Cosplay, a portmanteau of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character.  Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage.  Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject.  Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, television series, rock music performances, video games and in some cases, original characters.  The term is composed of the two aforementioned counterparts–costume and role play.  Cosplay grew out of the practice of fan costuming at science fiction conventions, beginning with Morojo's "futuristicostumes" created for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention held in New York City in 1939.  The Japanese term "cosplay" (コスプレ, kosupure) was coined in 1984.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay   

“By the Seaside” is perhaps Apple’s most polarizing alarm and ringtone, evoking comparisons to nails on a chalkboard, the word “moist” and screaming children on a plane.  In the past, phones had only one sound:  the shrill, continuous ring of a landline.  You probably think you don’t know “By the Seaside,” but you do.  On YouTube, there are extended versions, rap versions, versions played on various instruments.  “Some people think it’s a great ringtone.  And other people say, Oh, my God, it’s terrible,” said Carlos Xavier Rodriguez, chair of music theory at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, of the divisive tune. “You love it or you hate it.”  People have been trying to use sound to wake up reliably for centuries, relying on everything from church bells to roosters.  Some people used to employ the services of knocker-uppers, or workers paid to wake customers by tapping on the door or window with a stick, until the 1970s in some parts of Britain.  The first known alarm clock in the United States was invented by clockmaker Levi Hutchins of Concord, New Hampshire in 1787, but his clock rang just once at 4 am.  In 1874, French inventor Antoine Redier patented an adjustable mechanical alarm clock.  Seth Thomas patented a mechanical wind-up one a couple years later, and the electric alarm clock was invented by the end of the 19th century.  Alarm clocks have evolved further since then.  Some high-tech ones these days are designed to emit light mimicking sunrise, waking users gently with a soft glow and relaxing sounds such as birds twittering or the lilt of a flute.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/23/tech/apple-ringtone-by-the-seaside-alarm/index.html  Thank you, Muse reader!   

A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope.  It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a border/separation barrier for navigation, good drainage, industry, or other purposes.  The word is one of Middle Dutch and came into usage in English via French.  In medieval military engineering, a berm (or berme) was a level space between a parapet or defensive wall and an adjacent steep-walled ditch or moat.  It was intended to reduce soil pressure on the walls of the excavated part to prevent its collapse.  It also meant that debris dislodged from fortifications would not fall into (and fill) a ditch or moat.  In the trench warfare of World War I, the name was applied to a similar feature at the lip of a trench, which served mainly as an elbow-rest for riflemen.  In modern military engineering, a berm is the earthen or sod wall or parapet, especially a low earthen wall adjacent to a ditch.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berm 

Orphan Train Rider, One Boy's True Story by Andrea Warren  Between 1854 and 1930, more than 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent west on orphan trains to find new homes. Some were adopted by loving families; others were not as fortunate.  In recent years, some of the riders have begun to share their stories.  Andrea Warren alternates chapters about the history of the orphan trains with the story of Lee Nailling, who in 1926 rode an orphan train to Texas.  https://ifpl.overdrive.com/media/1192322    

The Drummer Boy on Independence Day by E. L. Doctorow   A story was written in the mid-nineteen-fifties, after E. L. Doctorow, then in his twenties, had completed his military service in Germany.  It was found by the biographer Bruce Weber with Doctorow’s papers at the Fales Library and Special Collections, at New York University.  July 1, 2024   https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/08/the-drummer-boy-on-independence-day-fiction-e-l-doctorow   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2835  July 5, 2024  

To do the opposite of something is also a form of imitation. - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, scientist and philosopher (1 Jul 1742-1799)

Mary Leonora Carrington OBE (1917–2011) was a British-born, naturalized Mexican surrealist painter and novelist.  She lived most of her adult life in Mexico City and was one of the last surviving participants in the surrealist movement of the 1930s.  Carrington was also a founding member of the women's liberation movement in Mexico during the 1970s.  At the age of ten, she saw her first Surrealist painting in a Left Bank gallery in Paris and later met many Surrealists, including Paul Éluard.  Her father opposed her career as an artist, but her mother encouraged her.  She returned to England and was presented at Court, but according to her, because she had no intention of being "sold to the highest bidder" she brought a copy of Aldous Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza (1936) to read instead.  In 1935, she attended the Chelsea School of Art in London for one year, and with the help of her father's friend Serge Chermayeff, she was able to transfer to the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts established by the French modernist Amédée Ozenfant in London (1936–38).   She became familiar with Surrealism from a copy of Herbert Read's book, Surrealism (1936), given to her by her mother, but she received little encouragement from her family to forge an artistic career.  The Surrealist poet and patron Edward James was the champion of her work in Britain; James bought many of her paintings and arranged a show in 1947 for her work at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Carrington  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Only a few female North American songbirds sing, but the female Northern Cardinal does, and often while sitting on the nest.  This may give the male information about when to bring food to the nest.  A mated pair shares song phrases, but the female may sing a longer and slightly more complex song than the male.  A perennial favorite among people, the Northern Cardinal is the state bird of seven states.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Cardinal/overview# 

These non-migrating birds operate as a flock in the winter to better forage and this are called a “Vatican of Cardinals.”  The selection of state birds began with Kentucky adopting the northern cardinal in 1926.  It continued when the legislatures for Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregon, Texas and Wyoming selected their state birds after a campaign was started by the General Federation of Women's Clubs to name official state birds in the 1920s.  The last state to choose its bird was Arizona in 1973.  Pennsylvania never chose an official state bird, but did choose the ruffed grouse as the state game bird. Alaska, California, and South Dakota permit hunting of their state birds. Alabama, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee have designated an additional "state game bird" for the purpose of hunting.  The northern cardinal is the state bird of seven states, followed by the western meadowlark as the state bird of six states.  The District of Columbia designated a district bird in 1938.  Of the five inhabited territories of the United States, American Samoa and Puerto Rico are the only ones without territorial birds.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_birds  

The Seven Crystal Balls is the thirteenth volume of The Adventures of Tintin, the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé.  The story was serialised daily in Le Soir, Belgium's leading francophone newspaper, from December 1943 amidst the German occupation of Belgium during World War II.  The story was cancelled abruptly following the Allied liberation in September 1944, when Hergé was blacklisted after being accused of collaborating with the occupying Germans. After he was cleared two years later, the story and its follow-up Prisoners of the Sun were then serialised weekly in the new Tintin magazine from September 1946 to April 1948.  The story revolves around the investigations of a young reporter Tintin and his friend Captain Haddock into the abduction of their friend Professor Calculus and its connection to a mysterious illness which has afflicted the members of an archaeological expedition to Peru.  The Seven Crystal Balls was a commercial success and was published in book form by Casterman shortly after its conclusion, while the series itself became a defining part of the Franco-Belgian comics tradition.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Crystal_Balls#  

Ernő Rubik (born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor.  He is best-known for creating the Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.  While Rubik became famous for inventing the Rubik's Cube and his other puzzles, much of his recent work involves the promotion of science in education.  Rubik is involved with several organizations such as Beyond Rubik's Cube, the Rubik Learning Initiative and the Judit Polgar Foundation, all of which aim to engage students in science, mathematics, and problem solving at a young age.  Rubik studied sculpture at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest and architecture at the Technical University, also in Budapest.  While a professor of design at the academy, he pursued his hobby of building geometric models.  One of these was a prototype of his cube, made of 27 wooden blocks; it took Rubik a month to solve the problem of the cube.  Rubik admits to being a lifelong bibliophile and has stated, "Books offered me the possibility of gaining knowledge of the world, nature and people."  Rubik is fond of outdoor activities such as walking through nature, playing sports, and sailing on Lake Balaton. Rubik is also an avid gardener and has stated that "collecting succulents is my favourite pastime.  See a list of prizes and awards at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern%C5%91_Rubik 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2833  July 1, 2024