“The best defense is an aggressive offense.  That's true in football, combat, and law.”  “I’ve always thought that ninety percent of wars, trials, and fistfights were started because no one knew how to back off while saving face.  Perhaps if people didn’t feel the need to save face, we could avoid conflict.”  Word of Honor by Nelson DeMille   https://readsonlinebook.com/word_of_honor/4  DeMille writes of himself:  I write all my manuscripts in longhand, using #1 pencils and legal pads.  My father’s favorite historical hero was Lord Nelson, and that’s how I got my name.   

Silas Marner:  The Weaver of Raveloe is the third novel by George Eliot.  It was published in 1861.  An outwardly simple tale of a linen weaver, the novel is notable for its strong realism and its sophisticated treatment of a variety of issues ranging from religion to industrialisation to community.  At least five film adaptations of Silas Marner were released during the silent film era, including the following:  Silas Marner (Thanhouser Film Corporation, USA; 31 March 1911) with Frank Hall Crane in the title role.

Le Noël de Silas Marner (Pathé Frères, France; November 1912) (UK; 27 November 1912; as Silas Marner's Christmas).

Silas Marner (Edison Company, USA; 24 October 1913) with William Langdon West in the title role.

Silas Marner (Thanhouser Film Corporation, USA; 19 February 1916) with Frederick Warde in the title role.

Silas Marner (Associated Exhibitors, USA; May 1922) (UK; 25 January 1926) with Crauford Kent in the title role.  Other uses include:  W. S. Gilbert's play Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1876) takes its initial situation–the arrival of a child in a miser's life–from Silas Marner (as noted in the libretto), and has a somewhat similar ending, although the middle section is entirely new.  The composer John Joubert wrote an opera Silas Marner based on the novel in 1961.  Ben Kingsley played Silas Marner in a 1985 BBC adaptation (broadcast in the US in 1987 by Masterpiece Theatre), with Patsy Kensit as the grown-up Eppie. 

The children's TV series Wishbone has an episode with an abridged adaptation.

Steve Martin wrote, produced, and starred in a 1994 film adaptation of the novel, titled A Simple Twist of Fate.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silas_Marner 

Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era.  She wrote seven novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72) and Daniel Deronda (1876).  Like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, she emerged from provincial England; most of her works are set there.  Her works are known for their realism, psychological insight, sense of place and detailed depiction of the countryside.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Eliot 

Double whammy/double-whammy  From double +‎ whammy (“evil spell; curse or hex”), popularized by the American cartoonist Al Capp (1909–1979), in his classic comic strip Li’l Abner (1934–1977).  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/double_whammy 

The Jabez Howland House is the only existing house in Plymouth, MA where Pilgrims actually spent time.  The original 17th century two-story timber framed house consisted of the porch, hall and hall chamber.  Jabez Howland, John and Elizabeth's son, lived here with his family until they sold the house in 1680.  It was a private residence until 1912 when it was purchased for a museum.  The Howland House is a National Register of Historic Places site.  See graphics at https://pilgrimjohnhowlandsociety.org/The_Jabez_Howland_House 

John Howland of the Mayflower  John Howland was born in Fenstanton, Huntingdonshire, about 1592/3.  He came to Plymouth on the 1620 Mayflower as a servant to John Carver.  During the Atlantic voyage, he was swept overboard and rescued, in a dramatic incident recounted by William Bradford.  He also served as a member of the party that explored Cape Cod before the landing in Plymouth. 
Once established in the Colony, Howland quickly rose to a position of responsibility and respectability.  He was one of the 8 Plymouth "Undertakers" who assumed the colony’s debt.  He also served as an Assistant to the governor, as a member of many committees and was placed in charge of the Colony’s fur trading post at Kennebec, Maine.  Howland died on 24 February 1673, aged 80.  We do not know the site of his grave, but there is a Howland Monument erected by his descendants on Plymouth’s Burial Hill.  The Pilgrim John Howland Society maintains the homestead property at "Rocky Nook" in Kingston and operates the "Howland House" (33 Sandwich Street, Plymouth, MA 02360).  The Howland House was the home of Jabez Howland, son of John and Elizabeth Tilley Howland.   

CACERES, Spain, Aug 18, 2022 - A brutal summer has caused havoc for many in rural Spain, but one unexpected side-effect of the country's worst drought in decades has delighted archaeologists - the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle in a dam whose waterline has receded.  Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal but dubbed the Spanish Stonehenge, the circle of dozens of megalithic stones is believed to date back to 5000 BC.  It was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under Francisco Franco's dictatorship.  Since then it has only become fully visible four times.  Climate change has left the Iberian peninsula at its driest in 1,200 years, and winter rains are expected to diminish further, a study published by the Nature Geoscience journal showed. Silvio Castellanos and Marco Trujillo   See graphic at https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spanish-stonehenge-emerges-drought-hit-dam-2022-08-18/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2563  September 12, 2022