William McKendree Carleton (October 21, 1845–December 18, 1912) was an American poet from Michigan.  Carleton's poems were most often about his rural life.   In 1869, he graduated from Hillsdale College, (where he was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity) and delivered on that occasion the poem, "Rifts in the Cloud".   After graduating from college in 1869, Carleton first worked as a newspaper journalist in Hillsdale.  He had been in the habit of writing poetry as a youngster.  His first significant work published was "Betsey and I Are Out", a humorous verse about a divorce that was first printed in the Toledo Blade, and reprinted by Harper's Weekly.  Carleton wrote this poem at the age of 25, when he worked as editor of the Detroit Weekly Tribune.   In 1872 he published "Over the Hill to the Poor House" exploring the plight of the aged and those with indifferent families.  This piece captured national attention and catapulted Carleton into literary prominence—a position he held the rest of his life as he continued to write and to lecture from coast to coast".   In 1878, Carleton moved to Boston, an important literary and publishing center.  There he married Anne Goodell.  They moved to New York City in 1882.  Carleton remained active in his college fraternity and served as the New York City Delta Tau Delta alumni chapter's president.  In 1907, he returned to Hudson as a renowned poet. Carleton's quotes became well known in the US during his lifetime.   With the Public Act 51 of 1919, the Michigan legislature required teachers to teach at least one of his poems to their students, and October 21 was officially named as Will Carleton Day in Michigan.  Schools in Michigan named for him include Will Carleton Academy in Hillsdale, and Will Carleton Middle School in Sterling Heights.  A section of the M-99 in Hillsdale is dubbed Will Carleton Road.  The village of Carleton in Monroe County, Michigan, is named for him, and the road on Carleton's northern border, separating Monroe and Wayne counties, is Will Carleton Road.  On June 24, 2007, it was reported that "the neglected burial plot of the family of rural Michigan poet, Will Carleton, whose 1872 work, Over the Hill to the Poor House, thrust him into national prominence, is getting a makeover".  Musician Van Dyke Parks is his grand-nephew.  He took the title for his album Clang of the Yankee Reaper from one of Carleton's poems.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Carleton    

The first evidence we have of zero is from the Sumerian culture in Mesopotamia, some 5,000 years ago.  There, a slanted double wedge was inserted between cuneiform symbols for numbers, written positionally, to indicate the absence of a number in a place (as we would write 102, the '0' indicating no digit in the tens column).   The symbol changed over time as positional notation (for which zero was crucial), made its way to the Babylonian empire and from there to India, via the Greeks (in whose own culture zero made a late and only occasional appearance; the Romans had no trace of it at all).  Arab merchants brought the zero they found in India to the West.  After many adventures and much opposition, the symbol we use was accepted and the concept flourished, as zero took on much more than a positional meaning. 

The Babylonians displayed zero with two angled wedges.

The Mayans used an eyelike character to denote zero.

The Chinese started writing the open circle we now use for zero.

The Hindus depicted zero as a dot. 

The word cipher was once used as another name for zero.  Sometimes, the term goose egg is used as an informal way to refer to zero, especially in the context of a score.  Zero is commonly used in a general way to mean none or nothing.  Synonyms for this sense of the word include nil, naught, nought, and aught.  More informal synonyms for zero in the sense of nothing include zip, zippo, zilch, nada (the Spanish word for “nothing”), diddly, and diddly-squat.  The word zero can also be used as a verb meaning “to reduce to zero.”  The verb phrase zero out is more commonly used, as in Zero out these totals.  The concept of zero is ancient, with recorded use dating back to ancient Mesopotamia.  The word zero has been used in English since at least the 16th century.  It comes from Italian, from the Medieval Latin word ​​zephirum, from the Arabic sifr, meaning “empty” or “zero.”  The word cipher comes from this same Arabic root, which is a translation of the Sanskrit word śūnyā, meaning “empty.”  Zero can be used as a noun, an adjective, and even a verb.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_for_the_number_0_in_English   

The first performance of the oratorio Messiah by George Frideric Handel took place in Dublin on April 13, 1742.  Wikipedia 

April 15 is the day Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, declared by the International Association of Art to be World Art Day to celebrate the fine arts.  Wiktionary    

April 15, 2026

fluffle  noun

Coined as a ghost word on the Wikipedia article Rabbit on 30 July 2007. By surface analysis, fluff +‎ -le.  fluffle (plural fluffles)  (informal, collective) A group of rabbits. 

verb  fluffle (third-person singular simple present fluffles, present participle fluffling, simple past and past participle fluffled)  (transitive, informal)  To fluff up.    

Golden gooseberry pie is a delicious introduction to gooseberries for anyone who is unfamiliar with these tart summer berries.  Add as much or little sugar as you like depending on how sweet your gooseberries are.  Find recipe at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/12192/gooseberry-pie-i/   

Food Forests are a relatively new concept in Iowa.  Food forests serve as a park for reflection and relaxation, a food source, and a place for education.  Food forests are based on permaculture design and offer numerous environmental and health benefits for the communities they are in.  The food forest follows a planting model designed to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. https://sproutgarden.wp.drake.edu/food-forest/   

Tank McNamara is a daily syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Hinds.  The strip debuted on August 5, 1974, with Jeff Millar as writer and Hinds as illustrator.  Hinds took over writing after the death of Millar in late November 2012.  The title character is a local sports television reporter who used to be a defensive lineman in the National Football League, hence his nickname.  The strip focuses primarily on contemporary American athletics, which allows it to remain topical and also to dabble in related subjects such as politics and social issues.  Before becoming a multi-sport broadcaster and reporter, Tank McNamara played college football for "Enormous State University" (team name:  the Sandcrabs), which serves the role of a generic NCAA Division I university with problem-plagued athletic programs.  The local professional teams are fictional American major-league franchises (baseball's "Bashers"; football's "Smashers"; ice hockey's "Igloos"; basketball's "Stuffers").  The strip also portrays fictional sponsors, including "Heavy Beer", spoofing the light beer ads that are so common in American sports broadcasts.  It also features caricatures of many real figures from sports.  A scientist named Dr. Tszap (also spelled Tzap) develops strange products intended to help sports teams.  In earlier years, Tank was portrayed as a buffoon ex-professional athlete (an NFL defensive linebacker, jersey number 55) unqualified to do his journalistic job.  Recurring gags focused on Tank's "fumble-mouth" mistakes (such as presenting the "Norts Spews"), and on his tendency to jump on anything loose on the floor as if it were a fumbled football.  Bill Hinds (born April 21, 1950, Houston, Texas) is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin University.  Hinds illustrated Tank McNamara with co-creator and writer Jeff Millar from 1974 to 2012, when he also took over writing due to Millar's failing health.  In addition to Tank McNamara, Bill created, writes and draws the feature Buzz Beamer in the monthly Sports Illustrated Kids.  His Buzz work can be found online at sikids.com Buzz animation.  Hinds created a parent/kids/sports strip, Cleats, which ran from 2001 to 2010.  Cleats reruns can be found on GoComics.com.  He also illustrated the feature According to Guinness for ten years, and created two experimental short-lived comic strips Clown Alley and Longshots for The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday page.  Hinds collaborated with writing partner Millar on the Second Chances strip.  Bill Hinds received the National Cartoonists Society divisional award for Sports Cartoons in 1986 and their New Media Award in 2000.  He received an additional nomination for the New Media Award in 2002.  Tank McNamara has run in as many as 350 newspapers.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_McNamara    

Earthshine  From earth +‎ shine (noun), modelled after moonshine.  

Hyphenation:  earth‧shine   earthshine (uncountable)

(astronomy)  Sunlight reflected from the Earth's surface, especially when visible on the part of the Moon's surface not illuminated by the Sun (the night side); earthlight. 

Coordinate terms:  moonshine, ringshine, (poetic, rare) starshine, sunshine

Alternative forms:  Earthshine, earth-shine    

April 12, 2026

Sous vide (French for 'under vacuum'), also known as low-temperature, long-time (LTLT) cooking, is a method of cooking invented by the French chef Georges Pralus in 1974, in which food is placed in a plastic pouch or a glass jar and cooked in a water bath for longer than usual cooking times (usually one to seven hours, and more than three days in some cases) at a precisely regulated temperature.  The temperature is much lower than usually used for cooking, typically around 55 to 60 °C (130 to 140 °F) for red meat, 66 to 71 °C (150 to 160 °F) for poultry, and higher for vegetables.  The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and to retain moisture.  Low-temperature cooking was first described by Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford in 1799.  He used air as the heat-transfer medium in his experiments while attempting to see if he could roast meat in a machine which he had created to dry potatoes.  In Thompson's own words, the meat was:  "Not merely eatable, but perfectly done, and most singularly well-tasted."  Sous vide has become common on cooking TV shows such as Iron Chef America and Top Chef, and in restaurants such as Panera Bread.   It has also been used to quickly produce significant quantities of meals for hurricane evacuees.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous_vide  Thank you, reader.   

lone wolf (plural lone wolves)

A wolf that is not part of a pack.  (figurative)

A person who avoids the company of others; an independent or solitary person; a loner. 

(crime)  A criminal who acts alone, not as part of a group. 

Derived terms

lone wolfer

lone-wolfing

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lone_wolf#English   

The phrase lap of luxury emerged in English during the early 1800s.  The term lap here is metaphorical for a place of comfort or care, similar to how you imagine a child sitting comfortably in a parent’s lap.  It’s a metaphorical way of saying that luxury is caring for you, providing comfort and pampering in some capacity.  If you’re in the lap of luxury but want to say it differently, here are a few synonyms for your vocabulary:

Life of Riley

Bed of roses

Easy street

Clover

Top of the heap

https://grammarist.com/idiom/in-the-lap-of-luxury/  Thank you, reader.   

The history of the chopped liver can be traced back to the early days of Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Eastern Europe.  Wealthy Jewish farmers who grew geese wanted to put every part of the poultry to use, so turning the liver, a usually discarded organ, into a tasty spread was both resourceful and delicious.  As the dish began to gain notoriety, and less fortunate households started to make the dish themselves, goose liver was swapped with chicken liver for affordability.  It was not until the early 20th century, however, that chopped liver truly came into its own as a cultural delicacy.  With the rise of delicatessens in major cities like New York of  and Chicago, Jewish immigrants began enjoying chicken based chopped liver alongside other traditional dishes like gefilte fish and pickled herring.  One of the key ingredients in traditional chopped liver is schmaltz or rendered chicken fat.  This rich and flavorful ingredient gives the spread its characteristic taste and texture and has been a staple in Jewish cooking for centuries, when olive oil was expensive and butter wasn’t allowed to be cooked with meat.  https://aish.com/jewish-history-of-chopped-liver/  Thank you, reader.    

2026 Rosary Cathedral Concert Series 2535 Collingwood Blvd. - Toledo Friday, April 17, 2026 7:30 pm Toledo Symphony Orchestra Alain Trudel, Join the Toledo Symphony for a special event celebrating the restored E.M. Skinner Organ at Rosary Cathedral.  On Friday, April 17, organist Todd Wilson teams up with TSO musicians:  Triumphal March by Louis Vierne Symphonie Concertante by Joseph Jongen.  Director Alain Trudel also leads a rare performance of Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes, inspired not by Chopin, but by the paintings of James Whistler.  Reserve your tickets at (419) 246-8000 www.artstoledo.com  Secure parking is provided and the cathedral is handicap accessible.  The Concert Series relies on our donors to present excellent musical performances in the beautiful ambiance of Rosary Cathedral.  Your support will ensure that these performances continue as a significant artistic outreach to our community. 

April 3, 2026