There are more English words beginning with the letter 's' than with any other letter.  (This is mainly because clusters such as 'sc', 'sh', 'sp', and 'st' act almost like independent letters.)  The letter 'e' only comes about halfway down the order, and the letter 'x' unsurprisingly comes last.  https://www3.nd.edu/~busiforc/handouts/cryptography/letterfrequencies.html 

December 6, 2016  The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.  The Apocryphal Twain  This is currently the most viral piece of Twain apocrypha.  In just the hour prior to this writing, the quote appeared in seven independent Facebook posts.  It has been tweeted by over 900 separate accounts, reaching over 5.2 million users, in the past twelve days.  Antoine Fuqua made it the epitaph to his 2014 action film, The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, which grossed nearly $200 million worldwide.  Perhaps appropriately, in a year which has officially been deemed post-truth, the most frequently encountered example of Twain’s notorious wit is something he most certainly never said.  Matt Seybold  https://marktwainstudies.com/the-apocryphal-twain-the-two-most-important-days-of-your-life/ 

There are 3405 words containing A, E, I, O and U.  See list at https://www.bestwordlist.com/c/a/5/wordswithaeiousize.htm 

QUOTES from Headhunter, a novel by Timothy Findley  “Not a great deal of seafood was offered on the menu—pasta was prominent but not dominant—veal and chicken were plentiful and everything was cooked with herbs and served on plates that had been swabbed with olive oil.”  “Books are a way of singing.”  “All books are a conjuring . . . of humankind and the world that we inhabit.” 

Timothy Irving Frederick Findley (1930-2002) was a Canadian novelist and playwright.  He was also informally known by the nickname Tiff or Tiffy, an acronym of his initials.  He pursued a career in the arts, studying dance and acting, and had significant success as an actor before turning to writing.  He was part of the original Stratford Festival company in the 1950s, acting alongside Alec Guinness, and appeared in the first production of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker at the Edinburgh Festival.  He also played Peter Pupkin in Sunshine Sketches, the CBC Television adaptation of Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.  Findley's first two novels, The Last of the Crazy People (1967) and The Butterfly Plague (1969), were originally published in Britain and the United States after having been rejected by Canadian publishers.  Findley's third novel, The Wars, was published to great acclaim in 1977 and went on to win the Governor General's Award for English-language fiction.  It was adapted for film in 1981.  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16865.Timothy_Findley 

Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle in the American Revolutionary War.  It also includes the Wayside, home in turn to three noted American authors.  The Wayside, a National Historic Landmark, was home to Concord muster-master Samuel Whitney on April 19, 1775, and then, in turn, to authors Amos Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Sidney.  The Alcotts called the home "Hillside;" Hawthorne renamed it "Wayside."  The house is also part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.   The National Historical Park is under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service and protects 970 acres (392.5 ha) in and around the Massachusetts towns of Lexington, Lincoln, and Concord.  Sites include:  Concord's North Bridge, where on April 19, 1775, colonial commanders ordered militia men to fire back at British troops for the first time.  British colonial militia and minutemen killed two regular army soldiers and wounded eight more, one mortally, at the North Bridge Fight.  This was the second battle of the day, after the brief fight at dawn on Lexington Common.  In his 1837 poem, "Concord Hymn", thinker and author Ralph Waldo Emerson immortalized the North Bridge Fight as "the shot heard round the world".  At this site also stands Daniel Chester French's well-known The Minute Man statue of 1874.  Across the North Bridge, opposite The Minute Man statue is the Obelisk Monument.  The Obelisk is believed to be the country's first memorial to its war casualties.  Close by is the grave of the two regular army soldiers killed at the bridge and the Old Manse.  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minute_Man_National_Historical_Park  See also https://www.nps.gov/mima/planyourvisit/index.htm 

How to Be More Tree:  Essential Life Lessons for Perennial Happiness by Liz Marvin, Annie Davidson (Illustrator)  This beautifully illustrated book brings together sixty essential life lessons inspired by the infinite wisdom of trees.  Trees do not have brains to think with, or nervous systems that cause them to feel things, and yet they are undeniably clever.  From their ability to adapt, to their understanding of the strength of networks and mutually beneficial relationships, they put us to shame with their natural ability to thrive, even when they find themselves in less than ideal environments.  We learn about the importance of asking for help when you need it from elms, who call in an army of parasitic wasps when they're being attacked by caterpillars.  And acacias, who look out for each other by producing a gas when they're being nibbled on by herbivores to warn their nearby friends, while the Chinese pistache show us the power in pacing yourself, and why slow growth can lead to stronger foundations.  From the importance of patience, to drawing strength from others, to weathering the storm, to dealing with life's most persistent irritants--this is a celebration of the heroes of the forest, and an essential companion for dipping into when we need a little inspiration.  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48803849-how-to-be-more-tree

Tidbits from How to Be More Tree  (Take cues from Mother Nature.)  Trees have been around for nearly 400 million years.  *  If a branch of the blackthorn tree is snipped, it releases “wound hormones” that mobilize chemical defenses and repair systems.  *  The olive tree produces fruit with a higher energy content than any other, and can grow them until it’s nearly 1,000 years old.  *  Trees pump water up to their canopies where photosynthesis takes place.  This works up to about 390 feet.  The tallest tree on earth is a giant sequoia that stands at 379 feet.  *  The cottonwood is the fastest-growing tree in North America—young trees can shoot up to six feet in one year.  *  There are at least 60,000 distinct species of trees.  *  The juniper tree has a tap root that can grow 40 feet straight down in search of water.  *  The Cook pine tilts toward the equator.  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2449  November 2, 2021