Few things evoke the American heartland as indelibly as Grant Wood’s painting “American Gothic,” from 1930, which appears to show a stolid and plain-living couple standing in front of their farmhouse in Eldon, Iowa.  The Eldon house that Wood depicted, was built in 1881 Daniel Immerwahr writes.  “The first owner lost it because of overdue taxes, the next tried unsuccessfully to turn it into a candy-and-novelty store, and the property changed hands many more times before Wood’s 1930 visit.”  The “couple” in the painting were modelled by Wood’s sister and his dentist.  Their clothes came new, courtesy of Sears, Roebuck & Co., in Chicago.  And the famous window in the background came from Sears, too.  Literary Hub October 19, 2023   

The Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland.  The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.  These islands have a long history of occupation (dating back to the Mesolithic period), and the culture of the inhabitants has been successively influenced by the cultures of Celtic-speaking, Norse-speaking, and English-speaking peoples.  This diversity is reflected in the various names given to the islands, which are derived from the different languages that have been spoken there at various points in their history.  The Hebrides are where much of Scottish Gaelic literature and Gaelic music has historically originated.  Today, the economy of the islands is dependent on crofting, fishing, tourism, the oil industry, and renewable energy.  The islands have a combined area of 7,285 km² (2,813 sq mi), and, as of 2011, a combined population of around 45,000.  The 1973 film, The Wicker Man, is set on the fictional Hebridean island of Summerisle.  The filming itself took place in Galloway and Skye.  The 2012 exploration adventure game Dear Esther by developer The Chinese Room is set on an unnamed island in the Hebrides.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrides   

Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man.  Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock.  In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern Isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crofting    

Pauline Sara Jo Moyes (1969), known professionally as Jojo Moyes, is an English journalist and, since 2002, an award-winning romance novelist, #1 New York Times best selling author and screenwriter.  She is one of only a few authors to have twice won the Romantic Novel of the Year Award by the Romantic Novelists' Association and her works have been translated into twenty-eight languages and have sold over 40 million copies worldwide.  Before attending university, Moyes held several jobs:  she was a typist at NatWest typing statements in braille for blind people, a brochure writer for Club 18-30, and a minicab controller for a brief time.  Early in her writing career, Moyes wrote three manuscripts that were all initially rejected.  With one child, another baby on the way, and a career as a journalist, Moyes committed to herself that if her fourth book was rejected, she would stop her efforts.  After submitting the first three chapters of her fourth book to various publishers, six of them began a bidding war for the rights.  Moyes became a full-time novelist in 2002, when her first book Sheltering Rain was published.  She continues to write articles for The Daily Telegraph.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jojo_Moyes   

Canfield is among the patience or solitaire card games having a very low probability of winning.  It was initially an English game called Demon Patience and referred to as the perfect game for one pack that’s yet to be invented.  Even then, it found takers in the United States in the early twentieth century when casino owner Richard Canfield (whom the game is named after) decided to turn it into a casino game.  The game was known as Canfield in the US, while it stuck to the name Demon Patience (or Demon Solitaire) in the UK and the rest of the world. The game is closely associated with Klondike and is one of the most played games of its kind.  The variants of Canfield solitaire games include Chameleon, Rainbow, Selective Canfield, Storehouse, Superior Canfield, Eagle Wing, and Variegated Demon.  https://www.mpl.us/blog/canfield-solitaire/   

In the days of whist in England, Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham, the second Earl of Yarborough, used to offer 1000 to 1 against a player's picking up a hand with no card higher than a nine.   There were few takers, perhaps because the true odds are 1827 to 1.  But such a hand is still called a yarborough.  There are good yarboroughs and bad yarboroughs, based on the strength of the spots.  An average yarborough can be expected to have a pip count of about 72.  Alan Truscott  https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/29/nyregion/bridge-good-yarboroughs-and-bad-this-one-took-three-tricks.html    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2739  November 1, 2023