Al pastor (from Spanish, "shepherd style"), tacos al pastor, or tacos de trompo is a preparation of spit-grilled slices of pork originating in the Central Mexican region of Puebla and Mexico City, although today it is a common menu item found in taquerías throughout Mexico.  The method of preparing and cooking al pastor is based on the lamb shawarma brought by Lebanese immigrants to the region.  Al pastor features a flavor palate that uses traditional Mexican adobada (marinade).  It is a popular street food that has spread to the United States.  In some places of northern Mexico and coastal Mexico, such as in Baja California, taco al pastor is known as taco de trompo or taco de adobada.  Pork is marinated in a combination of dried chilies, spices, pineapple, and typically achiote paste, then slowly cooked with charcoal or gas flame on a vertical rotisserie called a trompo (lit. 'spinning top'), the meat is shaved off as the outside is browned.  A variety of the dish uses a combination of Middle Eastern spices and indigenous central Mexican ingredients and is called tacos árabe.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_pastor#   

The earliest known use of the verb flim-flam is in the mid 1600s.  OED's earliest evidence for flim-flam is from 1660, in the writing of Samuel Fisher, Quaker preacher and writer.  It is also recorded as a noun from the mid 1500s.  https://www.oed.com/dictionary/flim-flam_v?tl=true   

The Flim-Flam Man (titled One Born Every Minute in some countries) is a 1967 American comedy film directed by Irvin Kershner, featuring George C. Scott, Michael Sarrazin, and Sue Lyon, based on the 1965 novel The Ballad of the Flim-Flam Man by Guy Owen.  The movie has well-known character actors in supporting roles, including Jack Albertson, Slim Pickens, Strother Martin, Harry Morgan, and Albert Salmi.  The movie is set in the countryside and small towns of the American South, and it was filmed in the Anderson and Clark counties, Kentucky, area.  It is also noted for its folksy musical score by composer Jerry Goldsmith.  The movie's title song "Flim Flam Man," written by Laura Nyro, later became a hit for Barbra Streisand.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flim-Flam_Man   

A linchpin, also spelled linch pin, lynchpin, or lynch pin, is a fastener used to prevent a wheel or other part from sliding off the axle upon which it is riding.  The word is first attested in the late fourteenth century and derives from Middle English elements meaning "axletree pin".  Securing implements onto the three-point hitch of a tractor is an example of application.  Linchpins may also be used in place of an R-clip for securing hitch pins.  The word "linchpin" is also used figuratively to mean "something [or someone] that holds the various elements of a complicated structure together".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linchpin    

Sir Arthur Evans, (1851, Hertfordshire, England—died 1941, Youlbury, near Oxford, Oxfordshire), British archaeologist who excavated the ruins of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete and uncovered evidence of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization, which he named Minoan.  His work was one of archaeology’s major achievements and greatly advanced the study of European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory.  A distinguished scholar, Evans was curator of the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, from 1884 to 1908 and became extraordinary professor of prehistoric archaeology at Oxford in 1909.  His interest in ancient coins and the writing on stone seals from Crete lured him to the island for the first time in 1894.  The following year he published Cretan Pictographs and Prae-Phoenician Script.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Evans   

PENCIL SHARPENER MUSEUM  Stop by the Hocking Hills Regional Welcome Center and visit one of the more unique museums you will see, the Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum.  Reverend Paul Johnson began his collection more than 20 years ago.  This amazing collection of more than 3,400 pencil sharpeners has been featured in national magazines and is reputed to be the largest collection in America.  Thank you, Muse reader!  https://www.explorehockinghills.com/things-to-do/arts-museums/museums/pencil-sharpener-museum/   

Logan is a city in and county seat of Hocking County, Ohio, along the Hocking River about 43 miles (69 km) southeast of Columbus.  The population was 7,296 at the time of the 2020 census.  Residents named the town in honor of Chief Logan of the Mingo Indian tribe.  He and his band lived in this area at the time of European-American settlement. Ohio Governor Thomas Worthington established the community in 1816.  Logan was incorporated as a city in 1839.   Logan was the first city in the state of Ohio to install a double roundabout.  Located at the interchange of Ohio State Route 664 and U.S. Route 33, the roundabouts were officially opened to traffic on December 4, 2013.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan,_Ohio 

http://librariansmuse.blogpost.com  Issue  2767  January 8, 2024