The pearl onion (also known as button, baby or silverskin onion in the UK) is a close relative of the leek and may be distinguished from common onions by having only a single storage leaf, similar to cloves of garlic.  Pearl onions are cultivated mostly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, usually in home gardens, although formerly on a commercial scale.  They are mostly used for pickling.  The majority of onions grown for pickling are common onions.  They are grown to a small size suitable for pickling by planting at a high density.  Known small white varieties include Crystal Wax, or White Bermuda.   Pearl onions are ready to harvest from seed in 90 days.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_onion    

Celia Lovsky (born Cäcilia Josefina Lvovsky, 1897–1979) was an Austrian-American actress.  She was born in Vienna, daughter of Břetislav Lvovsky (1857–1910), a minor Czech opera composer.  She studied theater, dance, and languages at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music.  She is particularly well-known for two of her television appearances:  the Twilight Zone episode "Queen of the Nile" (1964), in which she played the elderly daughter of a never-aging actress (played by Ann Blyth); and she was the High Priestess T'Pau, the Vulcan diplomat, judge, and philosopher who presides at Mr. Spock's wedding in the Star Trek episode "Amok Time" (1967).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Lovsky   

A Tom Swifty is a play on words taking the form of a quotation ascribed to Tom and followed by an adverb.  Here's a good example:  "The thermostat is set too high," said Tom heatedly.  The term was coined by Willard Espy (1911–99), one of the masters of word play, who compiled two wonderful collections of poems, essays, quizzes, and other writings about language:  An Almanac of Words at Play (1975) and Another Almanac of Words at Play (1980).  https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/tom-swifties-puns-that-turn-adverbs-into-punchlines   

Willard Richardson Espy (1910–1999) was an American editor, philologist, writer, poet, and local historian.  Raised in the seaside village of Oysterville, Washington, Espy later studied at the University of Redlands in California before becoming an editor in New York City, as well as a contributor to Reader's Digest, The New Yorker, Punch, and other publications.  In the 1960s, he began publishing books on philology as well collections of poetry collections, and became the best-known collector of and commentator on word play of his time.  In 1977, he published the national bestseller Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village, a semi-autobiographical novel about his familial heritage in the Oysterville community.  Espy died at New York Hospital in Manhattan in 1999, and was interred at Oysterville Cemetery.  He and his siblings were raised in the coastal village of Oysterville, Washington, which had been founded in 1854 by his grandfather, R. H. Espy, a settler who arrived in Oregon Territory via The Oregon Trail.  Espy graduated from the University of Redlands in 1930 with a B.A. after which he spent a year abroad, enrolling at the Sorbonne in Paris, planning to study philosophy.  He returned to the United States in 1932, working as a newspaper editor in California, later moving to New York City where he was eventually hired by Reader's Digest in 1941.  Espy spent next sixteen years working for Reader's Digest in various positions, including as promotion director.   Espy's writing career took off in the late 1960s; he eventually authored fifteen books on language, and his poetry and articles regularly appeared in Punch, Reader's Digest, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, and Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_R._Espy    

slings and arrows  (plural only) (idiomatic)  noun

Hardships or adverse circumstances. [from late 16th – early 17th c.] 

Synonyms:  misfortunes, setbacks

Harsh criticism or personal attacks.  

Synonyms:  barbs, broadsides 

Coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (baptized 1564; died 1616) in his play Hamlet (written 1599–1601; first published 1604 in the second quarto), referring to fortune attacking a person, as if using slingshots and arrows.  April 23, is traditionally celebrated as the birthdate of the English playwright William Shakespeare who was born in 1564.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2805  April 24, 2024