COMIC STRIP HUMOR  A fortune cookie with no fortune inside is an unfortunate cookie.  (Funky Winkerbean)  

Gentian is a bitter root extract from the European Gentian plant.  It is used in Angostura bitters, chocolate, vermouth, liquors, candy, ice cream and also vanilla flavorings.  The name is derived from King Gentius of Illyria (180-167 B.C.), who supposedly discovered the healing properties of the plants.  Link to resources such as food history, food quotes, food trivia and food poems at http://www.foodreference.com/html/f-gentian.html   

Once the hunting and fishing grounds of the Miami Indians, Roanoke, Indiana became a prosperous commercial center in the mid-19th century.  Kiilhsoohkwa (meaning "sun-woman"), the granddaughter of Chief Little Turtle, lived in Roanoke and was known by locals as “the last of the Miami tribe.”  Roanoke had its start in about 1848, soon after the building of the Wabash and Erie Canal through that territory.  The completion of the canal through Jackson Township enticed European-American settlers to the area.  In the wake of the canal's completion, the town became an important shipping point in the region and a source of supplies for neighboring towns in Allen, Huntington, and Whitley counties.   Roanoke was incorporated as a town in 1874.  The town was named after Roanoke, Virginia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke,_Indiana  Two hours away from Toledo, Ohio--visit Roanoke and experience a slice of Americana.   

There’s nothing wrong with mutual silence.  *  He was proud that his people were using their water and not letting it drain down into the Colorado to produce golf courses in Las Vegas and fill the hot tubs of Beverly Hills.  Sacred Clowns, the eleventh crime fiction novel in the Joe Leaphorn / Jim Chee Navajo Tribal Police series by Tony Hillerman 

Rent control applies to residential buildings constructed before February 1, 1947 in municipalities that have not declared an end to the postwar rental housing emergency.  There are several municipalities that still have rent control in effect.  These include New York City, Nassau, and Westchester counties.  In New York City, rent control tenants are generally in buildings built before February 1, 1947, where the tenant is in continuous occupancy prior to July 1, 1971.  Under rent control law, tenants are not obligated to sign renewal leases, as these tenancies are statutory.  Rent increases are limited, and services and evictions are regulated.  https://hcr.ny.gov/rent-control  Thank you, Muse reader! 

From:  Elaine  Subject:  John Taylor quotation  I live in Hoboken, NJ, which was the principal embarkation point for troops going to Europe in WWI.  To encourage the troops, Gen. Pershing is reported to have said as the first troops left in 1917, “By Christmas, you’ll be in heaven, hell, or Hoboken.” 

Wafu pasta is an umami-packed combination of cooked spaghetti tossed with Japanese ingredients:  dashi broth, soy sauce, sweetened rice wine and flavorful mushrooms like shimeiji and shiitake.  Some recipes call for butter, to thicken the sauce and help it cling to the pasta, and the dish is usually garnished with scallions, shredded nori, shiso leaves or spicy pollack roe.  The variations are endless, however, and the dish can be adapted to suit nearly anything you have in the refrigerator.  Jess Kapadia  https://www.foodrepublic.com/2017/10/23/noodles-wafu-pasta/ 

Piccadilly Circus is a road junction and public space of London's West End in the City of Westminster.  It was built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with Piccadilly.  In this context, a circus, from the Latin word meaning "circle", is a round open space at a street junction.  The Circus now connects Piccadilly, Regent Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, the Haymarket, Coventry Street (onwards to Leicester Square) and Glasshouse Street.  It is close to major shopping and entertainment areas in the West End.  Its status as a major traffic junction has made Piccadilly Circus a busy meeting place and a tourist attraction in its own right.  It is surrounded by several notable buildings, including the London Pavilion and Criterion Theatre.  Underneath the plaza is Piccadilly Circus Underground station, part of the London Underground system.  See pictures and uses of Piccadilly Circus in popular culture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piccadilly_Circus 

DECEMBER DATES TO REMEMBER  4 New Moon * 6 St. Nicholas Day * 7 Pearl Harbor Day * 14 South Pole discovered in 1911 * 16 Boston Tea Party 1773 * 18 Full Moon * 21 Winter begins * 22 Be a Lover of Silence Day * 25 Christmas * 26 Kwanzaa begins  * 31 New Year’s Eve  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2463  December 1, 2021