Feb. 27, 2023  A collection of newly rediscovered short stories by Terry Pratchett, originally written under a pseudonym, are to be published later this year.  The 20 tales in A Stroke of the Pen:  The Lost Stories were written by Pratchett in the 1970s and 1980s for a regional newspaper, mostly under the pseudonym Patrick Kearns.  They have never been previously attributed to Pratchett, who died in 2015 aged 66.  The collection was bought by Pratchett’s longtime publisher Transworld for a six-figure sum, and will be published on 5 October, 2023.  Sarah Shaffi   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/feb/27/rediscovered-terry-pratchett-stories-to-be-published   

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.  J. R. R. Tolkien  https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/gold.html

Invest in our planet and celebrate Earth Day on April 22, 2023.  Find ideas at https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2023/   

Romanesco broccoli (also known as broccolo romanesco, romanesque cauliflower, romanesco or broccoflower) is an edible flower bud of the species Brassica oleracea, which also includes regular broccoli and cauliflower.  It is chartreuse in color, and has a form naturally approximating a fractal.  Romanesco broccoli has a nutty flavor and a firmer texture than regular broccoli when cooked.  Nutritionally, romanesco is rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fiber, and carotenoids.   See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli#Description   

Only the Beginning by William Mangold, M. Masonpierre, and Brendan Gill  May 22, 1953  We present for your edification the history of Scrabble, the biggest thing in games since Monopoly and maybe the biggest thing ever.  We will say no more about the nature of the game than that it is played with a hundred lettered and numbered counters on a small square board and mingles the pleasures of anagrams and crossword puzzles.  It is the brain child of a local architect named Alfred Butts, who told us that he invented the game during the depression, when, being out of work, he was casting about for some way to pick up a dollar.  “I guess I’ll invent a game,” he said to himself, just like that, and he did, only not just like that.  He was back working at architecture before he had the game well roughed out, and it wasn’t until 1935 that it reached something very like its present form.  What it lacked most was a catchy name.  Butts tried to peddle it to various manufacturers and jobbers of games, but without success.  Meanwhile, he made and sold a few sets on his own, and he and his wife and their friends played the game constantly.  The Scrabble boards were made for them by Selchow & Righter, of 200 Fifth Avenue, one of the biggest game manufacturers in the country, whose special pride is Parcheesi, which is probably the oldest trademarked game (1874) in existence.  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1953/05/30/only-the-beginning   

March 2, 2023  Recorded rat sightings in New York are at an all-time high.  In December, 2022, Mayor Eric Adams posted, with great fanfare, a job announcement:  The city was looking for a “highly motivated and somewhat bloodthirsty” candidate to take on the newly restored position of rat czar.  Yet, three months later, the position still hasn’t been filled.  A few weeks ago, the mayor himself had to pay a $300 fine for failing to control rats at a rowhouse he rents out to tenants.  Over the past half century, changes in climate and the way New Yorkers dispose of their trash have given the rat population an unprecedented opportunity to boom, an increase unabated by man and undeterred by politics.  After 1893, when electric trolleys replaced horse-drawn ones, rats had to leave the stables where they’d snacked on grain and turned more often toward human residences.  They eventually flocked to Rikers Island, which the city had begun using as a dump in 1894.  Later, a prison farm opened on the island.  Rats devoured the prison farm’s vegetables, pigs, and other livestock.  At one time, more than 1 million rats were estimated to be living on the island.  By the 1930s, the rats had begun to swim to other parts of New York, including the suburbs of Long Island, and serious exterminating measures were finally undertaken.  https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/03/new-york-city-rat-infestation-politics/673250/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2648  March 24, 2023