Beatrix Potter drew compulsively, rapturously, from a young age, in a sketchbook that she made from drawer-lining paper and stationery.  “It is all the same, drawing, painting, modelling, the irresistible desire to copy any beautiful object which strikes the eye,” she wrote.  Potter’s sketchbook and coded journal, and many of her other belongings, are on display at the V. & A. through early 2023, in an exhibition titled “Beatrix Potter:  Drawn to Nature.”  (Rizzoli has published an accompanying book by the same name.)  Some two hundred and forty eclectic objects, including manuscripts, sketches, tchotchkes and collectibles—even the alleged pelt of Benjamin Bunny–—tell the story of a remarkable transformation.  Potter gave up the trappings of her privileged life in London and bought a cottage in a remote part of the English countryside.  She became a farmer and conservationist, with muddy shoes and prize-winning sheep.  She walked the fells and lakeside paths around her new home, sketching them, and ultimately saving them from destruction.  In 1901, Potter self-published the first edition of “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” which appeared almost exactly as she had written it to Noel Moore, down to Peter’s “blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new.”  A series of established publishers had turned her down, partly because of her insistence on keeping the book’s price low.  “Little rabbits cannot afford to spend 6 shillings on one book, and would never buy it,” she wrote to a friend.  She was also particular about the size of the book; it had to be small, for small hands.  The following year, Frederick Warne & Co. agreed to put out an abridged version.  “Peter Rabbit” was an instant hit, selling out multiple editions.  (“The public must be fond of rabbits! what an appalling quantity of Peter,” Potter wrote.)  Her publisher asked for more books, and she began pumping them out one after another, beginning with “The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin” and “The Tailor of Gloucester.”  She also patented her characters.  Anna Russell  The New Yorker  March 12, 2022 

flummox  verb  Of uncertain origin, probably risen out of a British dialect (OED finds candidate words in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, southern Cheshire, and Sheffield). "The formation seems to be onomatopœic, expressive of the notion of throwing down roughly and untidily" [OED].  To confuse; to fluster; to flabbergast.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flummox 

flabbergast  The origin of the verb is uncertain; possibly dialectal (Suffolk), from flabby or flap (“to strike”) + aghast.  The word may be related to Scottish flabrigast (“to boast”) or flabrigastit (“worn out with exertion”).  The noun is derived from the verb.  Verb  flabbergast  (transitive)  To overwhelm with bewilderment; to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner. [from late 18th c.] quotations ▼ Noun   flabbergast (countable and uncountable, plural flabbergasts)  (countable)  An awkward person.  (uncountable)  Overwhelming confusion, shock, or surprise. quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/flabbergast 

The Colossus of Rhodes is a 1954 oil painting by the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí.  It is one of a series of seven paintings he created for the 1956 film Seven Wonders of the World, each depicting one of the wonders.  The work shows the Colossus of Rhodes, the ancient statue of the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios.  The painting was not used for the film and, in 1981, was donated to the Kunstmuseum Bern, where it remains.  Painted two decades after Dalí's heyday with the surrealist movement, the painting epitomises his shift from the avant-garde to the mainstream.  Pressured by financial concerns after his move to the United States in 1940, and influenced by his fascination with Hollywood, Dalí shifted focus away from his earlier exploration of the subconscious and perception, and towards historical and scientific themes.  Dalí's rendering is influenced by a 1953 paper by Herbert Maryon, a sculptor and conservator at the British Museum.  Maryon proposed a hollow Colossus formed from hammered bronze plates, located alongside the harbour rather than astride it.  He further suggested that it used a hanging drapery to give the statue a stable tripod base.  These elements were all incorporated by Dalí.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colossus_of_Rhodes_(Dal%C3%AD) 

Ptolemy I Soter  "Ptolemy the Savior" (c. 367 BC-282 BC) was an Ancient Macedonian general, historian and companion of Alexander the Great of the Kingdom of Macedon in northern Greece who became ruler of Egypt, part of Alexander's former empire.  Ptolemy was pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt from 305/304 BC to his death.  He was the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt until the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC, turning the country into a Hellenistic kingdom and Alexandria into a center of Greek culture.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_I_Soter 

Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100–c. 170 AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist,  who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance to later Byzantine, Islamic, and Western European science.  The first is the astronomical treatise now known as the Almagest, although it was originally entitled the Mathēmatikē Syntaxis or Mathematical Treatise, and later known as The Greatest Treatise.  The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion on maps and the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world.  The third is the astrological treatise in which he attempted to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.  This is sometimes known as the Apotelesmatika (lit. "On the Effects") but more commonly known as the Tetrábiblos, from the Koine Greek meaning "Four Books", or by its Latin equivalent Quadripartite.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy 

Michael Joseph Winkelmann (born 20 June 1981), known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator.  He is known for using various mediums in creating comical, phantasmagoric works that make political and social commentary while using pop culture figures as references.  British auction house Christie's has called him "A visionary digital artist at the forefront of NFTs".  Beeple was first introduced to NFTs in October 2020 and credits Pak for providing his first "primer" on selling NFTs.  The NFT associated with Everydays: the First 5000 Days, a collage of images from his "Everydays" series, sold for $69,400,000 on March 12, 2021.  It is the first purely non-fungible token to be sold by Christie's.  The auction house had previously sold Block 21, an NFT with accompanying physical painting for approximately $130,000 in October 2020.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Winkelmann  On April 24, 2022, the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin, Italy, will include the artist’s first sculpture, “HUMAN ONE,” in Expressions with Fractures.  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2521  April 15, 2022