The Darién Gap is a geographic region in the Isthmus of Darien or Isthmus of Panama connecting the North and South American continents within Central America, consisting of a large watershed, forest, and mountains in Panama's Darién Province and the northern portion of Colombia's Chocó Department.  The "gap" is in the Pan-American Highway, of which 106 km (66 mi) between Yaviza, Panama, and Turbo, Colombia, has not been built.  Road-building through this area is expensive and detrimental to the environment.  The geography of the Darién Gap on the Colombian side is dominated primarily by the river delta of the Atrato River, which creates a flat marshland at least 80 km (50 mi) wide.  The Serranía del Baudó range extends along Colombia's Pacific coast and into Panama.  The Darién Gap is home to the Embera-Wounaan and Guna people and was also home to the Cueva people who became extinct by 1535, following the Spanish invasion of Panama.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dari%C3%A9n_Gap 

To skedaddle is to run away.  The word rose to prominence in American slang during the US Civil War, but it probably has roots in English dialectal speech. Those roots, however, are not quite certain.  Various Greek, Celtic, and Nordic etymologies have been proposed over the years, but with little to no evidence to support them.  Anatoly Liberman posits that it is a variant of the English dialect term scaddle—meaning wild, frisky, or to scare, frighten—with infix -da- added. And indeed, Francis Grose’s Provincial Glossary of 1787 has this entry:  Scaddle. That will not abide touching; spoken of young horses that fly out.  In Kent, scaddle means thievish, rapacious.  Dogs, apt to steal or snatch any thing that comes their way, are there said to be scaddle.  https://www.wordorigins.org/big-list-entries/skedaddle   

Invented in 1932, the Technicolor camera recorded on three separate negatives--red, blue and green--which were then combined to develop a full-color positive print.  The box encasing the camera, a "blimp," muffled the machine's sound during filming.  Danish-American inventor August Plahn built and patented a camera and projector that split motion picture images through three color lenses using 70mm film.  When the film, with three images printed across its width, was projected through the same colored filters, movies’ natural color was restored.  While Plahn had little success marketing his inventions, the Boston-based Technicolor Corporation effectively marketed their similar technology to become the industry standard.  https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_759495#:~:text=Invented%20in%201932%2C%20the%20Technicolor,PHOTOS.   

“You can’t get the worship without the blame.”  Our Little Racket, a novel by Angelica Baker    

On May 23, 2023, the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced eight winners for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service.  The National Medal is the nation’s highest honor given to museums and libraries that demonstrate excellence in service to their communities. Since 1996, the award has honored 182 institutions that demonstrated extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service.

IMLS congratulates the winners for the 2023 National Medal for Museum and Library Service and thanks all those who applied.  This year’s winners are:

Libraries:

Kuskokwim Consortium Library (Bethel, AK)

LA County Library (Los Angeles, CA)

Long Branch Free Public Library (Long Branch, NJ)

Toledo Lucas County Public Library (Toledo, OH)

Museums:

Center of Science and Industry (COSI) (Columbus, OH)

Jim Gatchell Memorial Museum (Buffalo, WY)

Museum of Discovery and Science (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Riverside Art Museum (Riverside, CA)

https://www.imls.gov/our-work/national-medals/2023-national-medal-museum-and-library-service 

 

The 2023 winner of the International Booker Prize is a unique spin on time travel. The novel Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, with a translation by Angela Rodel, imagines the 'first clinic of the past,' in which Alzheimer's patients can visit different time periods of their lives on different floors.  Therapist Gaustine tells the narrator, a writer, "we'll create these clinics or sanatoriums in various countries.  The past is also a local thing.  There'll be houses from various years everywhere, little neighborhoods, one day we'll even have small cities, maybe even a whole country.  For patients with failing memories, Alzheimer's, dementia, whatever you want to call it.  For all of those who already are living solely in the present of their past."  In its review of Time Shelter, The Guardian wrote, "From communism to the Brexit referendum and conflict in Europe, this funny yet frightening Bulgarian novel explores the weaponisation of nostalgia."  Gospodinov's novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books from around the world.  Elizabeth Blair  https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177737841/international-booker-prize-2023-time-shelter   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2674  May 24, 2023