Perhaps the single most beautiful image Milton Glaser ever contrived was the poster for The New Yorker magazine’s launch.  It showed the head and shoulders of the Empire State Building—then not always taken as a masterpiece of design—in various heightened states, cloud-covered or snow-covered.  The concept of a single icon in many conditions was one that he had played with elsewhere, as in the four pianos he drew for the cover of a compilation of jazz pianists, each piano colored to mark the sound of one of the players.  But rendering the Empire State as a pliable model was inspired.  There’s no more delightful affirmation of the perpetual New York dialogue between the substantial and the ephemeral, the skyscraper and the snow.  Published in the print edition of the March 27, 2023 The New Yorker with the headline “Drawing Board.  Adam Gopnik  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/27/how-the-graphic-designer-milton-glaser-made-america-cool-again   

Mar. 20, 2023  Dubbed We ♥ NYC, a new logo was created by designer and art director Graham Clifford.  “We wanted to reference the original mark but push it in a different direction,” the artist said, also revealing that the new font is inspired by the ones used within our underground transportation system.  “The subway system is the veins or the beating heart of the city.  You can have Wall Street types sitting next to construction workers.  It’s a place where you can bring everybody together, and we’re cognizant of that.”  The older iteration of the logo was created by the famous Milton Glaser on the back of an envelope while in a taxi using a crayon back in the 1970s.  New Yorkers have taken to social media to react to the new design.  Anna Rahmanan  https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/new-yorkers-hilariously-react-to-the-new-nyc-brand-campaign-logo-032023   

Window blinds first appeared in 1769.  The Englishman Edward Bevan patented the first-ever Venetian Blinds.  Venetian blinds were invented when he discovered that he could let light into rooms.  And he manipulates them to be any size desired by placing wooden slats on an aluminum frame.  John Hampson from New Orleans made adjustments to this invention in 1841.  Venetians discovered the window coverings through their trade interactions in the East.  Then, they brought this window treatment back to Venice.  The true inventor of these now-popular items is unknown.  Thus, these designs used a more primitive form of slats or shutters than fabric panels.  The invention of window blinds is a mystery from the past.  While it’s unclear where it came from, Venetian traders discovered them at some point.  Then, brought them back to Europe which changed how we looked outside our homes forever.  The ancient Egyptians are credited with developing the first window blinds.  Extreme heat and frequent violent sand storms are associated with living in a desert.  These conditions drove the Egyptians to find a way to keep their dwellings cool and to keep avalanches of sand outside.  During this same period, the Chinese began to cover their windows using bamboo stalks.  These bamboo stalks were tied together to form a finished piece that was long enough to provide:  privacy, protection from the elements, and light control.  With Grecians, they used marble with fixed slats to cover their windows.  As the Roman Empire developed, its citizens also needed ways to cover their windows.  The Romans developed a window blind from fabric slats that overlapped each other.  https://windowsandbeyond.com/the-history-of-window-blinds/    

2023 Poetry Month Marathon on WORLD Channel  This National Poetry Month, watch Poetry in America on your local PBS WORLD Channel on Monday April 10th through Thursday, April 13th, between 2pm and 5pm ET (11am and 2pm PT).  Check local TV listings for more airings near you.  Or, stream all episodes for free throughout the month of April, at www.poetryinamerica.org/tv-series.  Gideon Leek  https://www.poetryinamerica.org/poetry-month-marathon-on-world-channel/   

Spam (stylized as SPAM) is a brand of salty processed canned pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation.  It was introduced by Hormel in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II.  By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries (and trademarked in over 100) on six continents.  In the U.S., Hawaii is the state with the highest per capita consumption of Spam, which has become an ingredient in Hawaiian cuisine (like sushi).  The generic form of Spam may be sold in cans as "pork luncheon meat".  Since its invention, it is now available in different flavours and using different meats.  Like most hotdogs, Spam is precooked, making it safe and edible to eat straight from the can, but it is often cooked further to improve some characteristics of its palatability.  Spam's basic ingredients are primarily pork shoulder and ham, with salt, water, modified potato starch (as a binder), sugar, and sodium nitrite (as a preservative).  Natural gelatin is formed during cooking in its tins on the production line.  Spam was featured in an iconic 1970 Monty Python sketch called "Spam."  Set in a café that mostly served dishes containing Spam, including "egg and Spam, egg bacon and Spam, Spam egg sausage and Spam, Spam egg Spam Spam bacon and Spam, " the piece also featured a companion song.  Because of its use in a line of a song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the title of the musical version of the film became Spamalot.  The 1971 Baby Huey song "Hard Times" includes the lyrics "So many hard times . . . Eatin' Spam and Oreos and drinkin' Thunderbird baby," in which Spam and the other products are cited as examples of the speaker's destitute existence.  By the 1990s, Spam's reputation as a low-quality food led to its name being adopted for unsolicited electronic messages, especially spam email.  Spam is the subject of the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Spam," which is a parody of the R.E.M. song "Stand."  Other offshoots of Spam in popular culture include a book of haikus about Spam titled Spam-Ku: Tranquil Reflections on Luncheon Loaf.  There is also a mock Church of Spam and a Spam Cam, which is a webcam trained on a can of decaying Spam.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2652  April 3, 2023