Typically, the baritone ukulele is tuned DGBE, exactly like the top four strings of a guitar.  For guitarists, it’s an easy transition into the uke world.  https://ukulelemagazine.com/lessons/baritone-ukulele-basics-expand-your-sound   

John Milton Cage Jr. (1912–1992) was an American composer and music theorist.  A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.  Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century.  He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.   Cage's teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures.  Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951.  The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text and decision-making tool, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life.  In a 1957 lecture, "Experimental Music", he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life–not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".  Cage's best known work is the 1952 composition 4′33″, a piece performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who perform the work do nothing but be present for the duration specified by the title.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage 

Lev Sergeyevich Termen ( [O.S. 15 August] 1896-3 November 1993), better known as Leon Theremin, was a Russian inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments and the first to be mass-produced.  He also worked on early television research.  His secret listening device, "The Thing", hung for seven years in plain view in the United States ambassador's Moscow office and enabled Soviet agents to secretly eavesdrop on conversations.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Theremin    

Robert Redford, the actor and director who sailed to Hollywood stardom with turns in classics such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “All the President’s Men” and invigorated American independent cinema as one of the founders of the Sundance Film Festival, died September 16, 2025.  He was 89.  Cindi Berger, his publicist, said he died at his home “in the mountains of Utah—the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved.  Redford was best known as a go-to leading man of the late 1960s and 1970s, instantly recognizable for his windswept hair and widely beloved for his easy charisma.  But he was also an accomplished filmmaker, committed political activist, and culture-shaping entrepreneur.  He won the best director Oscar for the family melodrama “Ordinary People” (1980), the first of his nine stints behind the camera.  Redford’s expansive spirit will live on through the Sundance Institute, a nonprofit organization he founded in 1981 that sponsors the Sundance Film Festival.  The festival, held annually in snowy Park City, Utah, showcases offbeat projects and helps launch the careers of new artists.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/obituaries/robert-redford-magnetic-hollywood-icon-sundance-founder-dies-89-rcna42442   

September 16, 2025  

A condiment is a supplemental food (such as a sauce or powder) that is added to some foods to impart a particular flavor, enhance their flavor, or, in some cultures, to complement the dish, but that cannot stand alone as a dish.  The term condiment originally described pickled or preserved foods, but now includes a great variety of flavorings.  Many diverse condiments exist in various countries, regions and cultures.  Find a list with worldwide condiments at:    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_condiments#:~:text=A%20condiment%20is%20a%20supplemental,list%20includes%20notable%20worldwide%20condiments

At the time of European contact the area of Newburgh, New York was occupied by the Waoranek, a branch of the Lenape.  The area that became Newburgh was first explored by Europeans when Henry Hudson stopped by during his 1609 expedition up the river that now bears his name.  His navigator, Robert Juet, is said to have called the site "a pleasant place to build a town", although some later historians believe he may actually have been referring to the area where Cornwall-on-Hudson now stands.  Around 1683, provincial governor Thomas Dongan purchased the land from the Woaranek people.  The first settlement was made in the spring of 1709 by fifty-four Palatine refugees, sponsored by Queen Anne of Great Britain.  The settlers named it the Palatine Parish by Quassic.  In 1743, a ferry at the foot of First Street had been established between Newburgh and Fishkill Landing (now Beacon, New York).  In 1752, the land had been surveyed by Cadwallader Colden and named "Newburgh", perhaps after one of the Newburghs (there are two) in his father's native Scotland (Colden himself was born in Ireland).  Shipyards were established and docks and warehouses lined the waterfront.  In April 1782, General George Washington made his headquarters at the farmhouse of the Hasbrouck family, making Newburgh the Continental Army's headquarters; he remained there until August 1783.  This was Washington's longest stay at any of his over 160 headquarters.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburgh,_New_York      

Christoph von Dohnanyi, the German conductor whose 18-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra was widely considered one of the finest musical combinations of the 20th Century, died in Munich, Germany on September 5, 2025.  He was 95.  Dohnanyi served as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002, a period in which he recorded more than 100 works with the ensemble, making it the most-recorded American orchestra of the time.  He was named the orchestra’s music director laureate in 2002.  His concert programming was admired for its breadth of repertoire, spanning the late 18th century to recent and commissioned works.  https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2025/09/christoph-von-dohnanyi-visionary-conductor-who-elevated-the-cleveland-orchestra-to-global-prominence-dies-at-95.html    

September  10, 2025

Dumbo (or DUMBO, an acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.  It encompasses two sections:  one situated between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, which connect Brooklyn to Manhattan across the East River, and another extending eastward from the Manhattan Bridge to the Vinegar Hill area.  The neighborhood is bounded by Brooklyn Bridge Park to the north, the Brooklyn Bridge to the west, Brooklyn Heights to the south, and Vinegar Hill to the east.  Dumbo has historically been known by several names, including Gairville, Rapailie, Olympia, and Walentasville.  The area was originally a ferry landing, characterized by 19th- and early 20th-century industrial and warehouse buildings, Belgian block streets, and its location on the East River by the imposing anchorage of the Manhattan Bridge.  A large number of the buildings in Dumbo were bought by developer David Walentas and his company Two Trees Management in the late 20th century, and remade into an upscale residential and commercial community—first becoming a haven for art galleries, and currently a center for technology startups.  Dumbo earned the nickname "the center of the Brooklyn Tech Triangle" thanks to its thriving community of tech startups.  This designation coincided with its rise to become Brooklyn's most affluent neighborhood and the fourth-wealthiest community in New York City.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbo,_Brooklyn 

Individual countries introduced mass vaccination programmes against measles at the national level from the 1960s on, and the first internationally focused measles immunization programmes took place in Africa from 1966.  WHO worked with the governments of over 20 newly independent and decolonizing countries in western and central Africa, alongside the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Centres for Disease Control (CDC), to administer vaccinations with the joint aim of controlling measles and eradicating smallpox.  Despite challenges such as the difficulty of maintaining the cold chain when transporting and storing the heat-sensitive vaccine, these campaigns provided evidence that vaccination was effective against measles, and by May 1967 The Gambia became the first country in the world in which transmission of the virus was interrupted.  An improved version of the measles vaccine was created in 1968 when Dr Maurice Hilleman, a pioneer in vaccine development, passed the virus through chick embryo cells 40 times to weaken it, producing a vaccine that did not cause such severe side effects.  This weaker version, known as the Edmonston-Enders strain, was developed into some of the strains still used in measles vaccines today.  In 1971 Hilleman combined the recently developed vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella into the MMR vaccine, administered as a single shot, with one booster dose following – and in 2005, the varicella vaccine was added, to make the combined MMRV vaccine.  In 1971 Hilleman combined the recently developed vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella into the MMR vaccine, administered as a single shot, with one booster dose following–and in 2005, the varicella vaccine was added, to make the combined MMRV vaccine.  Standalone measles vaccines remain available in many countries.  https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/history-of-measles-vaccination# 

Dukes used to refer to fists, as in "put up your dukes."  Fork was slang

for "hand" or "fist," and the phrase "dukes of York" was created as rhyming

slang for "fork."  So, instead of telling someone to "put up your forks," 

you might say "put up your dukes of York!"  Eventually, this was shortened

to "put up your dukes."  https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/put-up-your-dukes-meaning-origin#:~:text=Etymologists%20think%20this%20is%20probably,up%20your%20dukes%20of%20York!%22 The idiom "duke it out" originates from the concept of bare-knuckle boxing in the 19th century. The term "duke" is thought to be a reference to the Duke of Cumberland, a famous fighter in that era.  Over time, this phrase has evolved into a more general expression for any heated or intense confrontation that leads to a physical fight.  Thank you, reader.   

The Buss family is entering into an agreement to sell majority ownership of the Los Angeles Lakers to
Mark Walter for a franchise valuation of approximately $10 billion, sources
told ESPN on June 16, 2025, the highest ever for a U.S. professional sports 

 franchise.  The Buss family will keep a minority share of

the team, just over 15%, for a period of time, a source said.  In addition, Jeanie Buss will remain the
Lakers' governor and continue to run the team for "at least a number of
years," sources with knowledge of the deal told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.  It was guaranteed as part of the agreement
that Buss would remain in charge for the foreseeable future, and Walter fully
endorsed this plan, according to sources.  Walter, the CEO and chairman of diversified holding company TWG Global,
has been a stakeholder in the Lakers since 2021, when he purchased Phil
Anschutz's share of 26%. That also was when Walter received a right of first
refusal on the majority share of the team. 
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45539931/buss-family-agrees-sell-lakers-mark-walter-sources-say   

Mark Richard Walter (born January 1, 1960) is an American businessman and the chief executive officer of Guggenheim Partners, a privately held global financial services firm with more than $325 billion in Assets under management.  Outside investing, Walter is best known for his extensive investments in professional sports.  He is the primary owner and chairman of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, which have won two World Series under his leadership.  He is also the primary owner of auto racing organization Andretti Global, which operates the Cadillac Formula 1 team; the Women's National Basketball Association's Los Angeles Sparks; and the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL).  In addition, he owns 12.7% of BlueCo, a holding company that controls Premier League club Chelsea and Ligue 1 club RC Strasbourg.  He sits on the boards of his alma maters Creighton University and Northwestern University.  Mark Walter is a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and graduated from Cedar Rapids Jefferson High School in 1978.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Walter 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  June 19, 2025 

The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa.  Geographically, The Gambia is the smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for the western part, which is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.   Its territory is on both sides of the lower reaches of the Gambia River, which flows through the centre of the country and empties into the Atlantic.  The national namesake river demarcates the elongated shape of the country, which has an area of 11,300 square kilometres (4,400 sq mi) and a population of 2,769,075 people in 2024 which is a 47% population increase from 2013.  The capital city is Banjul, which has the most extensive metropolitan area in the country.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia    

Sonora Louise Smart Dodd (1882–1978) was the daughter of American Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, and was responsible for the founding of Father's Day.  Sonora Louise Smart was born in Jenny Lind, Sebastian County, Arkansas to William Jackson Smart (1842–1919) and his wife Ellen Victoria Cheek Smart (1851–1898) on February 18, 1882.  In 1889, when Sonora was seven years old, the Smart family moved from Marion, Arkansas, to a farm west of Spokane, Washington between Creston and Wilbur.  When Sonora was 16, her mother died in childbirth with her sixth child.  Sonora was the only daughter and shared with her father William in the raising of her younger brothers, including her new infant brother Marshall.  Sonora Smart married John Bruce Dodd (1870–1945), one of the original founders of Ball & Dodd Funeral Home, and had a son, John Bruce "Jack" Dodd, born in 1909.  Though a Father's Day service was held on July 5, 1908 in West Virginia to honor the fathers killed in the Monongah Mine Disaster, it is Sonora Smart Dodd who is credited as the founder of the official American national holiday, Father’s Day.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonora_Smart_Dodd    

June 10, 2025  Seth MacFarlane has built an empire with his voice. Most people know him as the creator and star of long-running animated comedies like Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, as well as the writer-director behind Ted, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and The Orville.  He has won multiple Emmys for voicing a multitude of characters on the programs he’s developed, and he’s known as a gifted actor.  What’s less widely known—even among his most dedicated fans—is that MacFarlane is also one of today’s most talented traditional pop vocalists.  His musical career, which leans heavily on the Great American Songbook, has earned him five Grammy nominations, including several in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category.  His latest release, Lush Life: The Lost Sinatra Arrangements, may be the most exciting of his nine full-lengths due to the story behind its creation.   “When I got the offer from Tina Sinatra to acquire the library of charts,” MacFarlane explained during a recent interview, “we found a lot of orchestrations and in some cases, whole songs that [Sinatra] never recorded for one reason or another.”  One standout is “Flying Down to Rio,” which was initially arranged for the crooner’s Come Fly With Me album before being shelved.  “That’s kind of something that somebody ought to record at some point,” he adds, “because it was written by Billy May, one of the greatest arrangers of popular song ever.”  That’s exactly what MacFarlane has done.  Working with top-tier musicians and staying faithful to the original arrangements, Lush Life brings these forgotten songs to life for the first time.  These new recordings are performed in MacFarlane’s signature smooth, deep voice, which lends itself perfectly to this space–but even in Sinatra’s shadow, the TV star manages to make these decades-old tunes his own.  “You really do have to put your own stamp on it, because there is no recording that exists,” he says. “But at the same time, you have the fun and the privilege of playing in that Nelson Riddle/Billy May playground.”  https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2025/06/10/seth-macfarlane-talks-bringing-long-lost-frank-sinatra-tunes-to-life/    

Flag Day is a holiday celebrated on June 14 in the United States.  It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.  The Flag Resolution stated "That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."    Flag Day was first proposed in 1861 to rally support for the Union side of the American Civil War. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation that designated June 14 as Flag Day.  On August 3, 1949, National Flag Day was officially established by an Act of Congress.  On June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday, beginning in the town of Rennerdale.  New York Consolidated Laws designate the second Sunday in June as Flag Day, a state holiday.   Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.  Federal law leaves it to the discretion of the president to officially proclaim the observance.  Title 36 of the United States Code, Subtitle I, Part A, Chapter 1, Section 110 is the official statute on Flag Day.  The United States Army also celebrates its birthday on this date.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)    

June 16 is Bloomsday, which celebrates the life of the Irish writer James Joyce.  It is named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses, the events of which take place on June 16 in 1904.  The American physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who coined the word quark for the subatomic particle, noted that the word had appeared in Ulysses.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quark#English 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  June 17, 2025      

Culinary great Jacques Pépin can certainly appreciate the notion of home, having lost his own more than once while growing up in France during World War II.   “We rebuilt it every time, and luckily, no one was home when the bombings happened—it was stressful,” Pépin recently told Mansion Global.  The renowned French chef and television star, whose cooking career spans 75 years, celebrates his 90th birthday in 2025.  Pépin rose to fame as the personal chef of French president Charles de Gaulle and moved to the U.S. in 1959, where he racked up the accolades.  They include 24 James Beard Foundation Awards, a lifetime achievement award from American Public Television and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy.  He continues to work full time and is a culinary arts teacher at Boston University.  But much of Pépin’s time is devoted to the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which he established in 2016 with his daughter, Claudine Pépin, and son-in-law, Rollie Wesen.  “We provide funding and opportunities for underprivileged people, including those who have been released from prison, to have cooking careers,” Pépin said.  “We give grants to community kitchens and host cooking classes where they can learn.”  In honor of his 90th birthday, the foundation launched the 90/90 Campaign, a fundraising initiative in which chefs and restaurants nationwide host 90 events leading up to chef’s big day on Dec. 18, 2025.  According to Pépin, the money raised through 90/90 will support the foundation’s programs.  I’ve never bought a big piece of art.  I do a lot of landscapes, seascapes, forests, abstracts, and objects like flowers and pots.  https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/why-star-chef-jacques-pepin-doesnt-buy-artand-other-thoughts-about-his-home-db0f5a56    

Judith Viorst (née Stahl; born February 2, 1931) is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher.  She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature.  This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies.    Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.  Viorst's book Sad Underwear (published in 1995) is a collection of poems that examines a wide variety of feelings and experiences from a child's point of view.  Her verses are accompanied by black and white illustrations by Richard Hull.  Viorst also penned the musical Love & Shrimp with Shelly Markam.  The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati hosted a performance of Love & Shrimp, starring Deb Girdler, Pamela Myers and Shelley Bamberger, in the spring of 1999.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Viorst    

A special-edition library card celebrating the New York Liberty, Brooklyn’s hometown team and the 2024 WNBA champions!  The New York Liberty-themed library card, available at all BPL locations beginning in June 2025, features the championship WNBA team and their iconic mascot, Ellie the Elephant.  This summer, the Liberty and BPL are partnering through Brooklyn Basketball to support BPL's Summer at the Library programming.  Brooklyn Public Library's card is free for anyone who lives, works, pays property taxes or goes to school in New York State.  https://www.bklynlibrary.org/liberty-library-card    

Frederick Forsyth, the British author of “The Day of the Jackal” and other bestselling thrillers, died June 9, 2025.  He was 86.  Born in Kent, in southern England, in 1938, Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent.  He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for “The Day of the Jackal,” his bestselling political thriller about a professional assassin.  Published in 1971, the book propelled him into global fame.  It was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox as the Jackal and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.  In 2015, Forsyth told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s.  Although Forsyth said he did other jobs for the agency, he said he was not paid for his services and “it was hard to say no” to officials seeking information.  “The zeitgeist was different,” he told the BBC. “The Cold War was very much on.”  He wrote more than 25 books including “The Afghan,” “The Kill List,” “The Dogs of War” and “The Fist of God” that have sold over 75 million copies.  https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/10/uk/frederick-forsyth-has-died-after-illness-intl-hnk   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2955  June 13, 2025

The seventh inning stretch is a time-honored baseball custom in which the fans ritualistically stand and stretch before their team comes to bat in the seventh inning.  This is done not only to relieve stiff muscles due to sitting the previous six innings, but perhaps also to bring luck to one’s team (an association with the number 7 and good luck, maybe?).  Unfortunately the exact origin of the custom is lost in the earliest days of the game.  Baseball historian Dan Daniel is quoted by Zander Hollander (Baseball Lingo, 1967):  “It probably originated as an expression of fatigue and tedium, which seems to explain why the stretch comes late in the game instead of at the halfway point.”  The earliest reference that has surfaced appears in an 1869 letter from Harry Wright of the Cincinnati Red Stock­ings to a friend:  “The spectators all arise between halves of the seventh inning, extend their legs and arms and some­times walk about.  In so doing, they enjoy the relief afforded by relaxation from a long posture upon hard benches.”  The most popular story of its origin is also the most col­orful.  It was created in 1910 when President William Howard Taft, on a visit to Pittsburgh, went to a baseball game and stood up to stretch in the seventh inning.  The crowd, thinking the chief executive was about to leave, stood up out of respect for the office.  The term itself can be traced back no further than 1920.  https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2008/html/pb22235/html/kit_004.html

rinky-dink(adj.)  "trivial, old-fashioned, worthless," 1913 (from 1912 as a noun, "antiquated or worthless object"), said to be carnival slang and imitative of the sound of banjo music at parades [Barnhart]; compare ricky-tick "old-fashioned jazz" (1938).  But early records suggest otherwise unless there are two words.  The earliest senses seem to be as a noun, "maltreatment," especially robbery.  https://www.etymonline.com/word/rinky-dink 

 

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron (born 1 July 1931) is a French and American actress and dancer.  She is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards.  Caron began her career as a ballerina.  She made her film debut in the musical An American in Paris (1951), followed by roles in The Man with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952) and The Story of Three Loves (1953), before her role of an orphan in Lili (also 1953), which earned her the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and garnered nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

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

 

Just read an article on Substack (which does not allow you to forward articles) reporting that the Chicago Sun-Times published a summer reading list.  Ten of the fifteen titles were fake.  It seems that the compiler used AI to generate the list and did not bother to check or verify the results.  Also, your piece on Stone Soup put me in mind of a short novel by French author Hubert Mingarelli entitled “A Meal In Winter.”  It tells of three German soldiers in WWII who evade participating in a mass slaughter of Jews by scheming to be assigned to patrol the woods surrounding their camp to hunt more Jews.  In the dead of winter, they find a young Jewish man hiding in an improvised bunker and take him captive.  They then stop for a break in a derelict farmhouse and discuss how best to combine their resources to make a meal.  They are joined by a virulently anti-semitic Polish partisan.  Tensions rise and reach a boiling point when the Pole objects to sharing the food with a Jew.  He departs and the rest finish the meal.  The Germans then discuss whether they should let the Jew go free or return him to their camp to die in the next mass killing.  I think the story is an interesting variation of the Stone Soup legend.  Thank you, Muse reader. 

Halva (also halvah, halwa, halua, and other spellings; is a type of confectionery that is widely spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Central Asia, and South Asia.  The name is used for a broad variety of recipes, generally a thick paste made from flour, butter, liquid oil, saffron, rosewater, milk, turmeric powder, and sweetened with sugar.  The word halva entered the English language between 1840 and 1850 from Romanian, which came from Ottoman Turkish.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halva  Thank you, reader.   

central casting (sen-truhl KAS-ting) 

   adjective:  Stereotypical.

   noun:  A company or department that provides actors for minor or

   background roles, often based on stereotypical appearances. 

[After Central Casting, a company founded in 1925 to cast actors for

minor roles in film and television.  Earliest documented use:  1941.]

Wordsmith  June 6, 2025   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2952  June 6, 2025