Edward G. Robinson, original name Emanuel Goldenberg, (1893-1973) American stage and film actor who skillfully played a wide range of character types but was best known for his portrayals of gangsters and criminals.  Robinson was born in Romania but emigrated with his parents at age 10 and grew up on New York’s Lower East Side.  He gave up early dreams of becoming either a rabbi or a lawyer and, while a student at City College, settled on acting.  After winning a scholarship (1911) to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he made his stage debut in Paid in Full (1913).  His knowledge of many languages helped him win a multilingual part in Under Fire (1915), his Broadway debut.  He continued acting each Broadway season for the next decade, and in 1927 he had his first starring role, in the play The Racket.  Two years later he appeared in The Kibitzer, a three-act comedy he wrote with Jo Swerling.  Though he had appeared in two silent films—Arms and the Woman (1916) and The Bright Shawl (1923)—it was not until the advent of sound that Robinson’s movie career began in earnest.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-G-Robinson   

Natural wine refers to a generalized movement among winemakers for production of wine using simple or traditional methods.  Although there is no uniform definition of natural wine, it is usually produced without the use of pesticides or herbicides and with few or no additives.  In its purest form, natural wine is simply unadulterated fermented grape juice with no additives in the winemaking process.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_wine   

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (1925–2007) was an American television show host and media mogul.  Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist.  He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway.  From 1965 to 1986 he hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show.  He also created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.  Griffin created and produced the successful television game show Jeopardy! in 1964.  My wife Julann just came up with the idea one day when we were in a plane bringing us back to New York from Duluth.  I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful 'question and answer' game on the air since the quiz show scandals.  Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question.  She fired a couple of answers to me:  '5,280' and the question of course was how many feet in a mile.  Another was '79 Wistful Vista.'  That was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address.  I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show.  The show, originally titled What's the Question? premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming, and ran for 11 years.  Griffin wrote the 30-second piece of music heard during the show's Final Jeopardy! round, which became the iconic melody of the theme for the syndicated version of the show hosted by Alex Trebek in 1984.  In 1975, NBC canceled Jeopardy! after moving it twice on its daytime schedule, despite having an additional year on its network contract.  Griffin produced the show's successor, Wheel of Fortune, which premiered January 6, 1975 with host Chuck Woolery and hostess Susan Stafford, and had high ratings throughout its network run.  From December 1975 to January 1976, it was expanded to an hour, in response to the successful 60-minute version of The Price Is Right on CBS.  Wheel barely escaped cancellation in 1980, when NBC replaced three of its other game shows with a daytime talk show starring David Letterman.  NBC finally cancelled it in 1989, when CBS picked it up for a year (only to return to NBC, when the daytime version was finally cancelled for good in 1991).  The show became a phenomenon when, on September 19, 1983, a nighttime version hit the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White as host and hostess.  Around that time, Griffin composed the show's best-known theme song, "Changing Keys", which was used in several variants of the show until 2000.  The theme returned to the show in 2021 at the start of season 39.  Two revivals of Jeopardy! were produced:  one on NBC that ran for five months in late 1978/early 1979, with Art Fleming returning as host; and the other airing in first-run syndication beginning September 10, 1984, starring Alex Trebek.  The syndicated versions of both Jeopardy! and Wheel remain on the air today.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv_Griffin   Pat Sajak was born Patrick Leonard Sajdak.  According to the 2010 United States Census, Sajdak is the 33036th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 693 individuals.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sajdak

tapas pl (normally plural, singular tapa)  noun  From Spanish tapas, the plural of tapa (“appetizer, tapa; cap, lid (cover of a container)”) (from the fact that plates of tapas were originally placed on the tops of glasses of alcoholic beverages as lids).  A variety of Spanish small savoury food items or snacks such as croquettes, cured meat, potato salad, and seafood, originally served with sherry and now often with other alcoholic beverages as well. quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tapas#English  October 12  is the Fiesta Nacional de España, the national day of Spain.   

Angela Lansbury died in her sleep at home in Los Angeles just five days before her 97th birthday, her family said in a statement.  Born in London, Dame Angela later moved to New York and attended the Feagin School of Dramatic Art.  She was noticed by a Hollywood executive at a party in 1942, and given her first role as a maid in the 1944 film Gaslight, based on the 1938 play of the same name.  Her portrayal earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress the following year.  The term "gaslighting" originated from Patrick Hamilton's play, which was about a young woman whose husband slowly manipulates her into believing she is going crazy.  The British star went on to land two more Oscar nominations as Sibyl in The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1945 and Laurence Harvey's manipulative mother in The Manchurian Candidate in 1962.  After a move on to Broadway in the 1960s she won several Tony Awards, including one for her turn as Nellie Lovett in Sweeney Todd in 1970.  A year later she appeared in the Disney hit Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and later featured in other children's films, providing the voice for Mrs Potts in the animated Beauty and the Beast; and more recently Mary Poppins Returns.  But it was her portrayal of sleuth Jessica Fletcher in the television series Murder, She Wrote which gained her millions of fans across the world.  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-63221326   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2576  October 12, 2022