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