snark suggests that this could mean either that its skin is useful for striking matches on, or that it breathes fire.  The domain of the snark is an island filled with chasms and crags, very distant from England.  On the same island may also be found other creatures such as the jubjub and bandersnatch.  The snark is a peculiar creature that cannot be captured in a commonplace way.  Above all, courage is required during a snark hunt.  The most common method is to seek it with thimbles, care, forks, and hope.  One may also "threaten its life with a railway share" or "charm it with smiles and soap".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snark_(Lewis_Carroll) 

SNARK  verb  If someone snarks, they criticize another person in an unkind way.  [informal]  uncountable noun  Snark is unkind criticism of someone or something.  https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/snark 

Parrot tulips open their ruffled petals in mid to late spring after most other tulips have bloomed and faded, extending the color show.  Their huge blooms span up to 5 inches across, with streaks of color shooting through the petals like brilliant flames.  Tall, elegant stems give parrot tulips a statuesque posture that make them a standout in the garden and a striking addition to floral arrangements.  Parrot tulips are available in more than 50 varieties, most of which are multi-colored.  Some of the shades are revealed gradually, as the blooms fully open.  Anne Balogh   See pictures and planting tips at https://www.gardendesign.com/bulbs/parrot-tulips.html

Actress Audrey Hepburn was actually born Audrey Kathleen Ruston, and didn’t start using the name Audrey Hepburn until 1948.  In 1940 during German occupation, she also took on the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra.  This was because her “English sounding” birth-given name was deemed too dangerous for the time, so she used an alias to avoid being captured by Germans.  Audrey was fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Flemish (a variation of Dutch).  A hybrid breed to tulip was named after the star. The Netherlands Flower Information Society said that this act was “a tribute to the actress’s career and her longtime work on behalf of UNICEF.”  https://www.gosocial.co/10-things-didnt-know-inspirational-audrey-hepburn/   

This is a dude his ears protrude in most expansive magOnitudOde his OcolOlar of the latest date surrounds . . . A gaudy tie surrounds his throat . . . Here is his plated watch chain not the best . . .  See graphic with additional words at https://newspaperarchive.com/seov2/annapolis-evening-capital-jun-07-1884-p-3/  Thank you, Muse reader!   

Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance.  It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own.  Concrete poetry relates more to the visual than to the verbal arts although there is a considerable overlap in the kind of product to which it refers.  Historically, however, concrete poetry has developed from a long tradition of shaped or patterned poems in which the words are arranged in such a way as to depict their subject.  Though the term ‘concrete poetry’ is modern, the idea of using letter arrangements to enhance the meaning of a poem is old.  Such shaped poetry was popular in Greek Alexandria during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, although only the handful which were collected together in the Greek Anthology now survive.  Examples include poems by Simmias of Rhodes in the shape of an egg, wings and a hatchet, as well as Theocritus’ pan-pipes.  The post-Classical revival of shaped poetry seems to begin with the Gerechtigkeitsspirale (spiral of justice), a relief carving of a poem at the pilgrimage church of St. Valentin in the German town of Hesse.  The text is carved in the form of a spiral on the front of one of the church pews and is one of several decorative designs there created in 1510 by master carpenter Erhart Falckener.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry   

Karen Tei Yamashita is published by Coffee House Press, a small independent publisher in Minneapolis, rather than a massive publisher in New York.  She has not won a fame-inducing prize like a Pulitzer, Booker, or National Book Award.  She also hasn’t picked a literary lane, not just in terms of form—writing novels, short stories, nonfiction, and plays—but in terms of style and themes as well, writing historical fiction, magical realism, postmodern maximalism, social realism, and more.  If you are new to Yamashita, this means her voice is so varied and playful and her topics so diverse that any book is an appropriate introduction.  Find a list of five of her books to help you find a place to start.  Josh Cook  https://lithub.com/why-everyone-should-read-the-great-karen-tei-yamashita/   

A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.  Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.  In the United Kingdom, a similar contrivance is referred to as a "Heath Robinson contraption" after cartoons by the illustrator W. Heath Robinson.  The design of such a "machine" is often presented on paper and would be impossible to implement in actuality.  More recently, such machines are being fully constructed for entertainment (for example, a breakfast scene in Peewee's Big Adventure) and in Rube Goldberg competitions.  Over the years, the expression has expanded to mean any confusing or overly complicated system.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine   

Ruth Irene Tompson (1910–October 10, 2021) was an American camera technician, animation checker and supercentenarian.  She was known for her work on animated features at The Walt Disney Company and was declared a Disney Legend in 2000.  Ruthie Tompson was born on July 22, 1910 in Portland, Maine and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.  She then moved with her family to Oakland, California in November 1918 at age eight.  In 1924, her parents divorced and her mother, Arlene, remarried artist John Roberts.  The family relocated to Los Angeles and their house was in the same block as the house of Robert Disney, uncle of Walt Disney.  This is where Roy and Walt Disney lived when they first came to Los Angeles.  See filmography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthie_Tompson

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2438  October 13, 2021