Paraphrases from The Anthologist, a novel by Nicholson Baker  Pronounce poem as pome or poe-im or poe-em--it's a Greek word that's had the end chopped off  it.  Children cry in duple meter.  I call a poem that doesn't rhyme a plum, and we who write and publish them are plummets or plummers.  Free-verse poetry is prose in slow motion.  NOTE:  In the book, Nicholson Baker includes several poem fragments set to melodies with an unusual mix of triplets and duplets.

Free verse poems will have no set meter, which is the rhythm of the words, no rhyme scheme, or any particular structure.  Some poets would find this liberating, being able to whimsically change your mind, while others feel like they could not do a good job in that manner.  Robert Frost commented that writing free verse was like "playing tennis without a net."  Find examples of free-verse poetry at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-free-verse-poems.html

The English spelling system is famous for not making sense.  The phonetic ideal of having each letter represent exactly one sound, and each sound represented by exactly one letter, is impossible when English has about 45 sounds, or phonemes, and only 26 letters to represent them.  But more than that, any language that has been written for a long enough time will have spellings that haven’t caught up with modern pronunciations, because pronunciations change.  English has been written for about 1,300 years, which is plenty of time for these mismatches to accumulate.  One of the more frustrating signs of these spelling mismatches is English’s abundance of silent letters.  With a conservative definition of silent letter, more than half of the letters of our alphabet are silent in at least some words.  In alphabetical order, they are B, D, E, G, H, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, W, X, and Z.  Neal Whitman  Find the story behind silent letters at http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/why-english-has-words-with-silent-letters  A few words with a silent H are:  ghost, heir, honest, hour, what, and whether.  Words with G and H both silent are:  dough, light, and tough.

Nouns can be abstract or concrete.  Concrete nouns are tangible and you can experience them with your five senses.  Abstract nouns refer to intangible things, like feelings, ideals, concepts and qualities.  Find examples of abstract nouns, including their use in in sentences and quotes at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-abstract-nouns.html

In 1983, Andy Warhol was commissioned by his friend and publisher Ron Feldman and his wife Freyda to create the series of ten endangered species to raise environmental consciousness.  Both Freyda and Ronald were celebrated political activists and active philanthropists.  Warhol enjoyed working on this project and fondly referred to this series as his “Animals in Makeup,” regarding to the bold pop colors he employes, to portray the animals as large than life.  In 1986, Warhol was commissioned again to do a series of animals in danger of extinction, this time it was illustrations for the book Vanishing Animals by Kurt Benirschke.  See all ten of the 1983 screenprints at http://revolverwarholgallery.com/portfolio/endangered-species-full-suite-of-10-works/

Monobloc may refer to:  Monobloc engine, an internal combustion engine with the cylinder head and block formed as one unit; Monobloc (chair), a type of light-weight chair made of one-piece plastic; Monobloc (film), a 2005 Argentine film; Monoblock LNB, a type of low-noise block downconverter.  In photography, another name for a monolight, a type of electronic flash with the electronics in the head, as opposed to a pack-and-head system. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monobloc  See also https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monobloc

The buildings and architecture of Bath, a city in Somerset in the south west of England, reveal significant examples of the architecture of England, from the Roman Baths to the present day. The city became a World Heritage Site in 1987, largely because of its architectural history and the way in which the city landscape draws together public and private buildings and spaces.  It is the only entire city in Britain to achieve World Heritage status, and is a popular tourist destination.  Important buildings include the Roman Baths; neoclassical architect Robert Adam's Pulteney Bridge, based on an unused design for the Rialto Bridge in Venice; and Bath Abbey in the city centre, founded in 1499 on the site of an 8th-century church.  Of equal importance are the residential buildings designed and built into boulevards and crescents by the Georgian architects John Wood, the Elder and his son John Wood, the Younger--well-known examples being the Royal Crescent, built around 1770, and The Circus, built around 1760, where each of the three curved segments faces one of the entrances, ensuring that there is always a classical facade facing the entering visitor.  Most of Bath's buildings are made from the local, golden-coloured, Bath Stone.  The dominant architectural style is Georgian, which evolved from the Palladian revival style that became popular in the early 18th century.  The city became a fashionable and popular spa and social centre during the 18th century.  Based initially around its hot springs, this led to a demand for substantial homes and guest houses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildings_and_architecture_of_Bath

Aetna now joins UnitedHealth, Humana and others insurers in scaling back their involvement in healthcare exchanges.  “Aetna’s decision has a direct effect on competition in many parts of the country and it’s a bit of a red flag for the future,” said Larry Levitt with the Kaiser Family Foundation.  While fewer choices won’t raise prices for most consumers, the quality of the coverage could slip.  Insurers say there aren’t enough healthy people who have enrolled in the exchanges to cover the cost of the sick.  Aetna said it had lost $430 million since 2014.  Obamacare critics see this as a sign that the end of the health reform law is near.  But John Bertko, chief actuary with the exchange, said this has more to do with business than politics.  “Plans who have been in the market have learned some tough lessons,” said Bertko.  The problem, he said, is big insurers offered too much at first and they didn’t realize the game has changed.  “Most but not all of the big five are incompetent at creating good, narrow networks,” he said.  Bertko said 11 plans in California are all either making money or close to breaking even.  California’s experience appears to square with accounts that smaller insurers familiar with low-income patients and offer narrow groups of physicians and hospitals are making a go on the exchanges.  Since Obamacare has always been controversial, it’s hard to figure out the difference between the hype, the hate and the hope.  Certainly, enrollment lags well behind expectations at this point, reducing the margins on this business.  Congress hasn’t helped either by limiting subsidies to help insurers absorb losses.  See http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20160602/NEWS/160609973 Dan Gorenstein  http://www.marketplace.org/2016/08/16/health-care/aetna-exchanges

Bill Clinton and Melania Trump have submitted cookie recipes for Family Circle magazine's Presidential Cookie Poll, where readers pick between the two cookie recipes.  The poll, which has been held during the fall of every general election year since 1992.  Clinton submitted the family's chocolate chip cookies made with old-fashioned oats.  Trump  submitted star cookies made with egg yolks and sour cream.  http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/18/politics/bill-clinton-melania-trump-cookie-recipe/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1515  August 19, 2016  On this date in 1848, the New York Herald broke the news to the East Coast of the gold rush in California (although the rush started in January).  On this date in 1858, Jules Janssen discovered Helium during a solar eclipse.  Word of the Day  ylem  noun  (astronomy, cosmology, physics, now chiefly historical)  In the Big Bang theory, the hot and dense plasma which made up the cosmos at the time of recombination in an early stage of its expansion and cooling, when the first atoms formed and photons decoupled.  The ylem is regarded as the source of the cosmic microwave background.  George Gamow, who co-authored the 1948 paper with Ralph Asher Alpher and Hans Bethe which first used the term ylem in this context, died on August 19, 1968.

Vintage Aerial has over 25 million photos, taken in 41 states over the second half of the twentieth century.  Search by state and county at https://vintageaerial.com/

Women + Beer:  A Forgotten Pairing by Allison Schell   If you look at the brewing business today, the majority of micro and macro breweries are owned and run by men.  Did you know though that back in the eighteenth century, a good portion of brewers in America were women?  Did you also know that the feminine form of the word brewer is brewster?  A testimony to how masculinized brewing has become is the fact that the word brewster is not even used to describe female brewers today.  Many are now referred to as “brewmasters.  Historically, women’s involvement in brewing beer has been documented back four-thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, and probably earlier.  Ancient Sumerians even had a goddess of beer, Ninkasi. Historically though women’s involvement in brewing probably developed out of the fact that some women were tavern-owners and thus it is likely that they also brewed their own beer.  Fast forward to colonial America.  The craft of brewing beer was brought over from Europe and women resumed their roles in society as tavern-keepers and brewers.  But tavern-keepers were not the only women brewing; housewives were as well and brewing beer was one of the many tasks on their long list of daily duties.  And, with beer being more consumed than water at this point, one needed to have a steady supply of the beverage on hand.  In 1734, Mary Lisle become America’s unofficial first brewster when she took over her father’s brewhouse in Philadelphia.  https://www.nwhm.org/blog/women-beer-a-forgotten-pairing/  See also http://www.oldbreweries.com/breweries-by-state/pennsylvania/philadelphia-pa-455-breweries/mary-lisles-edinburgh-brewhouse-brewery-pa-364-1b/

The ancient and distinguished name "Brewer" has two distinct origins, each with its own history and derivation.  Firstly, the name Brewer may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and an occupational surname for a brewer of beer or ale, derived from the Olde English pre-7th Century "breowan", to brew, giving the Middle English term "brewere".  The modern surname Brewster has the same derivation, but shows the early medieval "-ster", suffix which originally denoted the feminine gender, but by the middle of the 13th Century was used for both sexes.  Similar formations include Baker and Baxter, and Webber and Webster.  The first recording of the surname from this source is that of Richard Briwerra, in the "Ancient Charters" of Hampshire.  The second possible origin of Brewer is from a Norman locational surname, as in the first recording, below, from the place called Bruyere in Calvados, or an Old French topographical name for someone who lived in a place where heather grew; the placename and the topographical term are derived from the Old French "bruyere", heather.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de Brueria, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Devonshire, during the reign of King William 1, known as "William the Conqueror", 1066 - 1087.  Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation.  In England this was known as Poll Tax.  Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.  http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Brewer

mare's nest noun  A great discovery which turns out to be illusory; a hoax.  A confused or complicated situation; a muddle.  Wiktionary

April 28, 2016   The second annual "Shell-a-Bration" oyster reef building volunteer event earlier this month brought together two conservation organizations that have been leading efforts to restore the ecology and economy of New Jersey's Delaware Bayshore communities.  The volunteers worked alongside the American Littoral Society and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey to build the 200-foot long whelk shell bar at Moores Beach in Maurice River Township, which the organizers hope will prevent beach erosion from wind-driven waves.  The near-shore project will also test whether the shell bar creates calmer water for spawning horseshoe crabs.  Horseshoe crab eggs are vital to shorebirds, such as the federally listed Red Knot, when they visit the Delaware Bay during the annual migration, according to David Wheeler, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey Executive Director.  Volunteers built a similar reef at South Reeds Beach in Cape May Court House in 2015.  Justin Auciello   http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/down-the-shore/93233-conservation-groups-build-oyster-reef-along-njs-delaware-bayshore  Oyster shells may be donated by restaurants or seafood processors.  The Delaware River is used by nearly 20 million people along the East Coast.  They share the resource with shad, sturgeon, eel and other species that migrate through the river.  See  http://www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/unitedstates/newjersey/placesweprotect/delaware-river-initiative.xml

Lengths of U.S. combat forces' participation in wars  Top four are:  (1)  Vietnam War, 1955/11-1975/04; (2)  War in Afghanistan, 2001/10-present; Moro Rebellion, 1899-1913; Northwest Indian War, 1785-1795.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_lengths_of_American_participation_in_wars  NOTE that people use different dates as the start of conflict between organized U.S. military and organized forces of "belligerents."  In Vietnam, the U.S. military intelligence agency Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was in the area from the 1940s.  See The Vietnam War:  Seeds of Conflict, 1945-1960 at  http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/vietnam/index-1945.html

In 1988, Gorbachev promised to remove Soviet troops from Afghanistan and sought a negotiated settlement.   He hoped for a unity government that would include elements of Afghan President Najibullah’s Soviet-backed regime in Kabul and the CIA-backed Islamic fundamentalist rebels.  Robert Gates, who in 1988 was deputy CIA director, opposed Gorbachev’s plan, disbelieving that the Soviets would really depart and insisting that--if they did-- the CIA’s mujahedeen could quickly defeat ajibullah’s army.  Inside the Reagan administration, Gates’s judgment was opposed by State Department analysts who foresaw a drawn-out struggle.  Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead and the department’s intelligence chief Morton Abramowitz warned that Najibullah’s army might hold on longer than the CIA expected.  But Gates prevailed in the policy debates, pushing the CIA’s faith in its mujahedeen clients and expecting a rapid Najibullah collapse if the Soviets left.  In his memoir, Gates recalled briefing Secretary of State George Shultz and his senior aides on the CIA’s predictions prior to Shultz flying to Moscow in February 1988.  “I told them that most [CIA] analysts did not believe Najibullah’s government could last without active Soviet military support,” wrote Gates.  After the Soviets did withdraw in February 1989--proving Gates wrong on that point--some U.S. officials felt Washington’s geostrategic aims had been achieved and a move toward peace was in order.  However, the new administration of George H.W. Bush--with Gates moving from the CIA to the White House as deputy national security adviser--rebuffed Gorbachev and chose to continue U.S. covert support for the mujahedeen, aid which was being funneled primarily through Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the ISI.  Robert Parry  http://www.globalresearch.ca/hollywoods-dangerous-afghan-illusion-charlie-wilsons-war/5331107

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1514  August 17, 2016  On this date in 1807, Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat left New York City for Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.  On this date in 1908,  Fantasmagorie, the first animated cartoon, created by Émile Cohl, was shown in Paris, France.

The oldest gladiatorial amphitheatre of which enough remains for us to see the layout in any detail is that in Pompeii.  The structure was built in 80BC and had seating capacity of about 20,000.  The Pompeii amphitheatre is built entirely of stone and includes several features that were to become standard elements of amphitheatre design across the Roman Empire.  The most consistent feature of all amphitheatres was their shape, an elliptical oval.  The elliptical oval, gave a position of prominence for the special dais on which sat the editor.  This dais was placed half way along the shady, northern side where the curve was at its flattest.  From there the editor could see everything that went on in the arena or in the seating.  More importantly, he could be seen by the entire crowd.  The platform on which he sat went by the name of the tribunal editoris.  The arena itself was covered with sand to soak up the blood and give the fighters a good grip with their feet.  The word arena comes from the latin for sand.  A second feature of the amphitheatre at Pompeii that was to persist was the location of the two gates which gave access to the arena itself.  A third characteristic set by the Pompeii amphitheatre was the layout of the seating.  The seats were made of stone and ran in horizontal lines around the arena.  The front seats were raised several feet above the sand and separated from it by a sheer wall of polished stone.  This was a safety feature as the wall stopped beasts or frantic men from climbing into the crowd.  Finally, the amphitheatre of Pompeii was built by two extremely wealthy local magnates named Gaius Quintius Valgus and March Porcius.  These men made sure that a prominent inscription recorded their generosity for posterity, and for the attention of the voting public.  In one important respect the Pompeii amphitheatre is unique.  It was built by digging down into the ground so that the floor of the arena was some feet below the level of the ground.  The soil excavated was heaped up to form the banks on which the stone seats were built.  This model was not followed elsewhere.  Most amphitheatres were entirely free standing structures whether they were built of wood, stone or a mix of the two.  http://thehistorymanatlarge.blogspot.com/2010/05/gladiatorial-arena-at-pompeii.html

The palaestra was the ancient Greek wrestling school.  The events that did not require a lot of space, such as boxing and wrestling, were practised there.  The palaestra functioned both independently and as a part of public gymnasia; a palaestra could exist without a gymnasium, but no gymnasium could exist without a palaestra.  The palaestra essentially consisted of a rectangular court surrounded by colonnades with adjoining rooms.  These rooms might house a variety of functions: bathing, ball playing, undressing and storage of clothes, seating for socializing, observation, or instruction, and storage of oil, dust or athletic equipment.  Vitruvius, through his text On Architecture, is an important ancient source about this building type and provides many details about what he calls “palaestra, Greek-style”.  Although the specifics of his descriptions do not always correspond to the architectural evidence, probably because he was writing around 27 BC, his account provides insight into the general design and uses of this type of space.  As Vitruvius describes, the palaestra was square or rectangular in shape with colonnades along all four sides creating porticoes.  The portico on the northern side of the palaestra was of double depth to protect against the weather.  Big halls (exedrae) were built along the single depth sides of the palaestra with seats for those enjoying intellectual pursuits, and the double depth side was divided into an area for youth activities (ephebeum), a punching bag area (coryceum), a room for applying powders (conisterium), a room for cold bathing, and an oil storeroom (elaeothesium).  Good examples of this building type come from two major Greek sites:  Olympia and Delphi.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palaestra

Lie vs. Lay  We’re all pretty clear on the lie that means an untruth.  It’s the other usage that trips us up.  Lie also means to recline:  “Why don’t you lie down and rest?”  Lay requires an object: “Lay the book on the table.”  It’s more confusing in the past tense.  The past tense of lie is—you guessed it—lay:  “I lay down for an hour last night.”  And the past tense of lay is laid:  “I laid the book on the table.”  Imply vs. Infer  To imply means to suggest something without saying it outright.  To infer means to draw a conclusion from what someone else implies.  As a general rule, the speaker/writer implies, and the listener/reader infers.  Nauseous vs. Nauseated  Nauseous has been misused so often that the incorrect usage is accepted in some circles.  Still, it’s important to note the difference.  Nauseous means causing nausea; nauseated means experiencing nausea.  http://qz.com/432285/20-misused-words-that-make-smart-people-look-dumb/

Null Island:  The Busiest Place That Doesn't Exist by Chris Higgins   At the GPS coordinates 0,0 you can find Null Island, a largely theoretical place accidentally invented by lazy computer programmers.  It's a thousand miles off the west coast of Africa.  And although Null Island doesn't actually exist, computers run into this "location" all the time.  Null Island exists primarily because of technical problems in distinguishing "no information" (NULL) from the number zero.  Often, lazy or inexperienced programmers simply use zero when they really mean NULL, with the result that computers show real-world things (people, businesses, etc.) popping up on the ocean near Africa, at least momentarily.  The story of Null Island is a cautionary tale with real-world ramifications—including US citizens in Wisconsin being assigned a Null Island location due to sloppy programming.  And then there's the problem of people whose name is literally "Null," for whom it's hard or impossible to create an account on lazy-implemented websites in which the name "Null" might equal the concept NULL.  http://mentalfloss.com/article/83871/null-island-busiest-place-doesnt-exist   See also https://www.gislounge.com/null-island-where-geocoding-errors-go-to-live/

Frances Browne, known  as “The Blind Poetess of Ulster”was born on the 16th January 1816, the seventh of twelve children.  When she was eighteen months old she contracted small pox and as a result lost her eyesight.  Frances strove with all the strength of her own to overcome the handicap of blindness and educated herself.  She did not attend school during the day but in the evening time when her brothers and sisters were doing their homework, Frances would listen to them reading aloud.  Frances was able to recite many of the verses her siblings had learned.  She continued to educate herself by bribing her brothers and sisters to read books to her, she achieved this by doing their household chores.  Her talent for poetry developed at an early age.  In 1841, her first poems were published in the Irish Penny Journal and in the London Athenauem.  She published her first volume of poems in 1844 and a second volume in 1847.  In 1847 Frances, and her sister Rebecca moved to Edinburgh where she found employment with Chambers Magazine.   She was actively involved in the Scottish capital’s literary circle producing not only poems but news articles, reviews, stories and eventually children’s stories.  Frances moved to London in 1852 and it was from here that she began to write novels.  She wrote three novels ‘The Hidden Sin’, ‘My Share of the World’ and ‘The Castleford Case’ each book was comprised of three volumes.  In 1857 Frances wrote her best work ‘Granny’s Wonderful Chair’.  This collection of fairy tales became a best seller and was republished many times, in countries all around the world.  Frances last work, a poem entitled “The Children’s Day” was composed a week before her death.  http://www.donegaldiaspora.ie/news/frances-browne

August 11, 2016  A recent study by Yale University researchers, published online in the journal Social Science & Medicine, concluded that "book readers experienced a 20 percent reduction in risk of mortality over the 12 years of follow-up compared to non-book readers."  The data was obtained from a longitudinal Health and Retirement Study sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.  The study looked at 3,635 subjects, all older than 50, whom the researchers divided into three groups:  those who didn't read books, those who read up to 3.5 hours a week and those who read more than 3.5 hours a week.  The findings were remarkable: Book readers survived almost two years longer than those who didn't crack open a book.  Accounting for variables such as education level, income and health status, the study found that those who read more than 3.5 hours weekly were 23 percent less likely to die during that 12-year period.  Those who read up to 3.5 hours--an average of a half-hour a day--were 17 percent less likely.  In other words, just like a healthy diet and exercise, books appear to promote a "significant survival advantage," the authors concluded.  Why or how that's the case remains unclear; the research showed only an association between book reading and longevity, not a causal relationship.  But the findings are not so surprising.  Other recent research showed that reading novels appears to boost both brain connectivity and empathy.  Book buying has increased annually during the past few years.  At least 652 million print and electronic books were sold in the United States in 2015, according to Nielsen BookScan, the main data collector for the book publishing industry.  The bad news:  Americans barely crack the top 25 when it comes to which countries read the most books.  India, Thailand and China are ranked one, two and three by the World Culture Index, while the United States comes in 23rd, behind countries such as Egypt, Australia, Turkey and Germany.  The better news is that 80 percent of young adults in America read a book last year, compared with 68 percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64, according to a Pew Research Center survey.  Amy Ellis Nutt   http://www.providencejournal.com/zz/lifestyle/20160811/best-reason-for-reading-book-lovers-live-longer-scientists-say

The Rio 2016 logo was made by Brazil’s Tátil Design de Ideias, while the Olympic font—and yes, there is an exclusive Olympic font—was constructed by Dalton Maag, a British typeface firm that has a satellite office in Brazil.  Green is connected to the nearby forest, Tijuca Forest, one of the biggest in the world.  Blue represents the ocean, and the yellow/orange comes from Brazil's warm temperature.  Matt McCue  Read extensive article and see graphics at http://99u.com/articles/53580/how-the-2016-olympic-logo-and-font-were-created

The "embarrassing" emerald green water in the pools at the Rio aquatics centre that left some athletes with itchy eyes is the result of an unplanned dump of hydrogen peroxide into the water, Olympic organisers said.  A contractor added 80 litres of hydrogen peroxide to each of the diving and water polo pools on August 5, 2016 but organisers said they only found out on August 9 when the water in the diving pool turned green from its typical blue during the women's 10 metre platform final.  According to organisers, the addition of hydrogen peroxide neutralised the chlorine and allowed algae to bloom.  "This is a way of cleaning swimming pools but you're not supposed to combine it with chlorine," Gustavo Nascimento, Rio 2016's director of venue management, told reporters.  "We were not consulted, our contractor's failure is our failure."  The green pools have become a huge headache for organisers of the Rio Games, becoming the butt of "swamp" jokes among the millions of spectators in the stands and watching in television.  Some water polo players have complained about itchy eyes.  Brenda Goh  http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-olympics-rio-diving-pool-idUKKCN10O0UW  NOTE that the water in the Rio pools was back to a beautiful blue on August 14, 2016.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1513  August 15, 2016  On this date in 1843, Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opened in Copenhagen, Denmark.  On this date in 1914, the Panama Canal opened to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship SS Ancon.

Lies last longer than the truth, as fruit is better preserved in wine than water.  (paraphrase)  My sources are the flotsam and jetsam of the last seven hundred years of British and Irish life . . . (preface)  The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, stories by Emma Donoghue

Pollination is the act of transferring pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma for reproductive purposes.  According to curator of education Mitch Magdich, bees pollinate citrus and apple trees; blueberry, pumpkin and watermelon patches and squash blossoms.  Bumble bees are particularly important for tomato crops and honey bees for almond crops.  Research has shown that one in three bites of food humans take depends on pollinators.  Butterflies are perhaps the most loved and appreciated group of insects and pollinators.  A garden with milkweed and sunflowers will encourage monarch butterfly visitation and breeding.  Urban prairies create habitat and food for pollinators.  They look weedy to the untrained eye for the first year.  After a couple of years, native plants choke out the weeds and future maintenance costs are virtually eliminated.  No mowing required.  Safari, the official magazine of the Toledo Zoo, Fall 2016

Beatrix Potter is making a posthumous comeback with the publication of an unseen story featuring an older Peter Rabbit.  The much-loved children’s author died in 1943, leaving The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots unfinished.  It was lost for over a century but has since been unearthed and Roald Dahl illustrator Quentin Blake is working on drawings to bring it to life.  Publisher Jo Hanks rediscovered the manuscript two years ago and chose Blake to illustrate it because he “understands the rebelliousness of animal characters and doesn’t patronise children, which was one of Potter’s bugbears”.  Blake was excited to accept the job after taking an instant liking to the story.  “It seemed almost incredible when, early in 2015, I was sent the manuscript of a story by Beatrix Potter, one which had lain unpublished for a hundred years and which, with the exception of a single drawing, she had never illustrated,” he said.  In 2015, I was sent the manuscript of a story by Beatrix Potter, one which had lain unpublished for a hundred years and which, with the exception of a single drawing, she had never illustrated,” he said.  “I liked the story immediately, it’s full of incident and mischief and character, and I was fascinated to think that I was being asked to draw pictures for it.  I have a strange feeling that it might have been waiting for me.”  Potter described The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots in a 1914 letter to her publisher as being about “a well-behaved prime black Kitty cat who leads rather a double life”.  Hanks found the reference in an out-of-print literary history about the author.  Jess Denham  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/beatrix-potter-unseen-story-the-tale-of-kitty-in-boots-to-be-published-with-illustrations-by-quentin-a6834181.html

Charlotte Brontë:  An Independent Will  Morgan Library & Museum  September 9, 2016, through January 2, 2017  225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street  New York City  212/685-0008   From the time Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre was first published in 1847, readers have been drawn to the orphan protagonist who declared herself “a free human being with an independent will.”  Like her most famous fictional creation, Brontë herself took bold steps throughout her life in pursuit of personal and professional fulfillment.  This exhibition, presented on the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of Brontë’s birth, traces her creative path from reluctant governess to published poet to commanding novelist.  From her earliest literary works—written with a quill pen in a minuscule hand designed to mimic the printed page—to the manuscript of her explosive novel Jane Eyre, the exhibition presents an intimate portrait of one of England’s most compelling authors.  The exhibition is a historic collaboration between two of the world’s finest repositories of Brontëana.  It brings together literary manuscripts, intimate letters, and rare printed books from the Morgan’s rich collection with personal artifacts, drawings, and photographs from the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England.  Highlights include Brontë’s earliest surviving miniature manuscript, her portable writing desk and paint box, one of her own dresses, and a pair of her ankle boots.  Also on view—for the first time in North America—will be a portion of the manuscript of Jane Eyre, from the collection of the British Library, open to the unforgettable scene in which Jane tells Rochester, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me:  I am a free human being with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”  http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/charlotte-bronte

Bad or Badly?  When you want to describe how you feel, you should use an adjective.  So you'd say, "I feel bad."  Saying "I feel badly" would be like saying you play football badly.  "I feel badly" would mean that you are unable to feel, as though your hands were numb.

Good or Well?  Good is an adjective, so you do not do good or live good, but you do well and live well.  Remember, though, that an adjective follows sense-verbs and be-verbs, so you also feel good, look good, smell good, are good, have been good.  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/536/02/

When William Shakespeare died in 1616, only about half of his plays had ever been printed, in small one-play editions called quartos.  A quarto is a book in which each printed sheet is folded twice—in half, and then in half again—to produce four double-sided leaves, or eight pages.  Another 18 plays are known today only because they are included in the 1623 First Folio, the first collected edition of the plays.  A folio is a large book in which printed sheets are folded in half only once, creating two double-sided leaves, or four pages.  Seven years after Shakespeare's death, John Heminge and Henry Condell, his friends and colleagues in the King's Men, collected almost all of his plays in a folio edition.  The 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare is the earliest folio consisting only of an author's plays.  The First Folio sold well enough that it was followed nine years later by the 1632 Second Folio, full of small corrections, then by the 1663 Third Folio and the 1685 Fourth Folio.  The latter two added many new plays, most of which are not today considered to be by Shakespeare.  http://www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare

If music be the food of love, play on.  William Shakespeare  Where words fail, music speaks.  Hans Christian Andersen  Read many more quotes about music at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_music.html

coin of the realm  (1) the legal money of a country  (2)  something valued or used as if it were money in a particular sphere  first known use:  1816

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/coin%20of%20the%20realm  The words music, data, information, and survival have all been used as "coin of the realm."

List of poetry awards which have entries on Wikipedia:   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poetry_awards

Organizers of the Toledo Jeep Fest are expecting visitors and attendees from across the country on August 13, 2016, as thousands descend on the home of Jeep to honor the brand’s 75th anniversary and celebrate its contributions to the city.  The event figures to be Toledo’s biggest single-day festival in years.  In addition to indoor and outdoor Jeep shows, a parade, multiple Jeep vendors, and 20 or so food trucks, there are children’s events, live music, and two beer gardens.  See The Blade's 75 years of Jeep tab at http://www.toledoblade.com/75-years-of-Jeep  Organizers haven’t wagered a guess to how many people are likely to attend, but more than 800 vehicles were registered.  Jeep got its start in Toledo in 1941 when Willys-Overland won the government contract to build the four-wheel-drive scout cars for the military.  Willys would eventually trademark the Jeep name and go on to build millions of Jeeps in Toledo.  The plant currently has about 5,100 full-time employees.  Tyrel Linkhorn   http://www.toledoblade.com/Automotive/2016/08/12/Toledo-Jeep-Fest-75th-anniversary-party-ready-to-roll.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1512  August 12, 2016  On this date in 1915,  "Of Human Bondage" by William Somerset Maugham was published.  http://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1915/august/12  On this date in 1939, The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland and featuring words and music by E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen, received its world premiere in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-wizard-of-oz-movie-musical-premieres-in-oconomowoc-wisconsin

OSTRACISM--A FORM OF ELECTION   Soon after their victory over the Persians at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians began the practice of ostracism, a form of election designed to curb the power of any rising tyrant.  They were probably inspired at least in part by the fact that their old tyrant Hippias, who had been thrown out years before, accompanied the Persian fleet to Marathon, hoping to be reinstalled in power in Athens once again.  The procedure of ostracism was simple.  Once a year the people would meet in the Agora and take a vote to determine if anyone was becoming too powerful and was in a position to establish a tyranny.  If a simple majority voted yes, they met again in the Agora two months later.  At this second meeting each citizen carried with him an ostrakon (potsherd) on which he had scratched the name of the person he wished ostracized. if at least 6,000 votes were cast, the man with the most votes lost and was exiled for ten years.  http://www.agathe.gr/democracy/practice_of_ostracism.html

Character asks for pencil and paper.  Narrator II  "He then got an unsharpened pencil and the Morning Post; sent them back; got a fountain pen with no ink in it and six reams of brown paper suitable for parcels . . . "  Who is the character?   Find out at https://esirc.emporia.edu/bitstream/handle/123456789/2977/Kelly,%20Christine%201968.pdf?sequence=1  HINT:  Click on Web site--then search for unsharp OR morning post.

The Constitution does not require that any federal judges have any particular educational background, but the work of the Court involved complex questions of law--ranging from constitutional law to administrative law to admiralty law--and consequentially, a legal education has become a de facto prerequisite to appointment on the Supreme Court.  Every person who has been nominated to the Court has been an attorney.  Before the advent of modern law schools in the United States, justices, like most attorneys of the time, completed their legal studies by "reading law" (studying under and acting as an apprentice to more experienced attorneys) rather than attend a formal program.  The first Justice to be appointed who had attended an actual law school was Levi Woodbury, appointed to the Court in 1846.  Woodbury had attended Tapping Reeve Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut, the most prestigious law school in the United States in that day, prior to his admission to the bar in 1812.  However, Woodbury did not earn a law degree.  Woodbury's successor on the Court, Benjamin Robbins Curtis, who received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1832, and was appointed to the Court in 1851, was the first Justice to bear such a credential.  Associate Justice James F. Byrnes, whose short tenure lasted from June 1941 to October 1942, was the last Justice without a law degree to be appointed; Stanley Forman Reed, who served on the Court from 1938 to 1957, was the last sitting Justice from such a background.  In total, of the 112 Justices appointed to the Court, 46 have had law degrees, an additional 18 attended some law school but did not receive a degree, and 47 received their legal education without any law school attendance.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_law_schools_attended_by_United_States_Supreme_Court_Justices

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS  Explore items digitized from the New York Public Library's collections.  New materials added every day--featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, and streaming video  http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

shermanesque  (shur-muh-NESK)  adjective  1.  Unequivocal, especially in refusing to run for an office.  2.  Brutally thorough, especially in defeating someone.  The Union general William Tecumseh Sherman didn’t mince words.  When he was being considered as a presidential candidate, he said, “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.”  Since then, a categorical statement, especially a denial, is called Shermanesque.  Reporters ask politicians if their announcement not to run for an office is Shermanesque to confirm whether they really mean it.

suffrage  (SUF-rij)  noun  The right to vote; also, the exercise of such a right.  From French suffrage, from Latin suffragium (voting tablet, right to vote).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreg- (to break), which also gave us break, breach, fraction, fragile, fractal, infringe, irrefragable, and fractious.  Suffrage?  Because a broken piece of tile was used as a ballot in the past.  Earliest documented use:  1380.   “Victoria Claflin Woodhull, a leader in the women’s suffrage movement, was the first woman to run for the US presidency, though she couldn’t even vote for herself on election day, Nov 5, 1872.”  Simon Carswell; She is a Tough Lady.  She is All of Our Hero; Irish Times (Dublin); Jun 9, 2016. 

Reed Farrel Coleman (born 1956) is an American writer of crime fiction and a poet.  Coleman did not consider making writing a career until taking a Brooklyn College detective fiction class.  He is a multiple award winning author, particularly his Moe Prager series.  Also published are series featuring protagonists Gulliver Dowd, Dylan Klein, and Joe Serpe.  The Dowd character was based on a retired police detective that he had met.  The Joe Serpe novels were originally written under the pen name Tony Spinosa, but are now available as Coleman titles.  He has written the stand-alone novels Tower with Ken Bruen, Bronx Reqiem with Det. (ret.) John Roe of the NYPD, and Gun Church, as well as several short stories, essays, and poems.  He considers William Blake, Lawrence Block, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett to be early influences.  Later he found significance in the writing of colleagues Peter Blauner, Ken Bruen, Jim Fusilli, S.J. Rozan, and Peter Spiegelman.  He says, though, that his single greatest writing influence was his college poetry professor, David Lehman, who provided "permission to be a writer and . . . the first clues on self-editing.  With a four book contract, Coleman takes over writing Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series with the September 2014 publication of Blind Spot.  He has also been signed to a two book deal featuring retired Suffolk County (NY) cop turned PI Gus Murphy.  He is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University, a former Executive Vice President of Mystery Writers of America, and a founding member of Mystery Writers of America University.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed_Farrel_Coleman  See also Hard-Boiled Poet,
the Reed Farrel Coleman Interview conducted by Jack Bludis.  Reed Farrel Coleman has won the Shamus Award three times for Best Private-Eye Novel.  He has also won the Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards and has been nominated twice for the Edgar.   http://www.thrillingdetective.com/non_fiction/i002.html

A push poll is an interactive marketing technique, most commonly employed during political campaigning, in which an individual or organization attempts to manipulate or alter prospective voters' views/beliefs under the guise of conducting an opinion poll.  In a push poll, large numbers of voters are contacted briefly (often for less than 60 seconds), with little or no effort made to actually collect and analyze voters' response data.   Instead, the push poll is a form oftelemarketing-based propaganda and rumor mongering, masquerading as an opinion poll. Push polls may rely on innuendo, or information gleaned from opposition research on the political opponent of the interests behind the poll.  Push polls are generally viewed as a form of negative campaigning.   However, in all such polls, the pollster asks leading questions or suggestive questions that "push" the interviewee towards adopting an unfavourable response towards the political candidate in question.  Richard Nixon was one of push polling's pioneers.  In his very first campaign, a successful 1946 run for the U.S. House against Democrat incumbent Jerry Voorhis, Democratic voters throughout the district reported receiving telephone calls that began:  "This is a friend of yours, but I can't tell you who I am.  Did you know that Jerry Voorhis is a communist?" (he wasn't)--at which point the caller hung up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push_poll

Most surveys have an agenda that is apparent in the loaded questions.  Before I decided not to answer any more surveys, I took a call about health care.  Woke me up by the way.  When the questioner asked "Wouldn't you prefer a small hospital to a big hospital", I ended the call.

Gerald So holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from Hofstra University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Queens College/CUNY.  He and friends Patrick Shawn Bagley, Richie Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone founded THE LINEUP:  POEMS ON CRIME, each having equal say in the selection of new and previously published poetry.  THE LINEUP became an annual chapbook series (2008, '09, '10, and '11), Richie laying out the interiors, his friend John Collis designing the covers.  Sarah Cortez stepped in for Patrick on the last two, Reed Farrel Coleman for Anthony on the last one.  Gerald currently edits THE FIVE-TWO accepting submissions year-round.  http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/geraldso

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1511  August 10, 2016  On this date in 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was chartered by the United States Congress after James Smithson donates $500,000.  On this date in 1954, at Massena, New York, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Saint Lawrence Seaway was held.