Lucian Michael Freud (1922–2011) was a British painter and draughtsman, specialising in figurative art, and is known as one of the foremost 20th-century English portraitists.  He was born in Berlin, the son of architect Ernst L. Freud and the grandson of Sigmund Freud.  Freud got his first name "Lucian" from his mother in memory of the ancient writer Lucian of Samosata.  His family moved to England in 1933, when he was 10 years old, to escape the rise of Nazism.  He became a British naturalized citizen in 1939.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian_Freud   

Lucian of Samosata (c. 125–after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal.  Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm.  Lucian had an enormous, wide-ranging impact on Western literature.  Works inspired by his writings include Thomas More's Utopia, the works of François Rabelais, William Shakespeare's Timon of Athens and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian   

Flavored with dark beer, molasses, and lime juice, it’s so so good!   Sauté bacon, chopped onions, jalapeño peppers, and garlic in a Dutch oven until the bacon is cooked and the veggies are softened.  Deglaze the pan with a bottle of dark Mexican beer.  Now it’s time for your beans to party.  Dump the pinto beans in the pan, along with broth, molasses, brown sugar, and seasonings.  The beans will absorb the beer and the broth, and get soft.  Let them simmer for at least a couple of hours, stirring occasionally to make sure they aren’t sticking.  To make drunken beans vegetarian, simply leave out the bacon, sauté the chopped onions and jalapeño in two teaspoons olive or avocado oil, and substitute vegetable broth for the chicken broth.  posted by Rachel  https://www.53.com/login.html   

JOHANNSEN AND LEBLANC  This site contains scanned materials drawn from two major dime novel collections in Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University:  the Albert Johannsen and Edward T. LeBlanc Collections.  Albert Johannsen (1871-1962) was a professor of petrology and a dime novel collector.  Besides dime novels, he collected igneous rocks (his collection of 5,000 specimens was left to the University of Chicago), first editions of Dickens, coins, stamps, autographs, cigar boxes, and whatever else caught his interest.  After retirement, he left behind his career in geology to focus his energy on these hobbies, particularly his passion for collecting dime novels.  Browse digitized titles from the Johannsen Collection or search our online catalog, which includes titles not yet digitized.  Edward T. LeBlanc (1918-2008) was the editor of the Dime Novel Round-Up from 1952 to 1994 and, like Johannsen, a self-taught bibliographer of dime novels.  Although never published, his 13-binder bibliography provides a comprehensive listing of nearly every dime novel series and story, which LeBlanc reportedly began compiling at the age of 15.  Browse digitized titles from the Edward T. LeBlanc Collection or search our online catalog, which includes many titles not yet digitized.    https://dimenovels.lib.niu.edu/about/johannsen-and-leblanc   

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid:  Left-Handed Poems is a verse novel by Michael Ondaatje, published in 1970.  It chronicles and interprets important events in the life of William Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, and his conflict with Sheriff Pat Garrett.  The book presents a series of poems not necessarily in chronological order which fictionalize and relate Bonney's more famous exploits, after the end of the Lincoln County War.  On its release, the volume received largely positive reviews.  Most notably, it received the Governor General's Literary Award for poetry in 1970 from the Canadian Arts Council.  Ondaatje would go on to write another award-winning novel, The English Patient, and several others.  Ondaatje adapted the novel into a play.  It premiered in Toronto in multiple times, notably at the Dallas Theater Center, the Stratford Festival and the Toronto Free Theatre.  Ondaatje gave permission for the work to be the subject of a new adaptation by English theater director Dan Jemmett in 2007.  Originally produced in Pittsburgh, PA, by Quantum Theatre, the new vision was created by the company of five actors and Jemmett.  Ondaatje agreed for the work to be adapted as a chamber opera by the English composer Gavin Bryars, with the libretto made by Jean Lacornerie, who staged the work.  The novel was also a source of inspiration for the 2012 album Lonesome Dreams by Lord Huron.  While the album is not a direct adaptation of the work, there are several similar plot themes and general storytelling style.  Some of these themes are carried forward in some fashion to their second album, Strange Trails (2015), although the influence is somewhat less pronounced.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Collected_Works_of_Billy_the_Kid:_Left-Handed_Poems   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2633  February 17, 2023