Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in the autumn of 1843, a year which saw the publication of a government report which highlighted plight of child labour.  "Dickens was incensed by its findings," says Louisa Price, curator of the Charles Dickens Museum in central London.  During the year, on a visit to his sister in Manchester, he also met charities supporting the working poor.  And he went to see conditions at one of London's Ragged Schools--set up with the aim of educating destitute youngsters.  Price says Dickens was so angered by the government report that he had initially planned to raise the issue by writing a political pamphlet--drawing on his past experience as a political reporter.  But then he changed his mind.  "He wrote to a friend," says Price, "saying that he would instead publish something at Christmas which would have 20 times the force."  Dickens wanted A Christmas Carol to be a high-quality publication.  The initial print run had a cinnamon cloth binding, with gold detail on the front.  Inside there were eight illustrations by the caricaturist John Leech.  Dickens's strategy worked.  Released six days before Christmas 1843, all 6,000 copies were sold by Christmas Eve.  Paul Kerley  Read much more and see many pictures at http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35120471

Lemon and orange slices dry into pretty wheels to use as garnishes for drinks or baked goods, or as ornaments or even gift tags.  Find recipe by Leah Eskin at http://www.chicagotribune.com/dining/recipes/sc-fruit-crisps-eskin-food-1211-20151209-column.html

Pomanders are a natural air freshener, and moth repellent.  Place some in your clothes closets, drawers or simply stack several in a bowl for a beautiful display.  Pomanders are typically made from various citrus fruit, mainly oranges as well as apples.  Find out how to make pomanders at http://pioneerthinking.com/crafts/how-to-make-pomanders

The now-standard melody for "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was published in 1909 by Novello & Co..  English composer Frederic Austin fitted the words to a traditional melody, to which he added his own two-bar motif for "Five gold rings".  Many of the decisions Austin made with regard to the lyrics subsequently became widespread:  The initial "on" at the beginning of each verse; the use of "calling birds"  rather than "colly birds" on the fourth day; and the ordering of the final four verses.  The time signature of this song is not constant, unlike most popular music.  In 1979, a Canadian hymnologist, Hugh D. McKellar, published an article, "How to Decode the Twelve Days of Christmas", claiming that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" lyrics were intended as a catechism song to help young Catholics learn their faith, at a time when practising Catholicism was criminalized in England (1558 until 1829).  McKellar offered no evidence for his claim and subsequently admitted that the purported associations were his own invention.  The idea was further popularized by a Catholic priest, Fr. Hal Stockert, in an article he wrote in 1982.  In 1987 and 1992, Fr. James Gilhooley, chaplain of Mount Saint Mary College of Newburgh, New York, repeated these claims.  Read about other versions, including parodies, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_(song) 

See also https://www.truthorfiction.com/twelvedaysofchristmas/  and http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp

Rice is a grass, as are maize (corn), wheat, barley, millet, oats, sugar cane, sorghum, rye and bamboo.  Remember that most livestock eat primarily grass or grass products so, indirectly, leather, wool, meat, eggs and milk also come from grass.  The grass family, known scientifically as the Poaceae or Gramineae (both names are correct), is one of the four largest families of flowering plants, with approximately 500 genera and 10,000 species.  Grasses range from tiny inconspicuous herbs less than an inch high to the giant bamboos that grow to 130 feet tall.  The family is undoubtedly the most important flowering plant family to humans, directly or indirectly providing more than 3/4 of our food.  It also is a major producer of our oxygen and provides a large component of the earth's environmental illtering processes due to its enormous geographic range, spatial coverage and biomass.  The economic importance of grasses can hardly be overstated.  The latest edition of Agnes Chase's First Book of Grasses tells us that grasses are the greatest single source of wealth in the world.  They provide much of the starch (rice, cornmeal, bread, cereal, pasta) and much of the protein in most human diets.  Although a few grasses absorb selenium and other harmful substances from the soil and a few others have potentially poisonous cyanogenic compounds in their shoots and leaves, the overwhelming majority are not poisonous.  The grains are naturally low in fat and rich in complex carbohydrates.  Grasses sweeten what you drink and eat with cane sugar, molasses and high fructose corn syrup.  Corn by-products also provide the raw material for many chemicals used in industry.  Grasses provide the raw material for most alcohol products (sake from rice, rum from sugar cane, beer from barley, bourbon from corn, and whiskeys and other spirits from wheat and rye).  Gerald Guala   http://www.virtualherbarium.org/GardenViews/Grasses.html

Trash Never Looked So Stylish by Timothy McKeough   Find descriptions and pictures of modular containers for trash and recycling, some with options for plants on top at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/realestate/trash-never-looked-so-stylish.html

Xmas is a common abbreviation of the word Christmas.  Xmas, and variants such as Xtemass, originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation.  The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for Mass, while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός which comes into English as "Christ".  There is a common belief that the word Xmas stems from a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas by taking the "Christ" out of "Christmas", but its use dates back to the 16th century.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas

Ohio has its first poet laureate.  Amit Majmudar was named to the two-year honorary position December 17, 2015.  Majmudar wants to promote poetry by linking to the Ohio arts community and engaging with high school students, the governor’s office said.  The Cleveland-area native is a diagnostic and nuclear radiologist with Radiology Inc. in Columbus and writes poetry, essays and novels on the side.  Majmudar has published two novels,  "Partitions" (2009) and  "The Abundance" (2011).  His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books,  The Atlantic Monthly,  Poetry Magazine,  The Antioch Review and "The Best of the Best American Poetry, 1988-2012."  His next collection of poems, "Dothead," will be published in March 2016.  http://www.dispatch.com/content/blogs/the-daily-briefing/2015/12/12-17-15-poet-laureate.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1397  December 23, 2015  On this date in 1823, A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, was published anonymously.  On this date in 1893, the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck was first performed.  Word of the Day for December 23:  sciolist  noun  One who exhibits only superficial knowledge; a self-proclaimed expert with little real understanding.

Mayflower pilgrim William Bradford wrote a detailed manuscript describing the pilgrim’s experiences in the New World, now known as “Of Plymouth Plantation,” between the years 1630 and 1651.  In the 270 page manuscript, written in the form of two books, Bradford recorded everything from the pilgrim’s experiences living in the Netherlands, to their voyage on the Mayflower and their daily life at Plymouth Plantation.  The manuscript is known by many names, such as “The History of Plymouth Plantation,” “History of the Plantation at Plymouth” and “William Bradford’s Journal.”  Bradford never made any attempt to publish the manuscript during his lifetime and instead gave it to his son William, who later passed it on to his own son Major John Bradford.  A number of people borrowed the manuscript over the years, such as William Bradford’s nephew, Nathaniel Morton, who referenced it in his book “New England’s Memorial” in 1669, and later Reverend Thomas Prince, who used part of the manuscript in his own book “Chronological History of New England” in 1736.  According to editor William T. Davis, in the introduction to the 1908 edition of “Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation,” Prince then gave the manuscript to the New England Library:  “The manuscript bears a memorandum made by Rev. Thomas Prince, dated June 4, 1728, stating that he borrowed it from Major John Bradford, and deposited it, together with Bradford’s letter-book, in the New England Library in the tower of the Old South Church in Boston.” During its time at the library, William Hubbard borrowed the manuscript and referenced it in his book “History of New England,” as did Thomas Hutchinson, who used it as a reference for his book “History of Massachusetts Bay” in 1767.  What happened next to the manuscript is unclear.  At some point in the late 1700s, the manuscript disappeared.  It remained missing for over half a century until it was discovered in the Bishop of London’s Library at Fulham in 1855.  The British government didn’t offer to give the manuscript back and instead created a copy of it, which it sent to Boston in August of 1855.  The copy was published soon after in 1856 and, due to its description of the First Thanksgiving at Plymouth, sparked a sudden interest in the Thanksgiving holiday, which was up until then only a regional New England tradition and not the national holiday it later became.  The discovery of the original manuscript ignited a long debate between British and American scholars about its rightful home.  The debate raged on for over 40 years while politicians, such as United States Senator George Frisbie Hoar, a member of the American Antiquarian Society, made multiple failed attempts to have the manuscript returned to the United States.  Finally, after Massachusetts Governor Roger Walcott filed a formal petition with a London court asking for the return of the manuscript, the British government agreed to return it to Massachusetts in April of 1897, over 100 years after it first went missing.  The manuscript now resides at the Massachusetts State House.  http://historyofmassachusetts.org/of-plymouth-plantation/

Download the text of Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' by William Bradford

at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24950

PILGRIM AND PURITAN:  A DELICATE DISTINCTION by Richard Howland Maxwell 

See six-page article at http://www.pilgrimhallmuseum.org/pdf/Pilgrim_Puritan_A_Delicate_Distinction.pdf  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bradford_(Plymouth_Colony_governor)

The illustrated history of the Super Bowl in under 2 minutes  published January 29, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8CTrYr_8dg

The Presidential Library system formally began in 1939, when President Franklin Roosevelt donated his personal and Presidential papers to the Federal Government.  At the same time, Roosevelt pledged part of his estate at Hyde Park to the United States, and friends of the President formed a non-profit corporation to raise funds for the construction of the library and museum building.  He asked the National Archives to take custody of his papers and other historical materials and to administer his library.  Before the advent of the Presidential Library system, Presidents or their heirs often dispersed Presidential papers at the end of the administration. Though many pre-Hoover collections now reside in the Library of Congress, others are split among other libraries, historical societies, and private collections.  In 1950, Harry S. Truman decided that he, too, would build a library to house his Presidential papers and helped to galvanize congressional action.  In 1955, Congress passed the Presidential Libraries Act, establishing a system of privately erected and federally maintained libraries. The Act encouraged other Presidents to donate their historical materials to the government and ensured the preservation of Presidential papers and their availability to the American people.  Under this and subsequent acts, more libraries have been established. In each case, funds from private and nonfederal public sources provided the funds to build the library.  Once completed, the private organization turned over the libraries to the National Archives and Records Administration to operate and maintain.  Until 1978, Presidents, scholars, and legal professionals held the view dating back to George Washington that the records created by the President or his staff while in office remained the personal property of the President and were his to take with him when he left office.  The Presidential Records Act of 1978 established that the Presidential records that document the constitutional, statutory, and ceremonial duties of the President are the property of the United States Government.  After the President leaves office, the Archivist of the United States assumes custody of the records.  The Presidential Libraries Act of 1986 also made significant changes to Presidential libraries, requiring private endowments linked to the size of the facility. NARA uses these endowments to offset a portion of the maintenance costs for the library.  http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/about/history.html  The National Archives administers 13 presidential libraries--find the list at https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/visit/  Other libraries not on the list include that of Rutherford B. Hayes, our 19th president.

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center is now the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums after it unveiled its new name, logo and website on December 4, 2015.  The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums is the nation’s FIRST presidential library, and it celebrates its 100^th birthday in 2016.  http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/

GIANT CANE  Alternate Names:  Cane, Fishing-pole Cane, Mutton Grass, Rivercane, Swampcane, Switchcane, Wild Bamboo.  Dense stands of cane, known as canebrakes, have been likened to a “supermarket” offering material for many purposes.  The grass occurs from Florida to eastern Texas in the south, in parts of the Midwest, and north to New York.  It is found in at least 22 states in the United States.  Cane provided the Cherokee with material for fuel and candles and the coarse, hollow stems were made into hair ornaments, game sticks, musical instruments, toys, weapons, and tools.  A cool-season member of the grass family (Poaceae), giant cane comes from the genus Arundinaria and is the only bamboo native to the United States.   Giant cane was sometimes slit and made into chair bottoms, weavers’ shuttles, and the hollow stems for inexpensive tubes.  Non-Indian settlers also used the giant cane for fishing poles, weaving looms, scaffolds for drying cotton, pipe stems and pipes, splints for baskets and mats, toys, turkey-calls, and musical instruments.  Giant cane is an excellent plant to stabilize stream and river banks.  Read much more and see graphics in a ten-page document at http://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/cs_argi.pdf

The period is dead.  Punctuation is over.  Run-on sentences and incomplete thoughts are the new standard.  Do I sound insincere?  Maybe it’s because proper grammar is now being associated with insincerity, at least when it comes to texting.  As it turns out, science has now confirmed that your passive-aggressive habit of ending one-word texts with periods to quietly express your anger (“k.” “fine.” “cool.”) isn’t as passive as you think.  According to new research published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215302181, texts that end with a period are rated as less sincere than those that do not.  Led by Binghamton University’s Celia Klin, a team of researchers asked a group of 126 college undergrads (a small sample size, to be sure, but likely quite representative of the most active texting demographic) to look at a series of both texts and handwritten notes.  Common one-word responses like “yeah,” “sure,” “ok,” and the like were shown with and without periods.  When participants were asked to judge the degree of sincerity of these notes, the researchers found that “the responses that ended with a period were rated as less sincere than those that did not end with a period.”  However, this same discrepancy was not observed in handwritten notes.  “We conclude that punctuation is one cue used by senders, and understood by receivers, to convey pragmatic and social information,” wrote Klin’s team.  “Texting is lacking many of the social cues used in actual face-to-face conversations,” Klin said in a statement.  “When speaking, people easily convey social and emotional information with eye gaze, facial expressions, tone of voice, pauses, and so on.”  Lulu Chang  http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/dont-jerk-stop-ending-texts-periods/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1396  December 21, 2015  On thsi date in 1620, William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims landed on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  On this date in 1879, Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House premièred at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.  Word of the Day for December 21:  apologetic apostrophe  an apostrophe added to a Scots word in order to give the appearance that it is a contraction of an English word.

ANISETTE TOAST (ITALIAN BISCOTTI)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/anisette-toast-italian-biscotti-1213213

Commercial sorghum refers to the cultivation and commercial exploitation of species of grasses within the genus Sorghum (often S. bicolor).  These plants are used for grain, fibre and fodder.  The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide.  Commercial Sorghum species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and Asia.  Other names include durra, Egyptian millet, feterita, Guinea corn, jwari  (Marathi), jowar, juwar, milo, maize, shallu, Sudan grass, cholam (Tamil), jola (Kannada), jonnalu (Telugu), gaoliang, great millet, kafir corn, dura, dari, mtama, and solam.  Sorghum grows in harsh environments where other crops do not grow well, just like other staple foods, such as cassava, that are common in impoverished regions of the world. It is usually grown without application of any fertilizers or other inputs by a multitude of small-holder farmers in many countries.  Grain sorghum is the third most important cereal crop grown in the United States and the fifth most important cereal crop grown in the world.  Read more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_sorghum

The Great American Songbook has become so ubiquitous that we take it for granted, whether we’re hearing “Fly Me to the Moon” at a wedding or a creaky rendition of a Cole Porter tune at a high-school version of “Kiss Me Kate.”  The songbook spans the spectrum of pop culture, from standards, such as Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” (1939), to obscure gems, such as hipster Chet Baker crooning “Let’s Get Lost” (1955) in an opiated invitation to romantic oblivion.  “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love,” covered by dozens of performers from Louis Armstrong on down, first appeared in a 1928 musical and,in 2014, was the highlight of a duet album by Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga.  Oddly, the songbook’s cachet and classic status are somewhat new developments.  As Ben Yagoda explains in his book, “The B-Side,” the Great American Songbook almost disappeared for good.  Around 1950, there was a sea change in popular music.  Memorable tunes that had buoyed Americans through the late 1920s, the Depression and World War II—sophisticated yet streetwise songs with witty, intricate lyrics and elegant, jazz-infused rhythms—went AWOL.  Instead, radio playlists and jukeboxes were flooded with puerile novelty hits like “The Doggie in the Window,” replete with barking dogs.  The writer of that particular hit, who composed his melodies on a toy xylophone, said that his songs were “all about America, they are all wholesome and they are all happy.”  It was a long way from the bittersweet melancholy that suffused a Gershwin classic like “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1926) and other standards that catered to a grown-up sensibility.  For decades, the standards thrived in Broadway shows, on the radio and in the movies—and on records.  It was in the record industry that the trouble began.  In the late 1940s, as Mr. Yagoda tells us, the development of the high-fidelity LP ushered in the era of “mood music,” orchestrated, easy-listening instrumental albums with titles like “Music for the Fireside.”  Record companies began to invest in production values and sound engineering over songwriting.  By then, Mitch Miller, first at Mercury and then as artist-and-repertoire director at Columbia, had discovered the popularity of gimmicky novelty songs.  He treated a composition as just another ingredient in a studio concoction, where sound effects were as important as lyrics.  In “The Cry of the Wild Goose,” a hit for Frankie Laine in 1949, Miller used French horns to simulate the goose cry.  Veteran songwriters like Arthur Schwartz, who had penned standards like “Dancing in the Dark” (1931), were finding it impossible to get their material recorded.  In 1954, Schwartz tried to pitch a song to Miller, who turned him down but suggested a few tweaks to the tune.  It was the final insult.  A lawyer as well as a songman, Schwartz had already spearheaded an antitrust lawsuit, on behalf of a group of songwriters, against the broadcast and recording industry as well as against a rival songwriters’ group, BMI.  The suit claimed that their works were being systematically stifled, and it dragged on for years.  Testimony from Jack Lawrence, the lyricist for “All or Nothing at All” (1939), sums up the old guard’s predicament:  “I took a Broadway show score and a Hollywood picture score to both Columbia Records and NBC-RCA-Victor records,” he said.  “This represented over a total of twenty-odd songs and perhaps two years’ work or more.  In both instances I got not one single recording.”  Despite these setbacks, songwriters coming of age in the mid-1950s managed to get some quality songs recorded.  They are at the heart of Mr. Yagoda’s counter-narrative of how the songbook, against all odds, survived.  A key figure in this group is the lyricist Carolyn Leigh, who was 27 when she had her first hit.  After a visit to her father in the hospital, where he was being treated for a heart ailment, she penned the words to “Young at Heart,” a tune by Johnny Richards that helped launch Frank Sinatra’s comeback in 1954.  Along with partner Cy Coleman, she wrote other classics for Sinatra, like “Witchcraft” and “The Best Is Yet to Come,” a phrase that is etched on Sinatra’s tombstone.  Eddie Dean  http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-the-b-side-by-ben-yagoda-1422658096

QUOTES from Out of Oz, the final volume in the Wicked Years series by Gregory Maguire (Dorothy Gale returns and thinks of herself as an accidental immigrant although others regard her as an illegal immigrant.)  "I may not know how to fly but I know how to read, and that's almost the same thing."  "Spiders don't fall off the wall when they hear a singer."  "Grumpiness made him come to life."  "You get everything from books." 

NAME CHANGES  Actor, writer, comedian and director Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein 1947)  Film stars Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm 1922); Mickey Rooney (born Joe Yule, Jr 1920); Cary Grant (born Archibald Alexander Leach 1904); Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff 1922 or 1924); Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. 1925 )

Introducing books and reading very early in life will write indelibly on a child’s future.  Here’s how it works:  Take a book.  Wrap it.  Place it on a child’s bed so it’s the first thing the child sees on Christmas morning (or whatever holiday you celebrate).  That’s it.  “A Book on Every Bed” is an appeal to spread the love of reading from parents to children.  We also want to encourage families to share books by reading aloud.  This idea was inspired by one of the country’s favorite writers. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough (author of “John Adams” and many other histories) says that every Christmas morning during his childhood, he woke up to a wrapped book at the foot of his bed, left by Santa.  http://blog.prathambooks.org/2011/12/this-year-put-book-on-every-bed.html

Reach Out and Read's thousands of doctors and nurses promote early literacy and school readiness to young children and their families in all 50 states.  Each year, medical providers at the nearly 5,000 Reach Out and Read program sites nationwide distribute 6.5 million books to children and invaluable literacy advice to parents.  http://www.reachoutandread.org/

Best Architecture of 2015:  Josey Pavilion, a new meeting and education center at the Dixon Water Foundation in Cooke County, Texas, Center for Character and Leadership Development outside Colorado Springs, Colorado,  CENTRO University in Mexico City, and the Columbus Art Museum in Ohio Margaret M. Walter Wing.  See descriptions, pictures, and link to  best art, TV, film, music, and theater of 2015 at http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-best-architecture-of-2015-their-modesty-becomes-them-1450401814?mod=itp&mod=djemITP_h

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1395  December 18, 2015  On this date in 1787,  New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.  On this date in 1912, the Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, was announced by Charles Dawson.

Dukkah (pronounced DOO-kah) gets its name from the Egyptian Arabic word for "to crush" or "to pound," which is precisely how it's made.  Recipes vary but generally consist of cumin, coriander, sesame seeds, salt, dried herbs, and nuts (especially peanuts, which are widely available in Egypt).  The ingredients are put into a mortar (or, increasingly, a food processor) and ground into a coarse powder, releasing aromatics in the process.  It's a versatile thing, both fine enough to sprinkle on as a garnish yet chunky enough to grab by the handful and eat as a snack, with a flavor profile that is specific to its place of origin yet thoroughly adaptable.  There is plenty of good reason to keep the stuff  in your pantry, too, as it makes for something of an all-purpose seasoning.  Dukkah's ruggedness and fragrant spiciness comes through clearly when eaten with khubz (flatbread), as it traditionally is in Egypt.  Often served for breakfast or as a snack, the pieces of bread are dipped in olive oil before being dunked in the dukkah, to help the granules cling.  Dukkah can also give welcome texture and complexity to dips (think yogurt, hummus, or baba ganoush), perk up salads and vegetables, or even be used as a rub for meat or fish.  You could also just eat dukkah on its own, as they do in Australia, where it has especially taken off.  There, dukkahs are sometimes made with coarse or whole nut pieces that can be nibbled on like a bar snack.  It's entirely possible to purchase ready made dukkahs from spice shops.  http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/07/what-is-dukkah-middle-east-spice-blend.html  Find recipes for dukkah at

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12277/dukkah and http://allrecipes.com/recipe/79684/dukkah/

The cumin seed packs a punch when it comes to adding a nutty and peppery flavor to chili and other Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes as well playing an important role in Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine where it is a key component of curry powder.  Both whole and ground cumin are available year-round.  Cumin seeds resemble caraway seeds, being oblong in shape, longitudinally ridged, and yellow-brown in color.  This is not surprising as both cumin and caraway, as well as parsley and dill, belong to the same plant family (Umbelliferae).  Link to health benefits, description, history, and how to store and use at http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=91

white elephant  noun  a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of; a     possession entailing great expense out of proportion to its usefulness or value to the owner; an abnormally whitish or pale elephant, usually found in Thailand; an albino elephant.  From the perhaps apocryphal tale that the King of Siam would award a disagreeable courtier a white elephant, the upkeep of which would ruin the courtier.

"There's not a lot of people in this world courageous enough to not change."  one of 25 quotes from Parts Unknown when Anthony Bourdaine visits his home state of New Jersey http://www.eater.com/2015/6/1/8686381/anthony-bourdain-parts-unknown-new-jersey

A swamp is a wetland that is forested.  Many swamps occur along large rivers where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations.  Other swamps occur on the shores of large lakes.  Some swamps have hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodic inundation.  The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp forests and "transitional" or shrub swamps.  In the boreal regions of Canada, the word swamp is colloquially used for what is more correctly termed a bog or muskeg.  The water of a swamp may be fresh water, brackish water or seawater.  Some of the world's largest swamps are found along major rivers such as the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Congo.  Swamps can be found on all continents except Antarctica.  The largest swamp in the world is the Amazon River floodplain, which is particularly significant for its large number of fish and tree species.  Find a list of major swamps divided by area (including 19 in the U.S.) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swamp  According to The Nature Conservancy, the Great Black Swamp of northwest Ohio covered an area about two-thirds the size of Florida's Everglades National Park, but early settlers drained much of the land.

While most animals that hibernate choose to do so in deep caves and underground burrows, there is a native species that prefers the bottoms of lakes, marshes and wetlands.  The Blanding’s turtle hibernates completely underwater from late October or early November until the early spring.  The cold-blooded reptile only needs to burrow itself in cold, muddy bottoms to stay warm.  Its metabolism also slows so little oxygen is needed and it doesn't have to search for food.  Unlike most turtles, the Blanding's is quite happy in the cold water; on occasion it is seen slowly swimming underneath the ice in areas where they winter--like the Great Lakes.  Read more and see picture at  http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/indiana/journeywithnature/blandings-turtles.xml

The word henge is a backformation from Stonehenge, the famous monument in Wiltshire.  Stonehenge is not a true henge as its ditch runs outside its bank, although there is a small extant external bank as well.  The term was first coined in 1932 by Thomas Kendrick, who later became the Keeper of British Antiquities at the British Museum.  Find types of henges and a list of some of the best-known henges at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henge

SALLY  When soldiers who have been on the defensive, having retreated to a foxhole or fort, make an abrupt offensive attack on their opponents, it's a sally.  The word comes from the Middle French saillie, "a rushing forth," from the Latin salire, "to leap."  1.  a military action in which besieged troops burst forth from their position  2.  witty remark  3.  a venture off the beaten path  http://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/sally

FORTH   Forth is one of those words that has gone out of the language except in a number of set phrases.  Way back beyond the Norman Conquest it meant forwards.  That sense lingers in the phrase back and forth, backwards and forwards.  Another semi-archaic phrase is from this day forth, in which it has the figurative sense of onwards; and so forth includes it in a similar sense; henceforth includes the same idea of time as does forthwith; to hold forth is to talk at length about some subject, often tediously; sally forth is still known.  Round the middle of the twelfth century, the phrase forth mid appeared (mid being essentially the same as the modern German word mit, with), later forth with, to go somewhere in the company of other people. Necessarily, if you go forth with others, you go at the same time as they do.  By about 1450 the phrase had condensed to a single adverb with the modern meaning of immediately, without delay.  Much of the idea of forth has been taken over in today’s language by forwards, but that word itself is a contracted compound of forth with the suffix -ward, to go in a specified direction.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-for2.htm

Muse reader responds to the naming of Buffalo, New York:  As a Buffalo native, another theory thrown around when I was in elementary school is that Buffalo is a mispronunciation of the French for Beautiful River, Belle Fleuve.  

Bolo Rei (English:  "King Cake") is a traditional Portuguese cake that is usually eaten around Christmas, from December 25 until Epiphany (Dia de Reis in Portuguese, literally "Kings' Day", a reference to the Three Wise Men), on 6 January.  It is a staple dessert in any Portuguese home during the holidays.  Bolo rei recipe is from France which finds its way to Portugal during the 19th century when Confeitaria Nacional opened as Portuguese monarchy’s official bakery in 1829.  The cake itself is round with a large hole in the centre, resembling a crown covered with crystallized and dried fruit.  The bolo rei is baked from a soft, white dough, with raisins, various nuts, and crystallized fruit.  Also included is the characteristic fava bean, and tradition dictates that whoever finds the fava has to pay for the bolo rei next year.  A small prize (usually a small metal toy) was also included within the cake.  The inclusion of the prize has been discontinued since mid-90s.  Link to recipes at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolo_Rei

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1394  December 16, 2015  On this date in 1895, Marie Hall Ets, American author and illustrator, was born.  On this date in 1899, Noël Coward, English playwright, actor, and composer, was born.  Noël Coward  quote:  “It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”  Find more quotes at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/120035.No_l_Coward 

  

IDIOMS

at the drop of a hat  at the slightest signal, immediately, without delay, without any hesitation, without any planning and for no obvious reason.  Origin:  This phrase probably alludes to signalling the start of a race, fight or other contest by dropping a hat.  [Late 1800s]  http://idioms.in/at-the-drop-of-a-hat/

for nothing, free of charge, for no apparent reason or motive, futilely, to no avail.

in nothing flat, in very little time.  make nothing of, to treat lightly, regard as easy, to be unsuccessful in comprehending.  nothing but, nothing other than, only.  nothing doing, emphatically no, certainly not, no activity, inducement, advantage.  nothing less than /short of, absolutely, completely.  think nothing of, to treat casually, to regard as insignificant.  Origin of nothing:  Middle English; Old English nānthing, nathing; see no, thing; before 900  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/in--nothing--flat

To egg someone on is to encourage them and urge them forward.  This little term has nothing to do with bird's eggs.  Nor is it connected with the phrase that employs the other common usage of 'egg' as a verb, that is, 'over-egg the pudding'.  The 'egg' of 'egg on' is a straightforward variant of 'edge', so to 'egg someone on' is to edge, or urge, them forward.  Egg and edge both have the look and feel of Viking words and this first impressions turns out to be correct, as they both derive from the Old Norse 'eddja'.  Egg has been used as a verb in English since around the 13th century and appears in print in the Trinity College Homer, in the form of 'eggede', circa 1200.  To 'egg on' appears later.  It is used in Thomas Drant's translation of Horace - Horace his arte of poetrie, pistles and satyrs englished, 1566:  "Ile egge them on to speake some thyng, whiche spoken may repent them."  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/egg-on.html

Buffalo, New York  No one argues that the original settlement, and later the city, was named for the creek on which it was located, but how that creek got its name is hotly disputed.  The wild buffalo theory:  The most common theory is that the creek was named for the wild buffalo that watered on it and ate at the nearby salt lick.  Indian named Buffalo theory:  If there is an Indian connection, it is more likely related to the next theory that an Indian named Buffalo lived on the creek, prompting the early non-natives to call the stream "Buffalo's Creek."  This Seneca was said to have been a member of the Wolf clan and called "De-gi-yah-goh," or "Buffalo" by his tribe.  Whatever the origin of the name, by 1791, the residents in the settlement and visitors to the area were using the name Buffalo.  This may be because at least one early resident, Martin Middaugh, had moved here from Pennsylvania, which also has a Buffalo Creek, and he was content to perpetuate the name, but the record does not show any definitive data.  Whether after the animal, the Indian, myths, earlier settlements, or French or Indian words, Buffalo continued to be the name, despite the fact that the Dutch owners dubbed the city "New Amsterdam" in 1800.  Nancy Blumenstalk Mingus  http://www.buffaloah.com/h/bflo/origin.html

Buffalo Bills football team  The Bills nickname was suggested as part of a fan contest in 1947 to rename Buffalo’s All-America Football Conference team, which was originally known as the Bisons.  The Bills nickname referenced frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody and was selected over Bullets, Nickels, and Blue Devils.  It helped that the team was owned by the president of Frontier Oil, James Breuil.  Buffalo was without a team from 1950 to 1959, when owner Ralph Wilson acquired a franchise in the AFL.  Wilson solicited potential nicknames from fans for his new franchise and ultimately chose Bills in homage to the city’s defunct AAFC team.  http://mentalfloss.com/article/25650/whats-nickname-origins-all-32-nfl-team-names

Buffalo Bills  barbershop quartet  In 1947, baritone Hershel Smith, a corporate executive, and lead singer Al Shea, a policeman, got together at Smith's home in Buffalo New York with the idea of forming a barbershop quartet. Tenor Vern Reed, an executive for a boy's club, and bass Bill Spangenberg, a truck driver for a steel company were added. The quartet competed at various competitions with modest success.  Shortly afterward, Smith was promoted and transferred to Madison Wisconsin, and the quartet was disbanded.  Had they not reorganized, the entire face of barbershop harmony may have been vastly different than it is today.  However, Shea and Reed insisted on continuing, and they found baritone Dick Grapes.  The quartet blossomed quickly, winning a national competition in 1950, and developing quite a fan club.   Over the next few years, they booked many engagements and cut some records.  In 1956, composer Meredith Willson was looking for a quartet to appear in his new musical "The Music Man".  The Bills won the audition and were cast in the play, which was to open on Broadway. This required the quartet to give up their jobs and move to New York.  Grapes decided to say in Buffalo at his job.  He was replaced by veteran barbershop baritone Wayne "Scotty" Ward.  The four of them; Reed, Shea, Ward, and Spangenberg, performed eight shows per week for a total of 1,375 performances and five Tony awards.  During this time, the Bills also appeared on several television shows (most shows originated in New York in the 1950s), including the Perry Como Show and Arthur Godfrey Show.  In addition, the group made more records.  In 1962 the musical was adapted for the screen, with the same four Bills appearing.  Shortly after the movie was finished, Spangenberg became ill and was forced to leave the quartet.  He was replaced by bass Jim Jones.  The Bills continued to appear at nightclubs, state fairs, and other shows, as well as make other recordings.  Internal issues and some health problems caused the quartet to be disbanded; they made their last appearance in May of 1967.  Overall, the Buffalo Bills made an estimated 6,000 appearances.  http://www.singers.com/group/Buffalo-Bills/  As Time Goes By - The Buffalo Bills  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoP9ONunkxw  3:19

Buffalo Bills from The Music Man  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO0DFttQoJc  3:38

Songs that mention Buffalo  http://www.speakupwny.com/forums/showthread.php/7819-Songs-that-mention-Buffalo  The song Broadway by the Goo Goo Dolls is not about the theater world, but about the Broadway district of Buffalo, New York.  http://www.songplaces.com/Broadway/Broadway_District_Buffalo_New_York  

August 25, 1980  AN ATTEMPT TO COMPILE A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO CHICKEN WING by Calvin Trillin  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/08/25/an-attempt-to-compile-a-short-history-of-the-buffalo-chicken-wing

Frank Sinatra was “Slacksy O’Brien?”  That was an early nickname for Sinatra in the Hoboken neighborhood where he grew up because, as a youngster, he wore nice clothes.  Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, in the Hudson River waterfront city that was home to German, Irish and Italian immigrants.  His father, Anthony, was a boxer who fought in Irish gyms as “Marty O’Brien” before becoming a firefighter and tavern owner.  His mother, known as “Dolly,” was connected to the local political machine.  Even though the family initially lived in a cold-water apartment at 415 Monroe St., they eventually had such luxuries as a radio, telephone and car while his mother made sure her son had nice clothes, Hoboken Historical Museum director Robert Foster said.  On December 12, 2015, people left flowers near the plaque where Sinatra’s first home once stood when he died in 1998 at age 82 and the city held a memorial Mass at St. Francis Roman Catholic Church, where Sinatra was baptized.  Whatever real or imagined slights felt by some residents were forgotten.  Sinatra was inducted in the first class of New Jersey’s Hall of Fame in 2008.  The Postal Service in 2008 issued a 42-cent stamp with his image, taking the rare step of holding three ceremonies in Hoboken, New York and Las Vegas.   http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/national/hoboken-celebrates-frank-sinatras-100th-birthday-20151212

Hoboken Firsts  

Baseball:  On June 19, 1846 the first officially recorded, organized game of baseball was played on Hoboken's Elysian Fields.  The New York Base Ball Club defeated the Knickerbockers 23-1.   Learn more at HobokenBaseball.com.  Read a June 8, 2001 New York Times article that chronicles the game's development before and after the famous Hoboken match.  

America's First Brewery:  On February 5, 1663 Nicholas Varlett obtained from Peter Stuyvesant a patent for the first brewery in America, located on Castle Point. 

Zipper:  That's right, the zipper was invented in Hoboken and first manufactured by Hoboken's Automatic Hook & Eye Co.  

Read more at https://www.hobokenmuseum.org/history/historical-resources/hoboken-firsts

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1393  December 14, 2015   On this date in 1836, the Toledo War between Ohio and Michigan unofficially ended.  Word of the Day for December 14:  polar opposite  noun  opposite in every way  On this date in 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his party became the first people to reach the Geographic South Pole

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London.  It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill.  It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England.  The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078, and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 (Ranulf Flambard) until 1952 (Kray twins), although that was not its primary purpose.   A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence.  As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.  There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard the Lionheart, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_London

The Builders by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme.

See the whole poem at http://thereaderonline.co.uk/2011/07/25/featured-poem-the-builders-by-henry-wadsworth-longfellow/

Each of these words beginning with epi- (from the Greek word for "upon") has multiple definitions, but here are the most common meanings:  An epigram is a brief, witty statement in prose or verse,  An epigraph is a brief quotation set at the beginning of a text (a book, a chapter of a book, an essay, a poem) to suggest its theme.   An epitaph is a brief inscription in prose or verse on a tombstone or monument.  Richard Nordquist  http://grammar.about.com/od/alightersideofwriting/a/epigramgloss.htm

Link to tax proposals of major 2016 presidential candidates at http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/

February 28, 2011  Speaking during a performance with Motown artists Steve Wonder and Smokey Robinson, along with Seal, John Legend criticized December 2010’s deal to extend the Bush-era tax rates.  “People fought to give me—a millionaire—a tax cut this year,” he said, according to the Associated Press.  “I didn’t need it, and all the other millionaires didn’t need it either.”  The Grammy-winning performer described how he had benefited from government-subsidized community choirs and arts councils over the years, many of which are likely to end up on the budget chopping block.  Some other prominent wealthy people, such as multibillionaire Warren Buffett, have also said they would support the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts for upper-income taxpayers.  In November, 2010 a group of 45 millionaires signed a letter to President Obama urging him to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for those earning over $1 million a year.  Michael Cohn  http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Singer-John-Legend-Offers-Give-up-Tax-Cuts-57430-1.html

January 2, 2013  The George W. Bush tax cuts, born in 2001, reach a new milestone.  Originally scheduled to expire at the end of 2010, they are now permanent (or most of them, anyway).  Congress voted to extend the income tax cuts for most families earning under $450,000 a year, while taxing capital gains, dividends and tax breaks at higher rates for upper-income earners.  See legacy of tax cuts in four charts at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/01/02/the-legacy-of-the-bush-tax-cuts-in-four-charts/  See description, beneficiaries, fiscal effects, and economic effects of Bush tax cuts at http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/background/bush-tax-cuts/

The area code system was developed by AT&T and Bell Laboratories in the 1940's, and went into effect in 1947.  It was called the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) and included the United States and Canada.  In 1947, states and provinces that had a single area code were  assigned three digit codes with 0 as the middle number, such as 203 for Connecticut and 305 for Florida.  There were 86 area codes at that time.  States and provinces that had more than one area code distributed to them were given three digit codes with 1 as the middle number, such as 916 and 213 for various sections of California, and 212 and 518 for various sections of New York.  The first and third digits were allotted according to population density in the city or region the area code was going to, with the most populated areas getting the lowest numbers.  The New York City area, for example, was assigned 212, while the surrounding suburbs were assigned 914.  Find the original area codes for Canada and the United States at http://www.area-codes.com/area-code-history.asp  Find a list of future area codes in the North American Numbering Plan, which are intended to be used as needed for additional telephone numbers in various locations at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_future_North_American_area_codes

New genre:  Alterna history  "The Man in the High Castle" grabs you first visually.  It's 1962 New York City, all vintage clothes and cars, and yet there is nothing nostalgic about this radically disturbing, history-altering place where a giant neon swastika towers over Times Square.  Amazon's new series, adapted from a Philip K. Dick novel, is set in an America where the Allies lost World War II.  The nation has been divided into three zones:  the Greater Nazi Reich of the East Coast, the Japanese Pacific States of the West Coast and a neutral zone in the middle (and, FYI, maps indicate that Michigan and its Midwest neighbors are under German control).  The concept is so overwhelming that you could leave the first episode stunned by the details alone:  the street signs in German and Japanese, a TV game show clip with a contestant who's a Hitler Youth alum, a glimpse of an aging, very alive Fuhrer on the news.  Julie Hinds  http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/julie-hinds/2015/11/14/man-high-castle-chilling-alterna-history-amazon-philip-kdick/75603320/  Other alterna history examples:  Abraham Lincoln:  Vampire Hunter,  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and Last Stop Vienna.

December 10, 2015  President Obama called it "a Christmas miracle.  A bipartisan bill signing right here."   The "right here" was the South Court Auditorium, part of the White House complex.  More importantly, the bipartisan bill being signed was the Every Student Succeeds Act — a long-overdue replacement of the unpopular federal education law known as No Child Left Behind.  The new law changes much about the federal government's role in education, largely by scaling back Washington's influence.  While ESSA keeps in place the basic testing requirements of No Child Left Behind, it strips away many of the high stakes that had been attached to student scores.  The job of evaluating schools and deciding how to fix them will shift largely back to states.  Gone too is the requirement, added several years ago by the Obama administration, that states use student scores to evaluate teachers.  The new law, which passed the House and Senate with rare, resounding bipartisan support, would also expand access to high-quality preschool.  Before the signing, President Obama made clear that he believed the goals of NCLB — namely high standards, accountability and closing the achievement gap — were the right ones.  But in practice, he said, the law fell short.  "It often forced schools and school districts into cookie-cutter reforms that didn't always produce the kinds of results that we wanted to see," Obama said.  NCLB was signed by President George W. Bush in early 2002 and was, itself, an update of a much older law — the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  While ESSA officially marks the end of the NCLB era, the majority of states have for several years received waivers from the Obama administration, exempting them from some of the law's toughest requirements.  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/12/10/459219774/president-obama-signs-education-law-leaving-no-child-behind

In August of 2011, 342 Akron (Ohio) third grade students made a promise to LeBron James.  They promised him him they would go to school, be respectful to their parents, teachers and peers, be active and make good decisions.  In return, he promised them that he would be the best role model he could be on and off the court.  Link to the Akron I Promise Network (AIPN) at http://lebronjamesfamilyfoundation.org/post/category/aipn  LeBron James is now trying to help Akron adults get their GEDs by using the same basic principles his charitable foundation designed to help children stay in school and graduate.  That program, called Wheels for Education (for grades 3-5) and the Akron I PROMISE Network (sixth grade and up), now has more than 1,000 enrolled and free college scholarships to attend the University of Akron waiting for those who graduate from an Akron high school and fulfill some additional requirements beginning in 2021.  James seeks to inspire the children by writing to them personally and engaging them on social media.  Children and their families are also eligible for prizes, often in the form of gifts (from one of James' corporate sponsors, such as a Samsung tablet) or cash for groceries.  The new program for adults is called "I PROMISE, Too" and so far counts nine adults – who will be taught by instructors from Project Learn.  Again, only parents or guardians of children in James' mentorship program are eligible.  In the new program, enrollees received an inspirational letter from the Cavaliers superstar basketball player, HP laptop computers that they can keep if they finish the classes, and free bus passes and parking to attend class.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2015/09/lebron_james_akron_adult_liter.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1392  December 11, 2015  On this date in 1916, Pérez Prado, Cuban-Mexican singer-songwriter, pianist, and bandleader, was born.  On this date in 1919,  Marie Windsor, American actress and singer, was born.