From:  Curtis Reeves  Subject:  Travesty  Believe it or not, travesty makes its appearance in Rule 5.09(b)(10) in the Official Rules of Major League Baseball:  Rule 5.09(b)(10):  Any runner is out when, after he has acquired legal possession of a base, he runs the bases in reverse order for the purpose of confusing the defense or making a travesty of the game.  I wonder if there are rules in other sports that reference travesty.  AWADmailIssue 1031 

A ha-ha is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond from the other side.  The design can include a turfed incline that slopes downward to a sharply vertical face (typically a masonry retaining wall).  Ha-has are used in landscape design to prevent access to a garden by, for example, grazing livestock, without obstructing views.  In security design, the element is used to deter vehicular access to a site while minimizing visual obstruction.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha 

Gotham City, or simply Gotham, is a fictional city appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, best known as the home of the superhero Batman and his close allies.  The city was first identified as Batman's place of residence in Batman #4 (December 1940) and has since been the primary setting for stories featuring the character.  Gotham City is traditionally depicted as being located in New Jersey.  Gotham's look and atmosphere was primarily influenced by New York City.  Batman co-creator Bill Finger chose the name "Gotham" so that the residents of any city could identify with it.  Locations used as inspiration or filming locations for Gotham City in the live-action Batman films and television series have included Chicago, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, New York City, Newark, London, Glasgow, and Liverpool.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_City 

TRADITIONAL ENGLISH SCONES  Recipe makes eight servings—consistency is similar to biscuits.  https://www.bakefromscratch.com/traditional-english-scones/  Bake from Scratch is a bi-monthly publication from Hoffman Media.  

Dystopia or the “bad place”:  dystopian films

Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang  A cult film by Fritz Lang based on the novel by Thea von Harbow.  It is considered one of the greatest silent films in history.  The action takes place in the future.  The huge futuristic city is divided into two parts--the upper Paradise, where the "masters of life" live, and the underground industrial Hell, the dwelling of workers reduced to the position of appendages of giant machines. 

1984 (1984) Michael Radford  British dystopian film based on George Orwell’s novel “1984” in the year to which the events taking place in it are timed.  The director of the film was quite faithful to the letter and spirit of the original source and quite impressively recreated on the screen the environment of a totalitarian state under the leadership of Big Brother.  In order to suppress the mass unrest of Oceania, the ruling party recreates the past and the present.  Every citizen is watched incessantly, everyone is brainwashed with the help of television.

451 degrees Fahrenheit (1966) Francois Truffaut  “Fahrenheit 451 is the temperature at which paper ignites and burns.”  An artistic film by the outstanding French director Francois Truffaut about a dystopian future.  Screening of one of the most famous works of American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury.  The novel describes a society based on popular culture and consumer thinking, in which all books that make you think about life are subject to burning, and keeping books is a crime.  Read descriptions of 10 dystopian films at https://vk.com/wall-52526415_46612?lang=en 

nickel-and-dime  adjective  used to describe something that is not important, usually because it does not involve much money

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/nickel-and-dime 

The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (Mergus merganser) is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America.  The common merganser eats mainly fish.  It nests in holes in trees.  The first formal description of the common merganser was by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae.  He introduced the current binomial name Mergus merganser.  The genus name is a Latin word used by Pliny and other Roman authors to refer to an unspecified waterbird, and merganser is derived from mergus and anser, Latin for "goose".  In 1843 John James Audubon used the name "Buff-breasted Merganser" in addition to "goosander" in his book The Birds of America.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_merganser 

Mergansers eat fish, giving their meat a strong flavor that many people find unpalatable.  The article recommends marinating overnight in brandy and seasonings, but even a good, long alcohol soak can't rid the beast of another drawback of its fishy diet—its high levels of PCBs in some waterways.  Lisa Breman  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-game-less-eaten-102101393/ 

MAY DATES TO REMEMBER  Tuesday, May 3:  Two Different Colored Shoes Day; Sunday, May 15:  Las Vegas founded in 1905;  Wednesday, May 18:  Mt. St. Helen erupts, 1980;  Saturday, May 21:  Charles Lindbergh completes first nonstop Atlantic flight, 1927;  Wednesday, May 25:  Tap Dance Day;  Saturday, May 28:  Volkswagen founded, 1937; Tuesday, May 31:  World No-Tobacco Day 

maelstrom noun  A large and violent whirlpool.  (figuratively) A chaotic or turbulent situation.  American author Edgar Allan Poe’s short story A Descent into the Maelström appeared in the May 1841 issue of Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine, which was actually published in April.  Wiktionary 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2528  May 2, 2022