Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on December 12, 1915, Frank Sinatra made an indelible mark on the entertainment industry.  He began his musical journey as a band singer in the 1930s and his melodious voice and charismatic personality made him a legendary figure in the history of music.  Throughout his career, Sinatra was known for his rich baritone voice and his impeccable showmanship.  He released numerous albums, produced countless hits, and his awards included nine Grammys.  He was also a successful actor, and many of his films became classics in the industry.  In addition to his successful entertainment career, Sinatra was also a painter, and his work Fourth of July Fireworks (oil on canvas) sold at auction for $223,500.  He died on May 14, 1998, at the age of 82.  See some of his works at Frank Sinatra | Artnet  Thank you, reader.   

To understand the difference between a graveyard and a cemetery, start by taking a look at the definitions of each term.  A graveyard is an area of land, often next to a church, where people are buried.  During the Middle Ages, wealthy or otherwise influential Christians were generally interred inside a church after they died, often in a crypt beneath the floor.  Less wealthy congregants were buried outside in the churchyard, and that section came to be known as the graveyard.  This practice continued for many centuries.  The compound word graveyard stems from the proto-Germanic “graban,” which means “to dig,” and “gardan,” which refers to an enclosed area of land.  Like a graveyard, a cemetery is also defined as a place where the dead are buried, but it’s a relatively newer concept.  By the early 19th century, population growth was rapid.  Church graveyards filled up, and there was a need for new burial grounds.  Thus, independent sites called “cemeteries” became more common as designated final resting places.  Cemeteries are typically not affiliated with a specific church, so you don’t have to be a congregant to be buried there.  They’re also often located away from a town or city center to allow for more space.  As for the etymology, the word “cemetery” stems from the Greek “koimeterion,” which means “dormitory” or “resting place.” Early Christians came to use the term to refer to a person’s final resting place (rather than in the literal sleep context).  To be clear, using graveyard and cemetery interchangeably is acceptable by today’s standards, but graveyard still primarily refers to the area of a churchyard used for burial.  Here's The Difference Between A Cemetery And A Graveyard | HuffPost Life  Thank you, reader.    

sarsaparilla (countable and uncountable, plural sarsaparillas)  noun  The first r in the word is silent.  Any of various tropical (Central and South) American vines of the genus Smilax, such as Smilax aspera, which have fragrant roots.  Dried roots of these plants, or a flavoring material extracted from these roots.  A beverage (soft drink) flavored with this root, such as root beer.   Any of several North American plants, of the genus Aralia, having umbels and small white flowers.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sarsaparilla    

Books by Richard Bach about barnstorming

Illusions:  The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah:  This novel is about a barnstorming pilot named Richard who meets a mysterious fellow pilot, Donald Shimoda, who claims to be a messiah.  It explores the idea that our world is illusory and teaches how to manipulate it.  Nothing by Chance:  This book chronicles one summer Bach spent flying an antique biplane as a barnstormer, sleeping under the wing and giving joyrides to passengers.  It captures the adventure and insight of the experience.

Biplane: This is another of Bach's early books that celebrated his experiences as a barnstormer. 

As for the first of those books, In Richard Bach's book *Illusions:  The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah*, the "mystical hills east of Fort Wayne" are where the character Donald Shimoda, the reluctant messiah, was said to be raised.

Key details from the book:  

   - A "holy land of Indiana":  The book includes a passage that states,    "There was a Master come unto the earth, born in the holy land of Indiana,    raised in the mystical hills east of Fort Wayne . . .  and he smiled upon the    multitudes and said pleasantly unto them, 'I quit'". 

   - The character's origin:  This passage establishes the mythical, midwestern origin story of the character Shimoda, the former mechanic turned messiah whom the narrator encounters.

   - A metaphor for inner truth:  While Fort Wayne and the surrounding landscape are real, the book uses this setting to ground its philosophical and spiritual themes in a familiar, down-to-earth backdrop.  The setting serves as a literary device to show that profound truths can be found in ordinary places.  Thank you, reader.   

October 28, 2025

Barnstorming was a form of entertainment in which stunt pilots performed tricks individually or in groups that were called flying circuses.  Devised to "impress people with the skill of pilots and the sturdiness of planes," it became popular in the United States during the Roaring Twenties.   Barnstormers were pilots who flew throughout the country to sell airplane rides and perform stunts.  Charles Lindbergh first began flying as a barnstormer.   Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of manned flight.  The sensational journalism and economic prosperity that marked the Jazz Age in the United States allowed barnstormers to publicize aviation and eventually contributed to bringing about regulation and control.   In 1925, the U.S. government began regulating aviation, when it passed the Contract Air Mail Act, which allowed the U.S. Post Office to hire private airlines to deliver mail with payments made based on the weight of the mail.  The following year, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Air Commerce Act, which shifted the management of air routes to a new branch in the Department of Commerce, which was also responsible for "licensing of planes and pilots, establishing safety regulations, and general promotion."   Barnstorming "seemed to be founded on bravado, with 'one-upmanship' a major incentive."  By 1927, competition among barnstormers resulted in their performing increasingly dangerous tricks, and a rash of highly publicized accidents led to new safety regulations, which led to the demise of barnstorming.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnstorming    

One of the most fascinating periods of aviation history is the age of barnstorming in the 1920s.  The end of World War I left many trained pilots out of work and itching to fly again.  The military also had a surplus of aircraft, mostly the Curtiss JN-4 Biplane “Jenny,” biplanes, which they sold to former aviators and civilians for a fraction of their original price.  The former pilots’ boredom and bravery combined with access to inexpensive planes eventually led to the rise of barnstorming as a wildly popular source of entertainment in the Roaring Twenties.  Barnstorming earned its name from the aerobatic pilots who would land their light planes in fields and use local barns as venues for their impromptu airshows.  Paying spectators would gather to watch these daring pilots attempt a variety of dangerous tricks.  Daredevil stunt pilots would perform maneuvers like spins, dives, loop-the-loops, and barrel rolls at dangerously low altitudes, and aerialists would attempt feats like wing walking, jumping from plane to plane, and even mid-air tennis matches.   https://hartzellprop.com/hartzell-history-history-barnstorming/ 

The little owl (Athene noctua), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa.  It was introduced into Britain at the end of the 19th century and into the South Island of New Zealand in the early 20th century.  This owl is a member of the typical or true owl family Strigidae, which contains most species of owl, the other grouping being the barn owls, Tytonidae.  It is a small (approx. 22 cm long), cryptically coloured, mainly nocturnal species and is found in a range of habitats including farmland, woodland fringes, steppes and semi-deserts.  See picture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_owl    

The proof is in the pudding is an expression that means the value, quality, or truth of something must be judged based on direct experience with it—or on its results.  The expression is an alteration of an older saying that makes the meaning a bit clearer:  the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  In other words, things must be judged by trying them yourself or seeing them in action, rather than on other factors, such as hearsay.  The earliest records of the original expression come from the beginning of the 1600s.  The shortened version has been in common use since at least the beginning of the 1900s.  Another variation of the term is the proof of the pudding, which refers to the results themselves, direct experience with something, or the testing of something to judge its value or truth.  In these sayings, the word proof was originally used in the sense of a test of something—such as a test of quality, worth, truth, etc.  However, it is now often interpreted as meaning the same thing as evidence.  https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/the-proof-is-in-the-pudding/    

An infinity pool is a reflecting pool or swimming pool where the water flows over one or more edges, producing a visual effect of water with no boundary.  Such pools are often designed so that the edge appears to merge with a larger body of water such as the ocean, or with the sky, and may overlook locations such as natural landscapes and cityscapes.  They are often seen at hotels, resorts, estates, and in other luxurious places.  It has been claimed that the infinity pool concept originated in France, and that one of the first vanishing-edge designs was the Stag Fountain at the Palace of Versailles, built in the late 17th century.   In the US, architect John Lautner has been credited as one of the first to come up with an infinity pool design in the early 1960s.  He included infinity pools in various residential projects, and also created the vanishing-edge pool in the 1971 James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_pool    

October 27 is the 300th day of the year (301st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 65 days remain until the end of the year. 

1682 – Philadelphia is founded in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

1726 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56, one of few works he called a cantata.   

1775 – King George III expands on his Proclamation of Rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies in his speech from the throne at the opening of Parliament.   

1858 – Theodore Roosevelt, American colonel and politician, 26th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1919)

1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire. 

2017 – Catalonia declares independence from Spain. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_27    

October 27, 2025

Eldorado, originally, the legendary ruler of an Indian town near Bogotá, who was believed to plaster his naked body with gold dust during festivals, then plunge into Lake Guatavita to wash off the dust after the ceremonies; his subjects threw jewels and golden objects into the lake.  Spanish conquistadores heard the tale before 1530, and one of them reported that he had visited Eldorado himself in a city called Omagua.  In 1538 Spaniards from the Caribbean and from Peru and Germans from Venezuela converged on the Bogotá highlands in search of the “gilded man.” No trace of him was found, but the area remained under Spanish rule.  As the search continued into the Orinoco and Amazon valleys, Eldorado came to mean an entire fabulous country of gold, with legendary cities named Manoa and Omagua. In this quest, Gonzalo Pizarro crossed the Andes from Quito (1539), Francisco de Orellana sailed down the Napo and the Amazon (1541–42), and Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada explored eastward from Bogotá (1569–72).   Sir Walter Raleigh searched for Manoa in the Orinoco lowlands (1595), while Spaniards sought Omagua nearby.  In 1603 the Portuguese Pêro Coelho de Sousa explored northward from Pernambuco, and the golden city of Eldorado was shown on maps of Brazil and the Guianas for years thereafter.  Eldorado was only one of the many mythical regions of great riches—Cíbola, Quivira, the City of the Caesars, and Otro Méjico being among the others.  The search for these led to the rapid exploration and conquest of much of the Americas by Spaniards and others.  Since then, Eldorado has come to mean any place where wealth can be quickly and easily gained.  The name was given to towns in Latin America and the United States and to a California county.  The story is often mentioned in literature, as in Milton’s Paradise Lost and Voltaire’s Candide.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eldorado-legendary-country      

 

Frank Sinatra said of actor Robert Mitchum, "For anyone who's not a professional musician, he knows more about music, from Bach to Brubeck, than any man I've ever known."   Mitchum's voice was often used instead of that of a professional singer when his character sang in his films.  Notable productions featuring Mitchum's own singing voice included Pursued, Rachel and the Stranger, One Minute to Zero, The Night of the Hunter, The Sundowners, and Maria's Lovers.   He sang the title song to Young Billy Young and River of No Return.   Mitchum recorded two albums.  After hearing traditional calypso music and meeting artists such as Mighty Sparrow and Lord Melody while filming Fire Down Below and Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in the Caribbean islands of Tobago, he recorded Calypso–is like so . . . .   On the album, released through Capitol Records in March 1957, he emulated the calypso sound and style, even adopting the style's unique pronunciations and slang.  A year later, he recorded "The Ballad of Thunder Road", a song he had written for the film Thunder Road.  The country-style song became a modest hit for Mitchum, reaching number 62 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in September 1958.   Although Mitchum continued to use his singing voice in his film work, he waited until 1967 to record his follow-up record, That Man, Robert Mitchum, Sings.  The album, released by Nashville-based Monument Records, took him further into country music and featured songs similar to "The Ballad of Thunder Road".   "Little Old Wine Drinker Me", the first single, was a top-10 hit on country radio, reaching number nine there, and crossed over into mainstream radio, where it peaked at number 96.  Its follow-up, "You Deserve Each Other", also charted on the Billboard Country Singles chart.  Mitchum was nominated for an Academy of Country Music Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist in 1968.     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum   

Balderdash  noun 

1590s, of obscure origin despite much 19c. conjecture; in early use "a jumbled mix of liquors" (milk and beer, beer and wine, etc.); by 1670s as "senseless jumble of words."  Perhaps from dash and the first element perhaps cognate with Danish balder "noise, clatter" (see boulder).  "But the word may be merely one of the numerous popular formations of no definite elements, so freely made in the Elizabethan period" [Century Dictionary].   https://www.etymonline.com/word/balderdash     

Historically, the name Royd can be associated with the geographical features of England, particularly in regions where land clearing was common.  It appears in various place names and surnames throughout England, indicating its significance in the context of land ownership and rural life.  Old English: 'red' or 'ruddy'; English: 'royal'.  The name has been documented in historical records since the medieval period, with references found in texts from the 12th century onward. https://parentingpatch.com/baby-names/Royd/  Ravenroyd, a medieval house once lived in by the Muser’s ancestors, is still standing.   

On October 24: 

1590 – John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returns to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists.

1885 – The Russian ship Dmitry ran aground in Whitby, an incident that inspired the arrival of Count Dracula to England in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel (cover pictured).

1929 – On "Black Thursday", the New York Stock Exchange lost 11 percent of its value at the opening bell on very heavy trading, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_24    

October 24, 2025

The capybaraor greater capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) is the largest living rodent, native to South America.  It is a member of the genus Hydrochoerus.  Its close relatives include guinea pigs and rock cavies, and it is more distantly related to the agouti, the chinchilla, and the nutria.  The capybara inhabits savannas and dense forests, and lives near bodies of water.  It is a highly social species and can be found in groups as large as one hundred individuals, but usually live in groups of 10–20 individuals.  The capybara is hunted for its meat and hide and also for grease from its thick fatty skin.   Izu Shaboten Zoo and other zoos in Japan have prepared hot spring baths for capybaras.  Video clips of the bathing capybaras have gained millions of views.  The capybaras have influenced an anime character named Kapibara-san, and a series of merchandise such as plush toys.   Capybaras have long been a figure in meme culture, particularly in the 2020s.  In 2022, Peronists in Argentina presented them as figures of class struggle after the disturbances in Nordelta.   Common meme formats pair capybaras with the song "After Party" by Don Toliver.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara   

Sandra Lynn Brown, née Cox (born March 12, 1948) is an American bestselling author of romantic novels and thriller suspense novels.  Brown has also published works under the pen names of Rachel Ryan, Laura Jordan, and Erin St. Claire.  Sandra Brown was born in Waco, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth.  She majored in English at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, but left college in 1968 to marry.  After her marriage, Brown worked for KLTV in Tyler as a weathercaster, then returned to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex area where she became a reporter for WFAA-TV's version of PM Magazine.  Brown started her writing career in 1981 after her husband dared her to.   Since then, she has published nearly 70 novels and had more than 50 New York Times bestsellers.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Brown    

The World Heritage List includes 1248 properties forming part of the cultural and natural heritage which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal value.  These include 972 cultural, 235 natural and 41 mixed properties in 170 States Parties.  As of October 2024, 196 States Parties have ratified the World Heritage Convention.   Find list of World Heritage sites at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/

People use the terms dolphins, porpoises, and whales to describe marine mammals belonging to the order Cetacea (from the Greek work ketos, “large sea creature”), and often use them interchangeably.  The orca, or killer whale, for example, is actually the largest member of the dolphin family.  Dolphins are by far more prevalent than porpoises.  Most scientists agree that there are 32 dolphin species (plus five closely related species of river dolphin) and only six porpoise species.  So what’s the difference?  It essentially comes down to their faces (who can forget Flipper’s famous “grin”?), their fins, and their figures.  Dolphins tend to have prominent, elongated “beaks” and cone-shaped teeth, while porpoises have smaller mouths and spade-shaped teeth.  The dolphin’s hooked or curved dorsal fin (the one in the middle of the animal’s back) also differs from the porpoise’s triangular dorsal fin.  Generally speaking, dolphin bodies are leaner, and porpoises’ are portly.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/dolphin_porpoise.htmlK    

October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 71 days remain until the end of the year.

1858 – French composer Jacques Offenbach's operetta Orpheus in the Underworld, featuring the music most associated with the can-can (audio featured), was first performed at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. 

1959 – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, opened in New York City.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_21    

For much of Harper Lee’s life, “To Kill a Mockingbird” stood alone as her only major work; her first and, apparently, last novel, narrated by a voice so clear and coherent it seemed impossible that it was her only output.  Then came “Go Set a Watchman,” published shortly before Lee’s death and initially heralded as a sequel, but subsequently seen as more of an early draft of her most famous work than as a new, standalone novel.  So, when eight short stories by Lee were discovered in her New York apartment after she died, it marked an important milestone.  Here, finally, was a chance to discover how Lee’s distinctive voice was honed in the years before she wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird.”  These short stories will be published for the first time on October 21, 2025 in a collection titled “The Land of Sweet Forever,” accompanied by an introduction by Casey Cep, Lee’s biographer.  For much of Harper Lee’s life, “To Kill a Mockingbird” stood alone as her only major work; her first and, apparently, last novel, narrated by a voice so clear and coherent it seemed impossible that it was her only output.  https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/20/style/harper-lee-short-stories-published-intl-scli    

October 21, 2025