Barnum's American Museum was a dime museum located at the corner of Broadway, Park Row, and Ann Street in what is now the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City, from 1841 to 1865.  The museum was owned by famous showman P. T. Barnum, who purchased Scudder's American Museum in 1841.  The museum offered both strange and educational attractions and performances.  Some were extremely reputable and historically or scientifically valuable, while others were less so.  In 1841, Barnum acquired the building and natural history collection of Scudder's American Museum for less than half of its appraised value with the financial support of Francis Olmsted, by quickly purchasing it the day after the soon to be buyers, the Peale Museum Company, failed to make their payment.  He converted the five-story exterior into an advertisement lit with limelight.  The museum opened on January 1, 1842.  Its attractions made it a combination zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theater and freak show, in what was, at the same time, a central site in the development of American popular culture.  Barnum filled the American Museum with dioramas, panoramas, "cosmoramas", scientific instruments, modern appliances, a flea circus, a loom powered by a dog, the trunk of a tree under which Jesus' disciples supposedly sat, an oyster bar, a rifle range, waxworks, glass blowers, taxidermists, phrenologists, pretty baby contests, Ned the learned seal, the Fiji Mermaid (a mummified monkey's torso with a fish's tail), midgets, Chang and Eng the Siamese twins, a menagerie of exotic animals that included beluga whales in an aquarium, giants, Native Americans who performed traditional songs and dances, Grizzly Adams's trained bears and performances ranging from magicians, ventriloquists and blackface minstrels to adaptations of biblical tales and Uncle Tom's Cabin.   At its peak, the museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as 15,000 visitors a day.  Some 38 million customers paid the 25 cents admission to visit the museum between 1841 and 1865.  The total population of the United States in 1860 was under 32 million.  In November 1864, the Confederate Army of Manhattan attempted and failed to burn down the museum, but on July 13, 1865, the American Museum burned to the ground in one of the most spectacular fires New York has ever seen.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum%27s_American_Museum   

A rare celestial event is set to be revealed this week at Stonehenge, the most famous megalithic structure in the world.  It will be streamed live on YouTube at 21:30 BST (4:30 p.m. EST) on Friday, Jun. 21.  The English monument’s alignment with sunrise on the summer solstice—which will take place this year on Thursday, Jun. 20—is well known.  However, something else is happening, too: one of its southernmost moonrises during a rare lunistice or “major lunar standstill.”  As well as the sun rising in the northeast behind Stonehenge’s Heel Stone on the summer solstice date, moonrise later that day will also be keenly watched for the effect of the “major lunar standstill,” also called a lunistice.  It occurs every 18.6 years, also known as a lunar cycle.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2024/06/16/stonehenge-to-see-rare-alignment-this-week-a-major-lunar-standstill/    

From Jim Nickelson:  My Adventures in Celestial Mechanics project is based on my quest to capture each full moon of the year, at moonrise or moonset, from somewhere in the Maine landscape.  The project name derives from the delightfully-named textbook (written by my professor, Dr. Szebehely) that captured the beauty and majesty of the equations underlying orbital mechanics. For moonrise of the full moon results from an important phase of the celestial dance between the Earth, Sun, and Moon–when all three bodies are aligned and one can stand on the Earth with the sunset at your back and moon rising right in front of you.  (Moonset results from a similar alignment at sunrise).  The fascinating names of each full moon, each rooted in the history of the land and its peoples, provide further inspiration for my endeavors.  https://www.jimnickelson.com/adventures-in-celestial-mechanics   

5 June 2024  Two brand new characters have just been announced for the Mr Men and Little Miss book series.  They're called Little Miss Surprise and Mr Fib, and they'll both feature in their own adventures planned for September 2024 in the UK.  The series was originally created in 1971 by Roger Hargreaves.  New stories in the series are now written by Roger's son Adam.  The Mr Men and Little Miss book series has been around for over 50 years, selling over 250 million copies worldwide.  Little Miss Surprise and Mr Fib will join a cast of over 90 characters, including Mr Tickle and Little Miss Brave.  https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c255vv7re74o   

face the music (third-person singular simple present faces the music, present participle facing the music, simple past and past participle faced the music)

(idiomatic) To accept or confront the unpleasant consequences of one's actions. [from 19th c.]  synonyms ▲quotations ▼  verb

synonyms:  face up to, pay the penalty, pay the price  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/face_the_music#English

The Fête de la Musique (also known as World Music Day), which originated in France in 1982 and is now celebrated around the world, takes place June 21.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2829  June 21, 2024