Dai Sijie was born in China in 1954.  He grew up working in his father's tailor shop and he himself became a skilled tailor.  The Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution.  After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history.  In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship.  There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director.  Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films:   China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième.  He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002.  He lives in Paris and writes in French.  See a list of his books at http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5836922.Dai_Sijie

Fu Lei got his given name due to his thunderous cry when he was born in 1908 as Lei means “thunder” in Chinese, which might have preordained his outspoken character.  One year after he entered Shanghai Chizhi University, he went to France for a four-year further study (1928 to 1932), listening to literature and art courses at Paris University and Louvre Academy of Fine Arts History.  In order to learn and master French, he began to translate the short stories by Alphonse Daudet and Carmen by Prosper Mérimée.  This is the very beginning of his translation practice.  Influenced by Romain Rolland, Fu fell in love with music and art.  Invited by the Italian Royal Society of Geography, he toured Italy and delivered a famous speech in Rome, eulogizing the military revolution against the warlords at home.  During his stay by Lake Léman, he translated a local legend from the old calendar of his landlord.  In Paris he began to translate the first chapter of Lectures on Art by Hippolyte Adolphe Taine.  He also rendered four prose poems by Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev.   See "Fu Lei’s translation activity and legacy", an 183-page research paper by  Chuanmao Tian at http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1379500893_Tian.pdf

A Complete Collection of genteel and ingenious Conversation, according to the most polite mode and method now used at Court, and in the best Companies of England, commonly known as A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation, or more simply as Polite Conversation is a book by Jonathan Swift offering an ironic and satirical commentary on the perceived banality of conversation among the upper classes in early-18th century Great Britain written in the form of a reference guide for those lacking in conversational skill.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Complete_Collection_of_Genteel_and_Ingenious_Conversation  One theory about A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation is that the phrase It's Raining Cats and Dogs came from it. 

It's Raining Cats and Dogs, Part 1  http://wordhistories.com/2013/08/03/raining-cats-and-dogs/

It's Raining Cats and Dogs, Part 2  http://wordhistories.com/2013/11/04/raining-cats-and-dogs-2/

The Battle of the Books is the name of a short satire written by Jonathan Swift and published as part of the prolegomena to his A Tale of a Tub in 1704.  It depicts a literal battle between books in the King's Library (housed in St. James's Palace at the time of the writing), as ideas and authors struggle for supremacy.  Because of the satire, "The Battle of the Books" has become a term for the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Books

The metaphor of dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants (Latin:  nanos gigantum humeris insidentes) expresses the meaning of "discovering truth by building on previous discoveries".  While it can be traced to at least the 12th century, attributed to Bernard of Chartres, its most familiar expression in English is found in a 1676 letter of Isaac Newton:  If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants

noia  suffix meaning "(condition of the) mind or will":  aponoia, hypernoia, hyponoia.

Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/-noia

Long-running book series (numbers as of March 2015)

The Railway Series, v. 1-26 written by Wilbert Awdry, v. 27-42 written by Christopher Awdry

http://www.pegnsean.net/~railwayseries/rws_index_database_by_%20knuckles_v1.pdf

Maigret series, 75 v. by Simenon

http://www.goodreads.com/series/67800-maigret

Perry Mason series, 86 v. by Erle Stanley Gardner 

http://www.goodreads.com/series/40509-perry-mason

87th Precinct series, 86 v. by Ed McBain

http://www.goodreads.com/series/51376-87th-precinct

Ed McBain (1926–2005) was an American author and screenwriter.  Born Salvatore Albert Lombino, he legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in May 1952, after an editor told him that a novel he wrote would sell more copies if credited to Evan Hunter than it would if it were credited to S.A. Lombino.  Thereafter, he used the name Evan Hunter both personally and professionally.  As Evan Hunter, he gained notice with his 1954 novel Blackboard Jungle.   Dealing with juvenile crime and the New York City public school system, the film version followed in 1955.  During this era, Hunter also wrote a great deal of genre fiction.  He was advised by his agents that publishing too much fiction under the Hunter byline, or publishing any crime fiction as Evan Hunter, might weaken his literary reputation.  As a consequence, during the 1950s Hunter used the pseudonyms Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, and Richard Marsten for much of his crime fiction . A prolific author in several genres, Hunter also published approximately two dozen science fiction stories and four SF novels between 1951 and 1956 under the names S.A. Lombino, Evan Hunter, Richard Marsten, D.A. Addams and Ted Taine.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_McBain

H. Richard Hornberger, who wrote the novel ''M*A*S*H,'' the inspiration for the film and long-running television series of the same name,  spent most of his life as a thoracic surgeon in small towns on the Maine coast, but his experiences as a captain in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War led him to write three novels after returning from combat.  He worked for 12 years on the first, ''M*A*S*H,'' which was rejected by many publishers before William Morrow issued the book in 1968.  The 1970 movie, directed by Robert Altman from a screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr., was the third-highest grossing film that year and spawned the CBS series, which ran from 1972 until 1983 and was one of the most popular shows in television history.  Dr. Hornberger modeled the character of Capt. Benjamin Franklin (Hawkeye) Pierce after himself.  Dr. Hornberger used the pseudonym Richard Hooker in his writing.  After ''M*A*S*H'' -- an acronym for Mobile Army Surgical Hospital -- came ''M*A*S*H Goes to Maine'' and ''M*A*S*H Mania.''  Both concerned the adventures of doctors who had been together in Korea and then came home to work in coastal Maine--in thinly disguised fictional towns.  Lawrie Mifflin  http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/07/arts/h-richard-hornberger-73-surgeon-behind-m-a-s-h.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1272  March 19, 2015  On this date in 1895, Auguste and Louis Lumière recorded their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.  On this date in 1918, Congress established time zones and approved daylight saving time.

Interesting words from the novel Ritual by Mo Hayder

nil vis  (zero visibility)

misper (missing person)

pebbledash (coarse plaster surface used on outside walls)

scrumpy (cider)

Mar. 12, 2015  Over the course of a few days, the debate over whether a dress sold by Roman Originals, a U.K. clothing-store chain was blue and black or white and gold stirred social networks and led to a frenzy that extended to traditional media.  Sales of the frock are up 600 percent since the end of February.  Going viral can make such a difference that some companies look for advice on how to make it happen.  "People are more likely to purchase an item if their friend is sharing it online, says Devra Prywes, vice president of marketing at Unruly, a company that advises brands on how to create viral videos.  "It's also free advertising."  The Cronut's rise from sweet, flaky creation to household name began in 2013.  The mashup of a croissant and doughnut was written up and photographed by food blog Grub Street.  It quickly spread online and beyond.  "By the end of the first week, we had over 100 people in line," says chef Dominique Ansel.  At its peak of popularity, 300 people waited outside the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York daily.  A guard was hired to manage the line, which has shrunk back down to about 100 people.  An Amazon.com review mocking a T-shirt made by The Mountain Corp. changed its fortunes.  A reviewer wrote that the shirt, which has an illustration of three wolves howling at a full moon, transformed him into a ladies' man:  "I walked from my trailer to Wal-Mart with the shirt on and was immediately approached by women."  More funny reviews followed and soon major media outlets were calling.  "It was such a turning point for us," says co-owner Michael McGloin.  "Our free $50 million worldwide advertising campaign."  Soon, stores that began selling the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt for the first time wanted more styles from the Keene, New Hampshire, company.  The Mountain designed more animal shirts and launched a website.  Since 2009, sales have tripled.  Joseph Pisani  http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/short-term-viral-hits-transform-small-business-29582707

Spring 2015 starts on Friday, March 20 at 6:46 p.m. EDT

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, the boid is on the wing.  Some quote it from Ogden Nash, but from what I can tell looking through some books, this is incorrect.  The saying is sometimes called "The Brooklyn National Anthem" and it dates back to at least 1940.  There are many versions of it. Here’s one:  Spring has sprung, the grass is ris,  I wonder where the boidies is.  The boid is on the wing, But that’s absoid From what I hoid  The wing is on the boid!  Here are other versions:  The spring is sprung, The grass is ris, I wonder where the birdies is.  (1951 – The New Mexico folklore record, Volume 6)  Spring has sprung The grass has riz Come out yourself And see how ‘tiz.  (1956 – Canadian bee journal, Volumes 64-65)   Some others:  "Spring has sprung and the grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers is."  "Spring has sprung and the grass has riz, I wonder where the daisies is."‎  Lisa Yannucci  Link to many topics and to Mama Lisa's blog "a place for poems, songs, rhymes and traditions from around the world" at http://www.mamalisa.com/blog/spring-has-sprung-the-grass-is-riz/

We've got you right where we want you.  You're reading this, right?  Still?  Then we've got you, we've got your eyeballs and we're monetising them left, right and centre.  With any luck, at some point while reading this, your gaze will stray to one of the splendid enticements offered by our esteemed advertisers and we will have successfully brokered your attention.  That attention, that gaze, is what the media-entertainment- internet complex feeds on.  It's our product, it's how we make a living.  We're desperately jealous of it and we want as much of it as possible.  That's why we tend to be obsessed with what you might call "primary attention":  that concentrated essence of attention that means you're looking at X and only X.  Media designers, from games people to newspaper people, are primarily interested in that.  There's more to attention than what meets the eye directly, and designers are becoming increasingly interested in secondary attention, the stuff you're only half-watching, half-listening to, not even really noticing.  They're thinking about this because of the coming superabundance of screens.  We're seeing the first trickles already, and new behaviours are starting to emerge -- behaviours that need exploiting.  It started when media people noticed that TV viewers were often looking at their computers at the same time and realised that there might be an opportunity for "coviewing" applications -- apps that complement what is happening on the TV.  Then everyone realised that one of the screens had to be dominant -- one had to be the main thing and one had to be glanceable.  Russell M. Davies  http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2011/12/ideas-bank/secondary-attention

Continuous partial attention describes how many of us use our attention today.  It is different from multi-tasking.  The two are differentiated by the impulse that motivates them.  When we multi-task, we are motivated by a desire to be more productive and more efficient.  We’re often doing things that are automatic, that require very little cognitive processing.  We give the same priority to much of what we do when we multi-task — we file and copy papers, talk on the phone, eat lunch — we get as many things done at one time as we possibly can in order to make more time for ourselves and in order to be more efficient and more productive.  To pay continuous partial attention is to pay partial attention — continuously.  It is motivated by a desire to be a live  node on the network.  Another way of saying this is that we want to connect and be connected.  We want to effectively scan for opportunity and optimize for the best opportunities, activities, and contacts, in any given moment. To be busy, to be connected, is to be alive, to be recognized, and to matter.  We pay continuous partial attention in an effort not to miss anything.  It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace behavior that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis.  Like so many things, in small doses, continuous partial attention can be a very functional behavior.  However, in large doses, it contributes to a stressful lifestyle, to operating in crisis management mode, and to a compromised ability to reflect, to make decisions, and to think creatively.  In a 24/7, always-on world, continuous partial attention used as our dominant attention mode contributes to a feeling of overwhelm, over-stimulation and to a sense of being unfulfilled.  We are so accessible, we’re inaccessible.  Linda Stone  http://lindastone.net/qa/continuous-partial-attention/

15 recipes for leftover corned beef

1.  Corned Beef Hash  2.  Reuben Dip  3.  Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup   4.  Corned Beef and Spinach Strata  5.  Corned Beef and Cabbage Pizza  6.  Corned Beef Stir-Fry  7.  Corned Beef Eggs Benedict  8.  Irish Egg Rolls  9.  Colcannon  10.  Corned Beef and Cabbage Turnovers  11. Irish Tacos  12.  Reuben Sandwich  13.  Corned Beef Cabbage Rolls  14.  Skinny Corned Beef and Cabbage Soup  15. Leftover  Corned Beef and Cabbage Pie  http://www.smartsavvyliving.com/15-recipes-leftover-corned-beef/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1271  March 18, 2015  On this date in 1850, American Express was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.  On this date in 1874, Hawaii signed a treaty with the United States granting exclusive trade rights.

Jasper Fforde (born 11 January 1961) is a British novelist.  Fforde's first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published in 2001.  Fforde is mainly known for his Thursday Next novels, although he has written several books in the loosely connected Nursery Crime series and has begun two more independent series, The Last Dragonslayer and Shades of Grey.  His published books include a series of novels starring the literary detective Thursday Next:  The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels, One of our Thursdays Is Missing and The Woman Who Died a Lot.  The Eyre Affair had received 76 publisher rejections before its eventual acceptance for publication.  Fforde won the Wodehouse prize for comic fiction in 2004 for The Well of Lost Plots.  The Big Over Easy (2005), set in the same alternative universe as the Next novels, is a reworking of his first written novel, which initially failed to find a publisher.  Its original title was Who Killed Humpty Dumpty?, and later had the working title of Nursery Crime, which is the title now used to refer to this series of books.  These books describe the investigations of DCI Jack Spratt.  The follow-up to The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear, was published in July 2006 and focuses on Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Fforde's books are noted for their profusion of literary allusions and wordplay, tightly scripted plots, and playfulness with the conventions of traditional genres.  His works usually contain elements of metafiction, parody, and fantasy.  None of his books has a chapter 13 except in the table of contents where there is a title of the chapter and a page number.  In many of the books the page number is, in fact, the page right before the first page of chapter 14.  However, in some the page number is just a page somewhere in chapter 12.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasper_Fforde

Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, Nigel McCrery is a film maker and writer.  He created Silent Witness and Touching Evil and produced All the King's Men staring Maggie Smith and David Jason.  He is the author of six Silent Witness books and won the Edgar Allan Poe award for crime fiction.  He is the man who arranged for the remains of Tsar Nicholas and the Russian royal family to be brought to the UK for the forensic tests that showed they were the real bodies.   http://unitedagents.co.uk/nigel-mccrery  

First interview with Nigel McCrery:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1084088/Revealed-The-rags-riches-life-master-storyteller-TVs-secret-superstar.html

Find Nigel McCrery bibliography divided by fiction, series and non-fiction at

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/m/nigel-mccrery/

DEMOTIC  adjective   1.  of, relating to, or written in a simplified form of the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing  2.  popular, common   3.  of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech  Origin:  Greek dēmotikos, from dēmotēs commoner, from dēmos

first known use:  1822  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/demotic 

The Demotic or popular script, a name given to it by Herodotus, developed from a northern variant of the Hieratic script in around 660 BC.  The Egyptians themselves called it 'sekh shat' (writing for documents).  During the 26th Dynasty it became the preferred script at court, however during the 4th century it was gradually replaced by the Greek-derived Coptic alphabet.  The most recent example of writing in the Demotic script dates from 425 AD.  The Demotic script was used for writing business, legal, scientific, literary and religious documents.  It was written almost exclusively from right to left in horizontal lines and mainly in ink on papyrus.  Demotic inscriptions on wood and stone are also known.  During the Ptolemaic Period it was regularly carved in stone - the most famous example of this is the Rosetta Stone, which is inscribed with texts in the Hieroglyphic script, Greek and Demotic and was one of the keys to the decipherment of Ancient Egyptian scripts.  See Demotic glyphs representing single consonants glyphs at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/egyptian_demotic.htm

Botticelli:  Little Barrel   The painter Botticelli was born at Florence in 1444 in a house in the Via Nueva, Borg' Ognissanti.  This was the home of his father, Mariano di Vanni dei Filipepi, a struggling tanner.  Sandro, the youngest child, derived the name Botticelli by which he was commonly known, not, as related by Giorgio Vasari, from a goldsmith to whom he was apprenticed, but from his eldest brother Giovanni, a prosperous broker, who seems to have taken charge of the boy and who for some reason bore the nickname Botticello or Little Barrel  http://www.nndb.com/people/734/000084482/

In 1706, William Jones – a self-taught mathematician and one of– published his seminal work, Synopsis palmariorum matheseos, roughly translated as A summary of achievements in mathematics.  It is a work of great historical interest because it is where the symbol π appears for the first time in scientific literature to denote the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.  Jones realised that the decimal 3.141592 … never ends and that it cannot be expressed precisely.  “The exact proportion between the diameter and the circumference can never be expressed in numbers,” he wrote.  That was why he recognised that it needed its own symbol to represent it.  It is thought that he chose π either because it is first letter of the word for periphery (περιφέρεια) or because it is the first letter of the word for perimeter (περίμετρος).  (Or because of both).  The symbol π was popularised in 1737 by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–83), but it wasn’t until as late as 1934 that the symbol was adopted universally.   http://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/mar/14/pi-day-2015-william-jones-the-welshman-who-invented-pi

Dr. Edwin J. Goodwin, M.D., a physician in the community of Solitude, Posey County, Indiana, was one of a long line of mathematical hobbyists to try to square the circle.  Dr. Goodwin thought he had succeeded, and, apparently a loyal Hoosier, decided that the State of Indiana should be the first beneficiary of this "new mathematical truth."  In 1897, Dr. Goodwin wrote a bill incorporating his new ideas, and persuaded his State Representative to introduce it.  Representative Record submitted the bill, House Bill 246, on January 18, 1897.  Dr. Goodwin had copyrighted his solution to squaring the circle, and his idea was to allow Indiana to use these new facts in its schools free of charge.   People in the rest of the country and the world would have to pay him a royalty.  Petr Beckmann, in his History of Pi, wrote that the bill contained "hair-raising statements which not only contradict elementary geometry, but also appear to contradict each other" (p. 175).  Towards the end of the second of three sections of the bill, it says "the ratio of the diameter and circumference is as five-fourths to four."  Pi is the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of the circle, and the ratio 4 to 5/4 is 3.2.  The House Bill 246 was referred to the House Committee on Canals, also known as the Committee on Swamp Lands.  Representative M. B. Butler, chairman of the Canals Committee, recommended that it be referred to the Committee on Education, and this was done on January 19.  The newspapers followed the debate.  The Indianapolis Sentinel, on January 20, reported that the bill was "not intended to be a hoax."  The House Education Committee, chaired by Representative S. E. Nicholson, reported the bill out of committee "with the recommendation that said bill do pass."  It was taken up by the full House on February 5, and passed unanimously, 67 to 0.  On February 5, the head of the Purdue University Mathematics Department, Professor Clarence Abiathar Waldo, was in the Statehouse lobbying for the University's budget appropriation.  Professor Waldo had been an instructor of mathematics (and Latin) at several seminaries, institutes and colleges in the Midwest for more than 20 years.  He was the author of a book titled Manual of Descriptive Geometry.  He was astonished to find the General Assembly debating mathematical legislation.  The committee reported the bill favorably the next day, and sent it to the Senate floor for debate.  This time its reception was different.  The Indianapolis Journal had Senator Hubbell saying that "the Senate might as well try to legislate water to run up hill as to establish mathematical truth by law."  Senator Hubbell moved to postpone further consideration of the bill indefinitely, and the motion passed.  According to Beckmann, the bill "has not been on the agenda since" (p. 177).  The official history of the Indiana General Assembly (p. 429) gives the credit to Professor Waldo.  Thanks mainly to this alert professor, who convinced the Senate not to tamper with "unsolvable mysteries . . . above man's abilities to comprehend," the Indiana General Assembly failed to do in 1897 what no one before or since has done, i.e. square the circle.  Link to the full text of HB 246, 1897 at

http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/crd/localgov/second%20level%20pages/indiana_pi_story.htm

March 14 (3/14) is celebrated annually as Pi Day because the date resembles the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter — 3.14 for short.  And in 2015 the date syncs up with the first four digits after the decimal point, so 3.14.15 looks a lot like 3.14159265359.  

That won’t happen again until 2115.  http://time.com/3743279/pi-day-2015-wackiest-celebrations/  

Link to "Pi Mathematical Pi Song" and "Pi Sightings:  Pi Pie Pan" at http://www.piday.org/

Corned beef gets its name from the corn kernel-sized salt crystals originally used to preserve meat.  Abraham Lincoln chose corned beef, cabbage and potatoes for his inaugural luncheon on March 4, 1861.  

Get a recipe for St. Paddy’s Day Corned Beef and Cabbage Salad at

http://parade.com/382914/parade/st-paddys-day-corned-beef-and-cabbage-salad/  With more vegetables than meat, the ingredients include green beans and potatoes.  The dressing has molasses, apple cider vinegar, and mustard in it.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1270  March 16, 2015  On this date in 1750, Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer, was born.  On this date in 1861, Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston, who had been evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy.

A blue hole is a cave (inland) or underwater sinkhole.  They are also called vertical caves.  There are many different blue holes located around the world, typically in low-lying coastal regions.  The best known examples can be found in Belize, the Bahamas, Guam, Australia (in the Great Barrier Reef), and Egypt (in the Red Sea).  Blue holes are roughly circular, steep-walled depressions, and so named for the dramatic contrast between the dark blue, deep waters of their depths and the lighter blue of the shallows around them.  Their water circulation is poor, and they are commonly anoxic below a certain depth; this environment is unfavorable for most sea life, but nonetheless can support large numbers of bacteria.  The deep blue color is caused by the high transparency of water and bright white carbonate sand.  Blue light is the most enduring part of the spectrum; other parts of the spectrum—red, yellow, and finally green—are absorbed during their path through water, but blue light manages to reach the white sand and return upon reflection.  The deepest blue hole in the world-at 392 meters (1,286 ft) is Pozzo del Merro in Italy.  The deepest blue hole in the world with underwater entrance—at 202 metres (663 ft)—is Dean's Blue Hole, located in a bay west of Clarence Town on Long Island, Bahamas.  

See pictures at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_hole 

10 Biggest Sinkholes on the Planet   See wonderful pictures and descriptions at http://listsoplenty.com/blog/?p=5017

Geoffrey Edward West Household (1900-1988) was a prolific British novelist who specialised in thrillers.  He is best known for his novel Rogue Male.  He began to write in the 1920s.  His first short story, "The Salvation of Pisco Gabar" was published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1936.  His first novel The Terror of Villadonga was published that same year.  His first short story collection, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories, came out in 1938.  In all, he wrote twenty-eight novels (including four for young adults and a novella), seven short story collections and an autobiography, Against the Wind, published in 1958.  Many of his stories have scenes set in caves, and there is a science-fiction or supernatural element in some, although this is handled with restraint.  Indiana University holds a collection of Household's manuscripts and correspondence.  Find his bibliography at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Household  

NOTE:  Rogue Male (1939) was followed by Rogue Justice (1982).  You do not know the hero's name in the first book and discover it a few pages before the end of the second.

The Imagination Library by Dolly Parton   This program is one of the most important ways I know to improve the educational opportunities for children in your community.  When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true.  I know there are children in your community with their own dreams.  They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister.  Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer.  The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.  Register your child or find more information about the Imagination Library at http://usa.imaginationlibrary.com/

50 Google Search Tips & Tricks by Craig Lloyd  http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/02/15/google-search-tips-tricks/

The bookwheel (also written book wheel and sometimes called a reading wheel) is a type of rotating bookcase designed to allow one person to read a variety of heavy books in one location with ease.  The books are rotated vertically similar to the motion of a water wheel, as opposed to rotating on a flat table surface.  The bookwheel, in its most commonly seen form, was invented by Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli in 1588, presented as one of the 195 designs in Le diverse et artificiose machine del Capitano Agostino Ramelli (The various and ingenious machines of Captain Agostino Ramelli).  To ensure that the books remained at a constant angle, Ramelli incorporated an epicyclic gearing arrangement, a complex device that had only previously been used in astronomical clocks.  Ramelli's design is unnecessarily elaborate, as he likely understood that gravity could have worked just as effectively (as it does with a Ferris wheel, invented centuries later), but the gearing system allowed him to display his mathematical prowess.  While other people would go on to build bookwheels based on Ramelli's design, Ramelli did not in fact ever construct his own.   To what extent bookwheels were appreciated for their convenience versus their aesthetic qualities remains a matter of speculation according to modern American engineer Henry Petroski.  Ramelli himself described the bookwheel as a "beautiful and ingenious machine, very useful and convenient for anybody who takes pleasure in study, especially for those who are indisposed and tormented by gout."   Ramelli's reference to gout, a condition that impairs mobility, demonstrates the appeal of a device that allows access to several books while seated.  However, Petroski notes that Ramelli's illustration lacks space for writing and other scholarly work, and that the "fanciful wheel" may not have been appropriate for any activity beyond reading.  While the design of the bookwheel is commonly credited to Ramelli, some historians dispute that he was the first to invent such a device.  Joseph Needham, a historian of Chinese technology, stated that revolving bookcases, though not vertically oriented, had their origins in China "perhaps a thousand years before Ramelli's design was taken there."   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookwheel

Red Cabbage with Fruit adapted from Good Housekeeping Cook Book, 1955  6 servings

1 large head red cabbage (about 2 pounds)

3/4 c. boiling water

2 cups sliced, pared apples, pears or peaches

3 tbsp. melted butter

1/4 c. vinegar

1 1/2 tsp. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar, packed

1 tsp. salt

speck pepper

Put shredded cabbage in pot, add boiling water, cook covered 10 min.  Add fruit, cook 10 min. or until tender.  Add rest of ingredients combined.  Heat.

Adults who have already mastered written English tend to forget about its many quirks.  But consider this:  English has 205 ways to spell 44 sounds.  And not only can the same sounds be represented in different ways, but the same letter or letter combinations can also correspond to different sounds.  Masha Bell, the vice chair of the English Spelling Society and author of the book Understanding English Spelling, analyzed the 7,000 most common English words and found that 60 percent of them had one or more unpredictably used letters.  No one knows for sure, but the Spelling Society speculates that English may just be the world’s most irregularly spelled language.  English spelling wasn’t always so convoluted; there was much more rhyme and reason to Old and even Middle English.  But the spoken language has evolved, as all languages are wont to do:  Pronunciations have changed and foreign words have been introduced, sometimes retaining the spelling conventions of their original languages.  Written English has also evolved—but mostly in ways unrelated to the changes in the spoken language, thanks in part to shenanigans and human error.  The first English printing press, in the 15th century, was operated by Belgians who didn’t know the language and made numerous spelling errors (such as "busy" in place of "bisy").  And because they were paid by the line, they sometimes padded words with extra letters; "frend," for example, became "friend."  In the next century, other non-English speakers in continental Europe printed the first English Bibles, introducing yet more errors.  Worse, those Bibles were then copied, and the writing became increasingly corrupted with each subsequent rendition.  English spelling became a chaotic mess, and successful attempts to simplify the spelling after that were offset by events that made the language harder to learn, such as the inclusion of many alternate spellings in Samuel Johnson’s influential English dictionary.  By contrast, languages such as Finnish and Korean have very regular spelling systems; rules govern the way words are written, with few exceptions. Finnish also has the added bonus of a nearly one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters, meaning fewer rules to learn.  So after Finnish children learn their alphabet, learning to read is pretty straightforward—they can read well within three months of starting formal learning, Bell says.  And it’s not just Finnish- and Korean-speaking children who are at a significant advantage:  A 2003 study found that English-speaking children typically needed about three years to master the basics of reading and writing, whereas their counterparts in most European countries needed a year or less.  Meanwhile, engineer and applied linguist Dmitry Orlov has come up with another solution:  Eliminate the need to learn English spelling, temporarily if not permanently.  The human brain is primed to memorize groups of speech sounds, not sequences of letters, he says.  With this in mind, he developed his own writing system, Unspell, which is more or less a phonetic rendition of spoken English.  It treats words as sequences of sounds rather than sequences of letters, so what you see is what you get:  How a word is written is how it’s pronounced, and vice versa.  Unspell has 13 basic symbols that also come in elongated versions; if needed, they can also be embellished by a voicing mark that looks like the accent mark in Spanish and/or a bar that means "say the sound with your mouth open wider."  There is one distinct way to represent each of the 38 English sounds that Orlov says are needed to distinguish the meanings of words.  Unspell is available in two versions to account for additional differences between North American and British English.  Luba Vangelova  http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/how-the-english-language-is-holding-kids-back/385291/

The writer Terry Pratchett, who took millions of readers on a madcap journey to the universe of Discworld, died aged 66 on Mar. 12, 2015.  With more than 75m copies sold around the world, Pratchett became one of the UK’s most-loved writers after the publication of his first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, in 1983.  The 40th, Raising Steam, was released last year, with the writer completing recent work using voice-recognition software.  He recently teamed up with the science fiction writer Stephen Baxter for the “Long Earth” series of novels, the fourth of which – The Long Utopia – is due out in the summer.  According to Neil Gaiman, who co-wrote 1990’s Good Omens with him, Pratchett’s writing is powered by “fury … it’s the fury that was the engine that powered Discworld.  It’s also the anger at the headmaster who would decide that six-year-old Terry Pratchett would never be smart enough for the 11-plus; anger at pompous critics, and at those who think serious is the opposite of funny; anger at his early American publishers who could not bring his books out successfully.”   Richard Lea and Caroline Davies  Read extensive article at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/mar/12/terry-pratchett-author-of-the-discworld-series-dies-aged-66  

Good Omens, by Pratchett and Gaiman, is one of the few books I've read twice. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1269  March 13, 2015  On this date in 1639, Harvard College was named after clergyman John Harvard.  On this date in 1781, William Herschel discovered Uranus.

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

Frankenfood   (FRANG-kuhn-food)  noun  Genetically modified food.  From franken- (genetically modified), alluding to the artificially created Frankenstein’s monster  Earliest documented use:  1992.

preternatural  (pree/pri-tuhr-NACH-uh-ruhl)  adjective  Beyond what is natural or normal.

From Latin praeter- (beyond, past) + naturam (nature).  Earliest documented use:  1580.

logomaniac  (lo-guh-MAY-nee-ak)  noun  One who is obsessively interested in words.

From Greek logo- (word) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm or craze).  Earliest documented use:  1870.   See Robbert van der Steeg's Embraced by Words at https://www.flickr.com/photos/robbie73/4289385819

Sculptor and artist Donatello (c. 1386–1466) apprenticed early with well-known sculptors and quickly learned the Gothic style.  Before he was 20, he was receiving commissions for his work.  Donatello, the early Italian Renaissance sculptor, was born Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi in Florence, Italy.  His friends and family gave him the nickname “Donatello.”  

He was the son of Niccolo di Betto Bardi, a member of the Florentine Wool Combers Guild.  This gave young Donatello status as the son of a craftsman and placed him on a path of working in the trades.  Donatello was educated at the home of the Martellis, a wealthy and influential Florentine family of bankers and art patrons closely tied to the Medici family.  It was here that Donatello probably first received artistic training from a local goldsmith.  He learned metallurgy and the fabrication of metals and other substances.  In 1403, he apprenticed with Florence metalsmith and sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti.  A few years later, Ghiberti was commissioned to create the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral, beating out rival artist Filippo Brunelleschi.  Donatello assisted Ghiberti in creating the cathedral doors.  http://www.biography.com/people/donatello-21032601  

See also http://revolutionarypeoplefromtherenaissance.weebly.com/donatello.html

Bonfires of the vanities  Decades after St. Bernardino di Siena opened the practice of burning “temptation-inducing” items to turn Catholic adherents back toward the faith, parishioners of Friar Girolamo Savonarola launched one of the largest bonfires of the vanities on February 7, 1497.  Set in the capital of the Italian Renaissance, Florence, historians wonder to this day what priceless works of art or literature may have been destroyed as “frivolous, sinful pursuits.”  Throughout the 1400s, the cities of Europe engaged in a slow process of awakening from the Middle Ages.  New ideas blossomed all over the continent, led predominantly by Italian scholars interested in ancient Latin works and artists experimenting with more realistic styles of painting and drawing.  Fueled by investment from the Medici family, and particularly patriarch Lorenzo, the best painters and sculptors in Italy received commissions that brought them to Florence.  (It certainly helped that Leonardo da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Michaelangelo Buonarroti were all born nearby.)  The development of new schools of thought, such as humanism, and advancements in printing technology opened the Roman Catholic Church to critique it had never experienced before.  Determined to keep Christianity at the center of the average person’s life, a number of priests delivered sermons denouncing the new “distractions” that encouraged sin.  Franciscan missionary Bernardino gained a reputation for particularly anger-filled calls to shed these “heresies” while traveling through the Italian countryside for more than three decades until his death in 1444.  His sermons often ended with piles of cosmetics, evening gowns and books burning where he preached in city squares, “bonfires of the vanities” to purify the hearts of his listeners.  Over the next five decades, these items remained the target of ascetic preachers as a cause for the calamities facing the Church, such as the advance of Ottoman armies into Europe from Mehmed II’s seizure of Constantinople in 1453.  Caught up in religious fervor, crowds burned almost anything they could get their hands on -- Botticelli is even said to have tossed his own works based on Greek mythology into the flames as a symbol of his dedication.

http://www.mapsofworld.com/on-this-day/february-7-1497-the-largest-bonfire-of-the-vanities-occurs-in-florence-italy

The Mercer Oak was a large white oak tree that stood in Princeton Battlefield State Park in Princeton, New Jersey.  The tree was about 300 years old when it was torn by strong winds in March 2000.  It was the emblem of Princeton Township and appeared on the seal of the township.  The tree is also the key element of the seal of Mercer County, New Jersey.  The Mercer Oak was named after Hugh Mercer, a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.  After a lightning storm in 1973 dropped a large branch of the original "Mercer Oak" Ned Brown, a local artisan cabinet fabricator, from the Skillman, NJ, had the insight to preserve some of the lumber.  Pieces of the preserved lumber were later integrated into the woodwork of a local restaurant, ONE 53.  The inlay includes the craftsman's representation of a silhouette of the oak tree, as well as a sections of oak throughout the bar.  The balance of the fallen branches were left in the hands of Princeton's Historical Society.  On March 3, 2000, a wind storm felled the oak's last four branches.  For public safety reasons, arborists cut off the remnants of the trunk the day after the tree fell.  Following the tree's death, several scions from the tree were planted around the battlefield.  In May 2000, an 8-foot sapling grown from a Mercer Oak acorn was planted inside the stump of the former tree.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_Oak  See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Individual_oak_trees

cedilla  noun  a mark¸ placed under the letter c (as in façade ) to show that it is pronounced like s and not k.  origin  Spanish, the obsolete letter ç (actually a medieval form of the letter z), cedilla, from diminutive of ceda, zeda the letter z, from Late Latin zeta — more at zed  first known use:  1599  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cedilla  How to type characters with a cedilla  http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/finetypography/ht/cedilla.htm

“The stadium is a unit of measurement from the ancient world, based on the length of a footrace in the Greek Olympics.  That’s where we get our modern word.  About six hundred feet is one stadium, so there are between eight and ten stadia in a mile.”  

http://www.any-read.com/read/The_Rule_of_Four/Pages_45.html

Steganography is the art and science of hiding information by embedding messages within other, seemingly harmless messages.  Steganography works by replacing bits of useless or unused data in regular computer files (such as graphics, sound, text, HTML, or even floppy disks ) with bits of different, invisible information.  This hidden information can be plain text, cipher text, or even images.  Steganography sometimes is used when encryption is not permitted.  Or, more commonly, steganography is used to supplement encryption.  

Vangie Beal   http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/steganography.html

Adverbs are words that modify:  (1)  a verb (He drove slowly. — How did he drive?)  (2)  an adjective (He drove a very fast car. — How fast was his car?)  (3)  another adverb (She moved quite slowly down the aisle. — How slowly did she move?)  Adverbs can modify adjectives, but an adjective cannot modify an adverb.  Adverbs often function as intensifiers, conveying a greater or lesser emphasis to something.  Intensifiers are said to have three different functions:  they can emphasize, amplify, or downtone.  Find much more at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adverbs.htm  See also https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/537/02/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1268  March 12, 2015  On this date in 1894, Coca-Cola was bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, Mississippi, by local soda fountain operator Joseph Biedenharn.  On this date in 1912, the Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) were founded in the United States.