In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful architect and craftsman, seen as a symbol of wisdom, knowledge and power.  He is the father of Icarus, the uncle of Perdix, and possibly also the father of Iapyx.  Among his most famous creations are the wooden cow for Pasiphaë, the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete which imprisoned the Minotaur, and wings that he and his son Icarus used to attempt to escape Crete.  It was during this escape that Icarus did not heed his father's warnings and flew too close to the sun; the wax holding his wings together melted and Icarus fell to his death.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus    

epigram  noun  short saying or poem that expresses an idea in an amusing way  https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/epigram#google_vignette

The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum.  Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677.  It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel.  The present building was built between 1841 and 1845.  The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment, and in November 2011, new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were unveiled.  In May 2016, the museum also opened redisplayed galleries of 19th-century art.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashmolean_Museum   

Gypsum is a mineral found in crystal as well as masses called gypsum rock.  It is a very soft mineral and it can form very pretty, and sometimes extremely large colored crystals.  Massive gypsum rock forms within layers of sedimentary rock, typically found in thick beds or layers.  It forms in lagoons where ocean waters high in calcium and sulfate content can slowly evaporate and be regularly replenished with new sources of water.  The result is the accumulation of large beds of sedimentary gypsum.  Gypsum is commonly associated with rock salt and sulfur deposits.  It is processed and used as prefabricated wallboard or as industrial or building plaster, used in cement manufacture, agriculture and other uses.

https://mineralseducationcoalition.org/minerals-database/gypsum/   

The Phoenicians spoke a Semitic language.  They are credited with inventing letters and the alphabet. Their alphabet caught on because it was practical for trade and it could be learned quickly by other peoples.  Their system of writing was far simpler than Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform.  It democratized writing, making it something that everyone could understand rather than a small elite.  The Phoenician alphabet had 22 letters, each for sound rather than a word or phrase.  It provided the basis for the Hebrew and Arabic alphabet as well as the Greek alphabet which gave birth to the Latin alphabet which beget the modern alphabet.  The Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of all European and Middle Eastern alphabets as well as ones in India, Southeast Asia, Ethiopia and Korea.  The English alphabet evolved from the Latin, Roman, Greek and ultimately the Phoenician alphabets.  The letter "O" has not changed since it was adopted into the Phoenician alphabet in 1300 B.C.  Phoenician writing was read from right to left like Hebrew and Arab, but the opposite direction of English.  The major difference between the 22-letter Phoenician alphabet and the one we use today is that the Phoenician alphabet had no vowels. Its genius was its simplicity.  https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub371/entry-6047.html   

Easy Italian Meatball Soup  Find ingredients and picture puzzle at https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/3gzr8slr/italian-meat-ball-soup/   

February 24, 2022  The Broomway is known as the most perilous path in Britain–and is a favourite walk of writer Robert Macfarlane, who describes it in this adaptation from his book The Old Ways.  If you consult a large-scale map of the Essex coastline between the River Crouch and the River Thames, you will see a footpath–its route marked with a stitch-line of crosses and dashes--leaving the land at a place called Wakering Stairs and then heading due east, straight out to sea. Several hundred yards offshore, it curls northeast and runs in this direction for around three miles, still offshore, before cutting back to make landfall at Fisherman’s Head, the uppermost tip of a large, low-lying and little-known marshy island called Foulness.  The Broomway is thought to have killed more than 100 people over the centuries.  This is the Broomway, allegedly “the deadliest” path in Britain, and certainly the unearthliest path I have ever walked.  The Broomway is thought to have killed more than 100 people over the centuries; it seems likely that there were other victims whose fates went unrecorded.  Sixty-six of its dead are buried in the little Foulness churchyard; the other bodies were not recovered.  Edwardian newspapers, alert to the path’s reputation, rechristened it “The Doomway”.  Robert Macfarlane   https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20170110-why-the-broomway-is-the-most-dangerous-path-in-britain 

READER FEEDBACK  “Your piece about Land's End in the UK, reminded me of another dangerous and desolate place I've read of in England called "The Broomway" from how it was marked in past times by bundles of sticks.  It's a trail that goes out into the mudflats in a place called Foulness Island on the coast of England east of London.  Many people have been killed trying to walk it since the tide comes in quickly along with dense, disorienting fog and mudholes and quicksand traps people as well.”  Thank you, Muse reader!  

Phrase  a little bird told me  (idiomatic, chiefly humorous) I received the information from a source which I am not prepared to disclose.  Synonyms:  rumour has it, word has it  This phrase is often used more comically than seriously, especially when the source of the information is obvious to both parties but neither is willing to say, or because a custom calls for a pretence of secrecy or surprise.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/a_little_bird_told_me#English   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2766  January 5, 2024