David Lennox Mills (1938–January 17, 2024) was an American computer engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Delaware.  He was an Internet pioneer who led the Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures (GADS) Task Force.  He was known as the internet's "Father Time" for designing the Network Time Protocol, which is intended to synchronize all participating computers across different computer systems and networks to within a few milliseconds of Coordinated Universal Time.  He also created Internet Protocol version 4, which has remained the dominant version of the Internet Protocol in use.  David Lennox Mills was born in Oakland, California, on June 3, 1938.  His mother, Adele (née Dougherty), was a pianist, and his father, Alfred, was an engineer.  He had glaucoma since birth, but a surgeon saved some of the vision in his left eye when he was a child.  He attended a school in San Mateo, California, for the visually impaired.  Mills earned his PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1971.   While at Michigan, he worked on the ARPA-sponsored Conversational Use of Computers (CONCOMP) project and developed DEC PDP-8-based hardware and software to allow terminals to be connected over phone lines to an IBM 360 mainframe.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Mills   

January 30, 2024  N. Scott Momaday, a distinguished author, poet, teacher, and scholar of folklore, who received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, has died at the age of 89.  His first novel, “House Made of Dawn,” is widely recognized as the catalyst for modern Native American literature.  Throughout the subsequent decades, he imparted knowledge at esteemed institutions such as Stanford, Princeton, and Columbia universities, while also serving as a commentator for NPR and delivering lectures across the globe.  He authored over twelve works, ranging from “Angle of Geese and Other Poems” to the novels “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “The Ancient Child,” and emerged as a prominent proponent for the aesthetic and liveliness of indigenous traditional existence.   In his article “The Native Voice in American Literature,” he expressed that although the meaning of their words is unclear to us, we are nevertheless connected to their significance.  “They endure over time in the realm of imagination, and there is no doubt that they embody the fundamental nature of language, the language of narrative, mythology, and ancient melodies.”  They are around 2,000 years old and closely resemble the origin of American literature.  In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Momaday the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his literary contributions and efforts to honor and safeguard Native American art and oral heritage.  In addition to his Pulitzer, he received accolades such as the Academy of American Poets medal and, in 2019, the Dayton Literary Peace medal.  https://indianhausa.com/n-scott-momaday-obituary-pulitzer-prize-winning-storyteller-poet-educator-died-unexpectedly-at-89/   

In 2024, veepstakes refers to a choice for possible running mate for U.S.Vice-President.  A blend word of the words "veep" and "sweepstakes", the neologism has been found in print as far back as 1952.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veepstakes   

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people.  A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (30 Jan 1882-1945)  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  

Chita Rivera, the sultry singer, dancer and actress who commanded the Broadway stage for more than a half-century, died.  She was 91.  Rivera died January 30, 2024.  Known for her long, sleek legs, smoldering green eyes and lusty singing voice, the two-time Tony Award winner originated some of musical theater’s most iconic characters.  When West Side Story bowed in 1957, it was Rivera singing about life in America as the fiery Puerto Rican transplant Anita.  As Rose Grant, the long-suffering girlfriend of songwriter Albert Peterson, Rivera received top billing over Dick Van Dyke in 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie.  In 1975, she made the stage sizzle with “All That Jazz” as Velma Kelly in Chicago.  And the 1993 musical adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman put her in the spotlight as the sexy Spider Woman.  While she was in West Side Story, the incredibly limber Rivera noticed that she had developed a welt on her forehead, not realizing at first that she had been inadvertently kicking herself during a leaping move, she told Playbill in 2007.  In fact, Rivera could touch the back of her head with her foot going forward.  “When she let those limbs loose she was a one-woman showstopper, and every choreographer wanted her,” West Side Story producer Harold Prince said.  “There is nobody who can dance, sing and act like Chita Rivera.”  Chris Koesluk  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/chita-rivera-dead-showstopping-legend-broadway-musicals-1235810582/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2777  January 31, 2024