Cooking with Franz Kafka by Valerie Stivers  In Franz Kafka’s first published story, “Description of a Struggle,” the narrator is sitting in a drawing room at a rickety little table, eating a piece of fruitcake that “did not taste very good,” when a man walks up to him.  The man is described as an “acquaintance,” but we soon realize he is a double, or another part of the narrator’s self.  The tension in Kafka between appetite and its fulfillment is a crucial aspect of the writer’s work.  Kafka’s characters are often hungry—the performer from “A Hunger Artist” has made starving himself into an art; Gregor Samsa from The Metamorphosis slowly stops eating and wastes away.  But their hunger is often not for the foods of this world.  Gregor refers to himself as hungering as for “an unknown nourishment.”  In The Metamorphosis, the food is controlled by Gregor’s family.  His father, mother, and beautiful young sister, Grete, spend most of the story seated at a table outside Gregor’s room, eating.  Gregor, in his grotesque new form, is not allowed at the table.  Yet he finds himself on the morning of his transformation to be “much hungrier than usual.”  Terrible as his metamorphosis is, it frees him from work and from being useful to his family, suggesting that he is showing a more authentic self.   Incidentally, Kafka in his lifetime refused to specify what kind of creature Gregor was and forbade any drawing or representation of him.  See recipes and pictures at https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/02/22/cooking-with-franz-kafka/   

Gary Larson (born 1950) is an American cartoonist who created The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years.  The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995.  In September 2019, his website alluded to a "new online era of The Far Side".  On July 8, 2020, Larson released three new comics, his first in 25 years.  His twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than forty-five million copies.   Larson was born and raised in University Place, Washington, in suburban Tacoma, the son of Verner, a car salesman, and Doris, a secretary.  He graduated from Curtis Senior High School in University Place and from Washington State University in Pullman with a degree in communications.  During high school and college, he played jazz guitar and banjo.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Larson 

 

Industry City (also Bush Terminal) is a historic intermodal shipping, warehousing, and manufacturing complex on the Upper New York Bay waterfront in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City.  The northern portion, commonly called "Industry City" on its own, hosts commercial light manufacturing tenants across 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m²) of space between 32nd and 41st Streets, and is operated by a private consortium.  The southern portion, known as "Bush Terminal", is located between 40th and 51st Streets and is operated by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) as a garment manufacturing complex.  Founded by Bush Terminal Company head Irving T. Bush in the early 20th century, Bush Terminal was the first facility of its kind in New York City and the largest multi-tenant industrial property in the United States.  The warehouses were built between 1892 and 1910, the railroad from 1896 to 1915, and the factory lofts between 1905 and 1925.  During World War I, Bush Terminal was used as a United States Navy base, and returned to private ownership after the war.  At its peak, Bush Terminal covered 200 acres (81 hectares), bounded by Gowanus Bay to the west and north, Third Avenue to the east, 27th Street to the north, and 50th Street to the south.  The surrounding area declined after World War II, and by the 1970s, the ports in Bush Terminal had been filled.  The complex was rebranded as Industry City during the post-war years, though the Bush Terminal name remained in popular use.  In the 1970s and 1980s, sections of Bush Terminal were demolished or converted for other uses, including a shopping mall, a federal prison, a privately operated manufacturing and commercial complex, and a garment manufacturing district operated by the NYCEDC.  Today, the Bush Terminal site comprises roughly 71 acres (29 ha), including 16 former factory buildings and 11 warehouses built in the early 20th century.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_City  Thank you, Muse reader!   

Lex (Latin) for ‘law’ 
Law (Viking, Icelandic) for ‘lex’  

The rule of ‘law’ is the glue which holds our society together.  But where did the word ‘law’ come from?  There is some deep history nested in the distinction between ‘lex’ and ‘law’.  Law is an old Viking word whereas the word lex is a more scholarly word with its origin in Latin.  Both have common Proto-Indo-European origins perhaps 7,000 years ago.  Lex derives from the Latin verb legō ‘to gather, take off, tear off, pick, roll up, look through, read’, denoting originally a ‘collection (of legal rules, principles)’.  Immediately, the connection to ‘legislator’ becomes apparent–as someone proposing law from above.  If we go back in time to the Roman empire with its military might and dominance, the power of the empire was administered and enforced by written laws and commands, supported by a vast bureaucracy that was so very sophisticated for its time.  During this era, lex therefore had a strong connection with reading and writing.  The word origin of ‘law’ means ‘something laid down, that which is fixed or set’.  The collective plural, literally translated, was ‘layer’.  ‘Lawyer’ perhaps also derived from the Old English ‘lahwita’, with wita meaning ‘sage, wise man, adviser, councilor’.  And so law might be imagined as layers of custom, accumulating over time and fixed in place like sedimentary rock.   https://www.leocussen.edu.au/lex-or-law/   

Grandma’s Irish Soda Bread  one loaf  total time:  55 minutes  optional:  one large egg; optional:  one cup raisins  Sally McKenney  See recipe at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/grandmas-irish-soda-bread/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue  2787  March 4, 2024