July 16, 2016  Make way for ducklings--they're smarter than you think by Sarah Kaplan   You better watch who you're calling "bird brain."  A new study in the journal Science suggests that some birds are smarter than we realized.  The study, which was conducted by zoologists Antone Martinho III and Alex Kacelnik at Oxford University, found that newborn ducklings are capable of comprehending complex concepts such as "same" and "different"--abstractions that we typically think are beyond the capacity of most animals.  "The claim that abstract relational thinking is a unique ability of human beings can no longer be supported," University of Iowa experimental psychologist Edward Wasserman wrote in an accompanying analysis.  "Although animals may not be able to speak, studying their behavior may be a suitable substitute for assaying their thoughts, and this in turn may allow us to jettison the stale canard that thought without language is impossible."  To interpret ducklings' thoughts, Martinho and Kacelnik tossed them into an experiment the day they were born.  The experiment relied on the animals' ability to imprint--to identify such significant figures as their mothers, very soon after birth.  Once a duckling imprints, it sticks with that "mother" steadfastly, trailing her as the ones in "Make Way for Ducklings" do.  This is true even when that object is not actually a duck.  In Martinho and Kalcelnik's study, the ducklings were introduced 24 hours after hatching to a pair of small, brightly colored shapes that circled above their pens like objects on a mobile.  Some pairs had identical shapes--two spheres, for example--while others had mismatched ones.  This was the "priming period" for what the researchers termed a "same-different" test.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article90047842.html

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.  The base is the word (or part of the word) that is to be copied.  The reduplicated element is called the reduplicant, often abbreviated as RED or sometimes just R.  In reduplication, the reduplicant is most often repeated only once.  However, in some languages, reduplication can occur more than once, resulting in a tripled form, and not a duple as in most reduplication.  Triplication is the term for this phenomenon of copying two times.  Pingelapese has both reduplication and triplication:  kɔul  'to sing', kɔukɔul  'singing' kɔukɔukɔul  'still singing'; mejr  'to sleep', mejmejr  'sleeping', mejmejmejr  'still sleeping'.   Rhyming reduplication:  hokey-pokey, razzle-dazzle, super-duper, boogie-woogie, teenie-weenie, walkie-talkie, hoity-toity, wingding, ragtag, easy-peasy.  Exact reduplications: bye-bye, choo-choo, night-night, no-no, pee-pee, poo-poo.  Couscous is not an English example for reduplication, since it is taken from a French word which has a Maghrebi origin.  Ablaut reduplications: bric-a-brac, chit-chat, criss-cross, ding-dong, jibber-jabber, kitty-cat, knick-knack, pitter-patter, splish-splash, zig-zag, flimflam.  Shm-reduplication can be used with most any word: baby-shmaby, cancer-schmancer and fancy-schmancy.  Read much more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduplication

The East Coast Greenway is a developing trail system, linking many of the major cities of the Eastern Seaboard between Canada and Key West.  Over 30 percent of the route is already on traffic-free greenways, creating safe, accessible routes for people of all ages and abilities.  http://www.greenway.org/  

What is the difference between velvet, velveteen and velour?  Velvet:  woven, cut, crushed; made from linen, mohair, silk, and wool, and sometimes cotton; luxurious  Velveteen:  woven, closely set short pile, never more than 3 mm deep; made generally from cotton, or cotton and silk; greater body, drapes less well than velvet, less sheen  Velour:  knit; made from cotton or synthetics; drapes similar to velvet  Roderick Chow  https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-velvet-velour-and-velveteen-from-a-structural-standpoint  See fabric glossary at https://www.fabric.com/SitePages/Glossary.aspx

What is the difference between foolish and foolhardy?  Foolish is a synonym of foolhardy.  As adjectives, the difference between foolish and foolhardy  is that foolish is lacking good sense or judgement; unwise while foolhardy is marked by unthinking recklessness with disregard for danger; bold but rash; hotheaded.  http://wikidiff.com/foolhardy/foolish

William Lashner is the New York Times bestselling creator of Victor Carl, who has been called by Booklist one of the mystery novel’s “most compelling, most morally ambiguous characters.”  The Victor Carl novels, which have been translated into more than a dozen foreign languages and have been sold all across the globe.  Writing under the pseudonym of Tyler Knox, Lashner is also the author of KOCKROACH, described as “roaringly entertaining” by Publishers Weekly and “an energetic tour de force” by USA Today.  As Tyler Knox, he has written a number of book reviews for the Washington Post Book World.  Lashner was a criminal prosecutor with the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. before quitting the law to write full time.  A graduate of the New York University School of Law, as well as the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he lives with his wife and three children outside Philadelphia.  Find listing of Lashner's books at http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/william-lashner

granny trolley = shopping trolley  jelly baby = soft sugar jelly shaped as a plump baby  (words seen in Bad Intentions, an Inspector Sejer Mystery by Karin Fossum)

Karin Fossum (born 1954) is a Norwegian author of crime fiction, often referred to as the "Norwegian queen of crime".  Find bibliography and list of awards at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karin_Fossum

How to sauté  and what is the difference between sautéing and stir-frying  http://www.wikihow.com/Saut%C3%A9

The Fringes of the Fleet is a booklet written in 1916 by Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936).  The booklet contains essays and poems about nautical subjects in World War I.  It is also the title of a song-cycle written in 1917 with music by the English composer Edward Elgar and lyrics from poems in Kipling's booklet.  In 1916 Kipling was commissioned by The Daily Telegraph to write a series of six articles on his view of life in less well-known aspects of the defence of the nation on its seas.  These were given the general title "The Fringes of the Fleet", and had three sub-titles "The Auxiliaries", "Submarines" and "Patrols", and published between 20 November and 2 December.  Each was prefaced by a short poem which did not have a title itself.  Immediately afterwards the poems and essays were re-published in a booklet called "The Fringes of the Fleet".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fringes_of_the_Fleet

July 18, 2016  New Yorkers are brash champions of their bagels.   Montrealers politely insist theirs are best.  But there may be a bagel that is better than both in a place that isn’t used to bragging about itself:  Cleveland.  The bagel comes from the kitchen of the Cleveland Bagel Co., which is barely a kitchen at all.  It is the backroom of a local pasta shop.  That is where 300 dozen bagels are rolled every week by a former warehouse employee and a software executive without any hint of experience.  Cleveland Bagel’s bagel is boiled in water and malt syrup, which gives it a crunchy skin, and then it is baked in a convection oven.  The result is a doughy chew that leaves your jaw sore until lunch.  “It’s an old-world-style bagel,” said Geoff Hardman, one of the Cleveland Bagel owners.  “It’s a Cleveland-style bagel,” said Dan Herbst, his partner.  “You won’t find a bagel like ours anywhere else.”  The original idea behind their company was to make Cleveland the best in the world at something.  But there has been an unexpected development since they launched their attack on the bagel establishment:  Their typically fatalistic city has begun feeling itself like never before. Cleveland hosts the Republican National Convention this week and is still celebrating the Cavaliers’ win of their first NBA championship last month.  Ben Cohen  http://www.wsj.com/articles/cleveland-invents-a-new-bagel-hits-new-york-with-schmear-campaign-1468861268

Donald Trump's wife Melania addressed the Republican National Convention to rousing applause on July 18, 2016.  The Slovenian-born former model painted the billionaire businessman as a talented, compassionate and unrelenting leader who would unify rather than divide the country if elected as president.  Social media commenters were quick to note the striking similarities between her words and those of Michelle Obama's from the 2008 Democratic National Convention.  The two speeches, ironically on the importance of hard work, use the same phrasing "work hard for what you want in life," "your word is your bond" and "we want our children in this nation. . . to know the limits of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."  Natalie Evans  See excerpts from the 2008 and 2016 speeches at http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/melania-trump-plagiarise-michelle-obamas-8446088

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1499  July 19, 2016  On this date in 1759, Marianna Auenbrugger, Austrian pianist and composer, was born.  On this date in 1848, a two-day Women's Rights Convention opened in Seneca Falls, New York.

Now You Can Visit the Oldest Library in the World by Leah Schnelbach   al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, Morocco, is the oldest library in the world, but until last month, only researchers had access to it.  Built in 859, the library was a beacon for scholars, poets, and theologians for hundreds of years, but in recent years it had fallen into terrible disrepair.  The al-Qarawiyyin Library opened to visitors in May 2016, so those of you who are Morocco-bound, be sure to check it out!  Read more, see stunning pictures and link to more information and pictures at  http://www.tor.com/2016/06/13/moroccos-al-qarawiyyin-library-oldest-in-world-newly-renovated-and-open-to-visitors/ 

Q:   How many times was a president elected who did not win the popular vote?  A:   It has happened four times.  In 1824, John Quincy Adams was elected president despite not winning either the popular vote or the electoral vote.  Andrew Jackson was the winner in both categories.  Jackson received 38,000 more popular votes than Adams, and beat him in the electoral vote 99 to 84.  Despite his victories, Jackson didn’t reach the majority 131 votes needed in the Electoral College to be declared president.  In fact, neither candidate did.  The decision went to the House of Representatives, which voted Adams into the White House.  In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won the election (by a margin of one electoral vote), but he lost the popular vote by more than 250,000 ballots to Samuel J. Tilden.  In 1888, Benjamin Harrison received 233 electoral votes to Grover Cleveland’s 168, winning the presidency.  But Harrison lost the popular vote by more than 90,000 votes.  In 2000, George W. Bush was declared the winner of the general election and became the 43rd president, but he didn’t win the popular vote either.  Al Gore holds that distinction, garnering about 540,000 more votes than Bush.  However, Bush won the electoral vote, 271 to 266.  http://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/presidents-winning-without-popular-vote/  See also Controversial Elections at http://archive.fairvote.org/e_college/controversial.htm

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

From:  Bill Sweeney  Subject:  tachyphylaxis    Your readers might appreciate A.E. Housman’s untitled poem http://www.bartleby.com/123/62.html  beginning “Terence, this is stupid stuff”. 

From:  Dee Hunt  Subject:  Marrowsky   My mother and her identical twin sister were lovingly referred to as “the sin twisters”. 

From:  Hope Bucher   Subject:  Marrowsky  My first experience with marrowsky/spoonerism was when my college literature professor spoke of “Sheets and Kelley”.  The entire lecture hall erupted in laughter.  As a mother who enjoyed reading to her son, I encountered it again in Shel Silverstein’s last book “Runny Babbit”:  “Runny Babbit lent to wunch and heard the saitress way, “We have some lovely stabbit rew, our Special for today.”  It was a delightful way to introduce wordplay! 

From:  Roberta M. Eisenberg  Subject:  Marrowsky  The masters of these are the Capitol Steps, a DC comedy troupe.  More than 30 years ago, they started out as office interns to legislators.  Part of every show they do is called Lirty Dies, which is delivered at a rapid pace thereby making the audience think and concentrate very hard.  Samples of their very funny routines are at http://www.capsteps.com/lirty/

@ the Crossroads—A Sudden American Poem by Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of the United States  Dedicated to Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Dallas police officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa—and all their families.  And to all those injured.  Read poem at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/crossroads-sudden-american-poem

United States Health Care Reform:  Progress to Date and Next Steps by Barack Obama, JD  JAMA.  Published online July 11, 2016. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.9797  http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=2533698

Royal Troon Golf Club is a links golf course in Scotland, located in Troon, South Ayrshire, southwest of Glasgow.  The club was founded in 1878, initially with five holes.  George Strath was appointed in 1881 as the club's first golf professional.  Adjacent to the Firth of Clyde, Troon was granted its "Royal" accolade in 1978, during its centennial.  Its Old Course is one of the host courses for The Open Championship, one of the major championships on the PGA Tour and European Tour.  The Club has hosted the Open nine times, the most recent in 2016.  Past Open champions at Royal Troon include Justin Leonard, Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Watson, Tom Weiskopf, Arnold Palmer, Bobby Locke, and Arthur Havers.  The last six Opens at Troon have been won by Americans.  Royal Troon is home to both the longest and shortest holes in Open Championship golf.  Regarded as one of the top holes in the world, the par-3 8th hole ("Postage Stamp") measures a scant 123 yards (112 m), but its diminutive green measures a mere 2,635 square feet (293 sq yd; 245 m²).  Two holes earlier, the par-5 6th ("Turnberry") extends to a lengthy 601 yards (550 m).  The 11th hole ("The Railway") is one of the most difficult holes in major championship golf.  Now a long par-4, a blind tee shot has a long carry over gorse with out of bounds all along the railway on the right.  The lengthy approach shot is to a small green that falls away, with nearby out of bounds.  In addition to the trains, runway 13/31 of nearby Prestwick Airport provides an environment of low-flying large aircraft.  On 1 July 2016, Royal Troon members voted overwhelmingly to admit women into the club, avoiding a potential controversy that could have overshadowed the 2016 Open Championship.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Troon_Golf_Club

A small earthquake was felt along the Lake Erie coast hit near Cleveland on July 12, 2016, but caused no damage.  The quake was recorded at 4:11 p.m. about three miles into Lake Erie near North Perry, about 40 miles east of Cleveland.  Preliminary data show it registered a magnitude of 3.4, said Michael Hansen, coordinator of the Ohio Seismic Network, a division of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources that tracks earthquakes.  Hansen said researchers are particularly intrigued because it was the 10th and largest quake in northern Ohio this year.  The second-biggest was a 3.0 magnitude March 11, 2006, also beneath the lake."  Scientists say Ohio's earthquakes are linked to an ancient scar six-thousand feet deep that's known as the Akron Magnetic Boundary.  The fault runs diagonally through Summit County and into Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula counties.  It was formed when North America tried unsuccessfully to split a billion years ago.  When the earth shifts, the fault sometimes shifts, causing an earthquake.

http://www.wtol.com/story/5057025/earthquake-recorded-near-cleveland   A small earthquake shook part of northwest Ohio for a few seconds but didn't cause any damage, the Ohio Seismic Network reported.  The quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of 2.8, struck at 9:51 p.m. July 14, 2016 and was centered about eight miles west of Lima, said Mike Hansen, the network's coordinator.  Hansen said the quake occurred in the Anna Seismic Zone, an area of northwest and western Ohio named for the town of Anna in Shelby County.  

http://www.wtol.com/story/4895199/small-earthquake-hits-nw-ohio  In Toledo, the weights on our grandfather clock swayed rhythmically for a couple of hours on July 16, 2016--probably due to seismic activity.

Why do bookworms like history books?  Sweet--full of dates!

Where’s Waldo?  In Ohio.

Where’s Waldo?  Between Ralph and Emerson.

A hug is a perfect gift.  One size fits all and nobody minds if you exchange it.

Lois Thompson, librarian (1919-2016)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1498  July 18, 2016   On this date in 1932, the United States and Canada signed a treaty to construct the St. Lawrence Seaway to connect the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean and to produce hydroelectric energy. http://www.thehistorybox.com/us_history/us_history_president_year_1932_article1492.htm  On this date in 1947, Harry Truman signed the Presidential Succession Act.  The original act of 1792 had placed the Senate president pro tempore and Speaker of the House in the line of succession, but in 1886 Congress had removed them.  The 1947 law reinserted those officials, but placed the Speaker ahead of the president pro tempore.   http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Presidential_Succession_Act.htm  Quote of the Day  It is never my custom to use words lightly.  If twenty-seven years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die. - Nelson Mandela, activist, South African president, Nobel laureate (18 Jul 1918-2013)  Word of the Day  chinwag noun  (Britain, informal) An informal conversation, usually about everyday matters; a chat, a gossip.

The National Cryptologic Museum is the National Security Agency's principal gateway to the public.  It shares the Nation's, as well as NSA's, cryptologic legacy and place in world history.  Located adjacent to NSA Headquarters at Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland, the Museum houses a collection of thousands of artifacts that collectively serve to sustain the history of the cryptologic profession.  Here visitors can catch a glimpse of some of the most dramatic moments in the history of American cryptology: the people who devoted their lives to cryptology and national defense, the machines and devices they developed, the techniques they used, and the places where they worked.  Being the first and only public museum in the Intelligence Community, the Museum hosts approximately 50,000 visitors annually from all over the country and all over the world, allowing them a peek into the secret world of codemaking and codebreaking.  The National Cryptologic Museum has had an adjunct reference library since it opened in 1993.  The library not only supports the exhibits, but also encourages visitors to research various areas of cryptologic history.  The Museum Library maintains a collection of unclassified and declassified books and documents relating to every aspect of cryptology.  Read much more and link to hours, directions and exhibits at https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/museum/

The most popular sport in the US may be American football, but the most popular sport in the world is association football, which Americans call “soccer.”  The kicker?  As different as they are today, these sports share a linked heritage.  Once upon a time, groups of men were running around fields, kicking, carrying, throwing, and punching a ball, with little in the way of organized rules.  This sport was dubbed “football,” possibly because the game was played on foot, rather than on horse.  In the early 1800s, the sport began to factionalize in England between those who preferred to handle the ball with hands and those who did not.  The former became known as rugby football, the latter becoming association football (in reference to the associations that collaborated to play the sport).  “Soccer,” a convenient abbreviation for “association,” began as a European term.  When soccer became more popular in Europe than rugby football, the nomenclature was dropped, while it stuck in the US, where football more commonly referred to American football.  And football in America didn’t look too different from soccer and rugby before they split; players brutally fought to get the ball past the opposing team by any means necessary.  The ball was even round.  American football grew through competition between colleges.  As more colleges collaborated to play the sport, the rules developed more into what we recognize today.  The game began to look more similar to rugby than it did association football, but for reasons not entirely clear, Americans continued to brand it as football.  By the turn of the 20th century, association football, rugby football, and American football—originating as variations of the same game—had become distinct and incompatible.  “Football” might seem like a misnomer for the American sport today, but the historical game involved plenty of kicking.  Johsua T. Garcia  http://knowledgenuts.com/2013/11/17/american-football-soccer-rugby-started-as-the-same-sport/  See also http://www.rugbyfootballhistory.com/originsofrugby.htm and http://www.hornetfootball.org/documents/football-history.htm and http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/the-game/

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) was a social activist, first lady and the wife of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Find her quotes (Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?), disputed quotes (The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.) and misattributed quotes (I am who I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.) at https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Roosevelt

A syllable is a single unit of written or spoken word, an unbroken sound used to make up words.  One-syllable words are known as monosyllabic.  Two-syllable words are known as disyllabic.  Three-syllable words are known as trisyllabic.  Words with more than three syllables are known as polysyllabic.  https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/terms-syllable

United States trivia  Q.  What state name has only one syllable.  A.  Maine.  Q.  What is the highest number of syllables in the name of a state?  A.  5:  Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.  Q.  How many names of state capitals start with the same letter as that of the state name?  A.  4:  Dover, DE, Honolulu, HI, Indianapolis, IN and Oklahoma City, OK.

12 nouns that are always plurals by Simon Thomas  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/05/12-nouns-that-are-always-plurals/

Mary Ellen Best (1809–1891) was an English artist.  Most active in the 1830s, she usually worked in water-colour, commonly painting scenes of domestic life.  She painted a number of water-colour images of her home in Castle Gate, York, including interior portraits of the drawing room, dining room (painted in 1838), and one of herself working in her painting room.  After marrying Johan Anton and moving to Nuremberg,Frankfurt, Worms, and Darmstadt, she continued to paint the houses they lived in.  Between 1828 and 1840, two thirds of Best's portraits were commissioned by women.  Caroline Davidson, who wrote a biography of Best, calculated that she produced more than 1,500 paintings in total.  Some of Best's drawings were handed down to her great-granddaughter, and 47 were sold in January 1983 in New York City.  Others were sold by her great-grand-nephew a year later.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Ellen_Best

Carla Hayden made history on July 13, 2016 as the Senate voted to approve her nomination as Librarian of Congress, making her both the first woman and the first African American to hold the post.  The Librarian of Congress job was once a lifetime appointment.  Last year Obama signed a law imposing a 10-year term limit, making Hayden the first to serve on a limited term (and only the 14th librarian since its founding in 1800).  Hayden is currently the chief executive of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, where she earned praise for keeping the library open during unrest in the city after the shooting death of Freddie Gray.  The library became a community meeting space for people in search of information—and even food—during the protests.  She previously served as president of the American Library Association, and earlier in her career she worked in the Chicago Public Library system, where she first met President Obama.  She holds a PhD in library science from the University of Chicago.  http://time.com/4405062/carla-hayden-confirmed-as-first-black-woman-to-be-librarian-of-congress/

The landmark Longaberger Headquarters, known as the "Big Basket," will no longer house any employees as the company consolidates after July 14, 2016.  The  remaining dozen or so office workers will move into office space at the company’s manufacturing plant in Frazeysburg.  When the Newark, Ohio basketmaker was approaching its glory days and opened the 180,000-square-foot building with 500 employees enjoying the homey feel of their new digs.  The company has struggled since the death of Dave Longaberger in 1999.  A combination of bad economic times and changing tastes in home decor sent sales from a peak of $1 billion in 2000 to about $100 million in 2014.  Longaberger Co. seemed to be on the path to recovery after CVSL (now called JRJR Networks), a holding company of direct-sales firms, bought a 51.7 percent stake in Longaberger in 2013.  But financial problems persisted:  Longaberger Co. owes $577,660.05 to various local taxing entities related to the cost of roadwork, lighting and other improvements made when the Big Basket was built.  If delinquent taxes aren’t paid, the county has the power to foreclose on the property and offer it at a sheriff’s sale, Licking County Auditor Mike Smith said, but that isn’t likely.  Newark “does not have a desire to own the building,” said Newark Mayor Jeff Hall.   “We’re still marketing the building,” Guagenti said.  “The challenge is, it’s large,” Hall said.  “It’s in great shape.  It was built wonderfully.  If someone got it for maybe $5 million, that’s a heck of a deal.  The taxes plus utilities are about $750,000 a year.”  Tim Feran  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2016/07/14/1-last-day-arrives-for-longaberger-and-big-basket.html  See also World's Largest Basket (In Transition) with pictures and statistics at http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10658  The Big Easter Basket up in Lorain, OH--on the shore of Lake Erie on West Erie Avenue--is not a Longaberger creation, and it is a tad amateurish when compared to the other big baskets.  Still, at 9 ft. high and 10 ft. wide, it suggests that big baskets have something to do with the soul of Ohio, not just the market-savviness of the Longaberger Basket Company.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1497  July 15, 2016  On this date in 1799, the Rosetta Stone was found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign.  On this date in 1971, Richard Nixon announced that he would visit China the following year.  (Later, John Adams wrote an opera called Nixon in China.)  Read an October 25, 1987 review of its premiere in Houston, Texas at https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/19/from-the-classical-archive-nixon-in-china-john-adams-premiere-oct-1987

George R. R. Martin’s invented language in A Game of Thrones by Elyse Graham  George R.R. Martin sometimes draws on existing etymologies for his invented languages separates his practice from that of David Peterson, who creates more fully developed versions of the same languages for the television series Game of Thrones.  The different practices make sense; Peterson’s work serves the art of world-building, whereas Martin’s work also serves a specific literary tradition.  It is well-known that Martin’s book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, arose, in part, as a response to social questions in J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, The Lord of the Rings, that Martin felt merited new exploration.  Read explanations of seven invented words from the fantasy series Game of Thrones at http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/06/george-r-r-martins-invented-language-game-thrones/

Why We Love Book Clubs by Ann Hood   One day in the late 1980s, I saw an index card tacked to the wall near my ATM.  It said, “Book Club Forming.”  One thing I have always done—in good times and bad—was read.  A lot.  We were a small group—a copy editor, an opera singer, a dermatologist, a few writers.  I can’t say what led each of us to call the number on that sign, but I can say with certainty that I got exactly what I’d hoped for.  Once a month I had somewhere to go in my very own neighborhood, where I sat with other people who loved books and loved talking about books.  We drank wine, and nibbled on cheese and slowly got to know each other.  Book clubs have been stimulating deep thought and conversation for a long time, maybe even since 1634 when women aboard a ship headed from England to Massachusetts met to analyze the weekly sermons, setting a precedent that still exists today:  About 80 percent of book club members are women.  In the centuries since Anne Hutchinson formed hers on that ship, libraries and bookstores and literary societies have hosted groups to discuss everything from poetry to philosophy.  But most people agree that a 1984 best-seller, Helen Hooven Santmyer’s “. . . And Ladies of the Club”—about members of a book club in Ohio—jump-started modern book clubs.  http://parade.com/486461/annhood/ann-hood-why-we-love-book-clubs/

Born in 1895 in Cincinnati, Helen Hooven Santmyer knew she wanted to be a writer when, at the age of nine, she finished reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott.  Nearly 80 years later, Santmyer’s name would appear on best-seller lists throughout America.  Read more, see pictures, and follow links to other resources at http://www.ohioana-authors.org/santmyer/highlights.php  Helen Hooven Santmyer was an educator and librarian whose novel ''. . . And Ladies of the Club'' made her a celebrity at the age of 88.  http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/22/obituaries/helen-hooven-santmyer-90-author-and-educator-dies.html

converse  noun--the opposite;  adjective--not gradable;  verb--talk with someone

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/converse

words ending in verse  http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/verse/

Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St John's Dance and, historically, St. Vitus' Dance) was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries.  It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time.  The mania affected men, women, and children, who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion.  One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, in the Holy Roman Empire, in 1374, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518, also in the Holy Roman Empire.  Generally, musicians accompanied dancers, to help ward off the mania, but this tactic sometimes backfired by encouraging more to join in.  There is no consensus among modern-day scholars as to the cause of dancing mania.  The several theories proposed range from religious cults being behind the processions to people dancing to relieve themselves of stress and put the poverty of the period out of their minds.  It is, however, thought to be as a mass psychogenic illness in which the occurrence of similar physical symptoms, with no known physical cause, affect a large group of people as a form of social influence.  "Dancing mania" is derived from the term "choreomania", from the Greek choros (dance) and mania (madness).  The term was coined by Paracelsus, and the condition was initially considered a curse sent by a saint, usually St John the Baptist or St Vitus, and was therefore known as "St Vitus' Dance" or "St John's Dance".   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania

The year 2016 will be one second longer than most, due to the addition of a "leap second" on December 31, the US Naval Observatory announced July 6, 2016.  The "leap second" will be added at 6:59:59 Eastern Standard Time, which correlates to 23:59:59 on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), the standard time around the world.   The extra second will maintain the correlation between the world's two time-keeping systems:  the measure of Earth's rotation (UT1), and International Atomic Time (TAI), which is generated using the vibration rate of cesium atoms and which keeps the world's UTC-based clocks ticking in unison.  They're pretty close, but not quite identical, since the Earth's rotation speed can vary slightly in response to climatic and geological events.  In 1987, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) was created to keep tabs on the difference between UTC, atomic clock time, and UT1, solar time.  Once in a while, IERS calls for leap seconds to be added to UTC, to keep the two within 0.9 seconds of each other.  The Earth runs about 1.5 to 2 milliseconds behind atomic time each day, based on calculations using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), which precisely calculates Earth's rotation with respect to objects near the edge of the visible universe.  Add that up, and it means that the difference between rotational time (UT1) and atomic clock time (UTC) would reach about a second every 500 or 750 days.  By inserting leap seconds, the IERS makes sure that they stay in sync.  In other words, IAT and UTC have been diverging ever since atomic clocks have been used, but by adding seconds to the official time, we keep the sun overhead at noon.  Since atomic timekeeping was put in place, 26 leap seconds have been added to UTC, most recently on June 30, 2015.  In 1972, the difference between IAT and UTC was 10 seconds.  After the leap second is inserted in December, the difference between them will be 37 seconds.  Aidan Quigley  http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0707/Why-a-leap-second-will-make-2016-just-a-bit-longer

North American Free Trade Agreement   The impetus for NAFTA actually began with President Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on a North American common market.  In 1984, Congress passed the Trade and Tariff Act.  This is important because it gave the President "fast-track" authority to negotiate free trade agreements, while only allowing Congress the ability to approve or disapprove, not change negotiating points.  Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney agreed with Reagan to begin negotiations for the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, which was signed in 1988, went into effect in 1989 and is now suspended since it's no longer neeeded.  Meanwhile, Mexican President Salinas and President Bush began negotiations for a liberalized trade between the two countries.  Prior to NAFTA, Mexican tariffs on U.S. imports were 250% higher than U.S. tariffs on Mexican imports.  In 1991, Canada requested a trilateral agreement, which then led to NAFTA.  In 1993, concerns about liberalization of labor and environmental regulations led to the adoption of two addendums.  NAFTA was signed by President George H.W. Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1992.  It was ratified by the legislatures of the three countries in 1993.  The U.S. House of Representatives approved it by 234 to 200 on November 17, 1993.  The U.S. Senate approved it by 60 to 38 on November 20, three days later.  It was finally signed into law by President Bill Clinton on December 8, 1993 and entered force January 1, 1994.  Although it was signed by President Bush, it was a priority of President Clinton's, and its passage is considered one of his first successes.  http://useconomy.about.com/od/tradepolicy/p/NAFTA_History.htm

CHECKING FACTS  http://www.factcheck.org/ is a project of the Walter Annenberg Public Policy Center.  http://www.politifact.com/ is a joint project of the Tampa Bay Times and the Congressional Quarterly.  http://www.snopes.com/category/snopes/facts/ checks on rumors, often on non-political issues.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1496  July 13, 2016  On this date in 1787, the Continental Congress enacted the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory.  It also established procedures for the admission of new states and limited the expansion of slavery.  On this date in 1863, opponents of conscription began three days of rioting in New York City. 

The twilight's first gleaming refers to dawn, as the sun rises.  The twilight's last gleaming refers to dusk, as the sun sets.

Daybreak and sunup are two of over 500 synonyms for dawn.

https://www.powerthesaurus.org/dawn/synonyms

Sundown and gloaming are two of almost 400 synonyms for dusk.

https://www.powerthesaurus.org/dusk/synonyms

Break in "break of dawn" is used to mean undergo a change or enter a new state.  Find full definitions of break at https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=break+change#q=define+break&hl=en  Using that pattern, break of dusk would make sense, although I've never seen it used.  Crack of dawn is common.  Gathering or falling may refer to dusk.

Populus section Aigeiros is a section of three species in the genus Populus, the poplars.  Like some other species in the genus Populus, they are commonly known as cottonwoods.  The species are native to North America, Europe, and western Asia.  The section is named for Aigeiros, East Macedonia in Greece.  They are large, deciduous trees 20–45 m tall, distinguished by thick, deeply fissured bark and triangular-based to diamond-shaped leaves that are green on both sides (without the whitish wax on the undersides of balsam poplar leaves) and without any obvious balsam scent in spring.  An important feature of the leaves is the petiole, which is flattened sideways so that the leaves have a particular type of movement in the wind.   Cottonwoods are widely grown for timber production along wet river banks, where their exceptional growth rate provides a large crop of wood within just 10–30 years.  The wood is coarse and of fairly low value, used for pallet boxes, shipping crates, and similar purposes where a cheap but strong enough wood is suitable.  They are also widely grown as screens and shelterbelts.  Many of the cottonwoods grown commercially are the hybrid of eastern cottonwood and black poplar, Populus × canadensis (hybrid black poplar or Carolina poplar).

Cottonwood bark is often a favorite medium for artisans. The bark, which is usually harvested in the fall after a tree's death, is generally very soft and easy to carve.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_sect._Aigeiros

Paraphrases from Dead Silence, a novel by Randy Wayne White  To not be stupid you don't have to be a genius.  In Sag Harbor, the superrich don't talk to cops--the cops go straight to their attorneys.  I never would've learned to skate if it wasn't for thin ice.

The 75 Best Books of the Past 75 Years by Ann Patchett   When Parade asked me to compile a list of the best 75 books to celebrate the magazine’s 75th anniversary, my first answer was, “Not a chance!”  I could picture the mountains of furious letters complaining about all the great works of literature I’d left off.  But when I asked the staff at Parnassus Books, the Nashville store I co-own with Karen Hayes, to take it on as a group project, they were game.  What we discovered in the process is how wildly we disagree about everything, except how much we love books.  We wanted novels, sure, but we also wanted picture books, science books, histories and young adult novels.  We wanted things that were old, like The Old Man
 and the Sea, but also things that were hot off the press, like When Breath Becomes Air.  The most important thing about creating any list is figuring out ways to narrow it down, so we decided to choose 75 books from just the last 75 years (sorry,Grapes of Wrath, you just missed the cut) and books written only by North Americans, because if we opened it up to the world we would miss plenty of gems out of sheer ignorance and wind up with a lot more than 75 books!  That seemed like a reasonable solution until we realized that meant leaving off Harry Potter, a deal breaker for half of our staff, so we defaulted to books written in English.  Behold, a mash-up of a list that exemplifies the passionate convictions of 17 booksellers.  Are they the best 75 books from the past 75 years?  Judge for yourself.  http://parade.com/485659/annpatchett/the-75-best-books-of-the-past-75-years/

Names for food in British and American English by Simon Thomas  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/06/names-for-food-in-british-and-american-english/

candescent  adjective  glowing or dazzling from or as if from great heat  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/candescent

incandescent  adjective  1.  white or glowing because of great heat  2.  producing bright light when heated  3.  very impressive, successful, or intelligent  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/incandescent

foot-candle  noun  a unit of measure of the intensity of light falling on a surface, equal to one lumen per square foot and originallydefined with reference to a standardized candle burning at one foot from a given surface.  http://www.thefreedictionary.com/foot-candle 

Minimum Illumination Intensities in Foot-Candles from Occupational Safety & Health Administration  https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=STANDARDS&p_id=10630

Standards for interior lighting from International Organization for Standardization  (ISO)  http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_ics/catalogue_ics_browse.htm?ICS1=91&ICS2=160&ICS3=10

Robert Nye, who died aged 77 on July 2, 2016, was a writer who, although better known for his novels, wanted to be remembered for his poetry.  That may yet be the case.  Nye’s poems would appear and reappear in slim volumes, as if he spent much of his career revisiting and revising them.  He held true to Yeats’s notion that unless these pieces seemed like a moment’s thought, “Our stitching and unstitching were as nought”.  At their best, his poems have a timeless quality, particularly in his poems about love and the end of love.  On the other hand, his novels can often appear as though they are situated in specific periods of the past.  The best known of those, Falstaff (1976), which won the Hawthornden Prize and the Guardian Fiction Prize, was not the only one to be based on Shakespeare’s England; but Nye could not easily resist references to topical concerns, such as when Falstaff addresses the 1970s’ preoccupation with devolution (which he calls “Devil’s Lotion”).  Although Nye was unlike Falstaff, the tone in which he presented the anti-hero’s “memoirs” was by turns expansive and introspective, in a way that reflected the author’s own complex personality.  In his poems, Nye was quick to puncture the bubble of inspiration.  One has his grandmother--“grandam”--listening to a nightingale whose “passionate song” is “Keatsian and long”.  “Then, when sufficient nightingale she’d heard, / Cried out:  Right!  Just you bugger off, you bird!”  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2016/07/07/robert-nye--obituary/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1495  July 11, 2016  On this date in 1798, the United States Marine Corps was re-established; they had been disbanded after the American Revolutionary War.  On this date in 1804, Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel.