Famous Quotes from The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare

"Why, then the world 's mine oyster" (Act II, Scene II).
"This is the short and the long of it" (Act II, Scene II).
"I cannot tell what the dickens his name is". (Act III, Scene II).
"As good luck would have it".  (Act III, Scene V).  https://www.william-shakespeare.info/quotes-quotations-play-merry-wives-of-windsor.htm   

In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Shakespeare’s “merry wives” are Mistress Ford and Mistress Page of the town of Windsor.  The two play practical jokes on Mistress Ford’s jealous husband and a visiting knight, Sir John Falstaff.  Merry wives, jealous husbands, and predatory knights were common in a kind of play called “citizen comedy” or “city comedy.”  https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/the-merry-wives-of-windsor/   

As sea level rises, more and more saltwater encroaches on the land.  Along the world’s coasts and estuaries, invading seawater advances and overtakes the fresh water that deciduous trees rely upon for sustenance.  The salty water slowly poisons living trees, leaving a haunted ghost forest of dead and dying timber.  Still standing in or near brackish water, the decaying trees of a ghost forest resemble giant graying pillars that protrude into the air.  Researchers report that the rapid increase in ghost forests represents a dramatic visual picture of environmental changes along coastal plains located at or near sea level.  In many areas, rising sea levels combine with land sinking from the last ice age, as is currently happening in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  The Mississippi Delta region of Louisiana is undergoing changes due to rising waters, the sinking of Earth's crust, and sediments compacting along the Mississippi River.  With land and water constantly shifting, woodlands die and are buried in open water.  This is apparent along North Carolina’s maritime forests, where only a glimpse of once peaceful and verdant groves, now ghost forests, remain.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ghost-forest.html  See also https://www.artforum.com/interviews/maya-lin-on-planting-a-ghost-forest-in-manhattan-86134 and https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55333961-ghost-forest   

Henri Manguin, Still Life with Copper Pitcher (ca 1902)  https://www.jigidi.com/solve/l4s0mbk2/henri-manguin-french-1874-1949-still-life-with-copper-pitcher-ca-1902/   

Henri Charles Manguin (1874–1949) was a French painter, associated with the Fauves.  Manguin entered the École des Beaux-Arts to study under Gustave Moreau, as did Henri Matisse and Charles Camoin with whom he became close friends.  Like them, Manguin made copies of Renaissance art in the Louvre.  Manguin was greatly influenced by Impressionism, as is seen in his use of bright pastel hues.  Many of his paintings were of Mediterranean landscapes; and would soon represent the height of his career as a Fauve artist.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Manguin   

BLACK PEPPER SNOWBALLS  Makes about 36 cookies.  Becca Rea-Tucker  https://lithub.com/is-revenge-baking-a-thing/  

There are two ways to pronounce the noun conch—which refers to a variety of sea mollusks and their large shells—and how you pronounce it determines its plural. The more common pronunciation is with a hard k sound at the end, so that the word rhymes with honk.  For this pronunciation, the plural is conchs. The other pronunciation is with a ch sound at the end, so that it rhymes with launch (in U.S. pronunciation, at least).  The plural for this pronunciation is conches.  https://grammarist.com/usage/conches-conchs/  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2602  December 7, 2022