"The Whole is Other than the Sum of the Parts"  When the perceptual system forms a percept or gestalt, the whole thing has a reality of its own, independent of the parts.  The Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka made a famous statement about this:  "The whole is other than the sum of its parts."  This statement is often translated to English as, "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts."  Koffka did not like that translation.  He firmly corrected students who substituted "greater" for "other" (Heider, 1977).  "This is not a principle of addition," he said.  The statement as originally worded was supposed to mean that the whole had an independent existence in the perceptual system.  https://www.intropsych.com/ch04_senses/whole_is_other_than_the_sum_of_the_parts.html

1.  The Gestalt movement initially grew out of a problem that bedeviled 19th century perception theory.  If all perception is composed of "bundles" of sensory elements, as many prominent psychologists of the time thought, what are the elements that go into the perception of space and the perception of time?  The Austrian physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1838-1916) had argued that "space-forms" and "time-forms" are separate elements unto themselves.  Thus, if I see the geometrical form of a circle, in addition to sensing each individual element, I sense a circular "space-form" as well; if I hear a melody, I sense an over-all "time-form" in addition to the tone sensations of the tune.  Another Austrian philosopher, Christian von Ehrenfels (1859-1932), extended this line of reasoning, claiming that in addition to the sensory elements of a perceived object, there is an extra element which, though in some sense derived from the organization of the standard sensory elements, is an element unto itself.  He called this extra element Gestalt-qualität or "form-quality."  For instance, when one hears a melody, one hears the notes plus something in addition to them which binds them together into a tune--the Gestalt-qualität.  2.  For the Gestalt psychologists, the true nature of relations between parts and wholes had been inverted by earlier psychologists such as Mach and Von Ehrenfels.  Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), founder of the Gestalt school, turned their theories around, saying "what is given me by the melody does not arise ... as a secondary process from the sum of the pieces as such.  Instead, what takes place in each single part already depends upon what the whole is," (1925/1938).  In other words, one hears the melody first and only then may perceptually divide it up into notes.  3.  Some of their primary evidence for this view came from the examination of "reversible" figures such as the Rubin vase, a figure that can be seen either as a white vase on a black background, or black profiles of two human faces on a white background.  It was with this radical change in orientation that Gestalt psychology distinguished itself from the varieties of experimental phenomenology which had gone before.  Read more at https://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Koffka/Perception/intro.htm  Gestalt is German for shape or form. 

History and high-tech merge in a new offering from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world's largest medical library and an arm of the National Institutes of Health.  It's a novel twist on NLM's popular online system, Turning The Pages, (https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/books.htm), which allows you to turn the pages of a rare book on your computer screen.  Now,  users can journey back to pre-book times and "unroll the scroll" or, more specifically, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, the world's oldest known surgical document.  The new offering is at https://ceb.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/smith/smith.html.  The Smith Papyrus was written in Egyptian hieratic script around the 17^th century BCE but probably based on material from a thousand years earlier.  This collaborative online representation features an important new translation by James P. Allen, formerly of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and high-resolution scans lent by the scroll's owner, the New York Academy of Medicine.  "We are delighted to collaborate with NLM in bringing the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus to a much wider audience and the use of interactive technology will allow researchers and the public to explore the document more deeply," said Academy President Jo Ivey Boufford, MD.  "The Smith Papyrus is extremely important," added NLM Director Donald A.B. Lindberg, MD, "because it showed for the first time that Egyptians had a scientific understanding of traumatic injuries based on observable anatomy rather than relying on magic or potions."  The text is a treatise on trauma surgery and consists of 48 cases dealing with wounds and trauma.  Each case is laid out using a carefully prescribed formula:  a description of the injury; diagnosis; prognosis; treatment; and further explanations of the case, which resemble footnotes.  "This papyrus is unlike most other medical papyri in that it is chiefly rational and does not usually bring the supernatural into the explanations or treatments for injuries-for instance, there is only one incantation," said Michael North, curator of the project and of rare books in the Library's History of Medicine Division.  "The technical challenges of digitally transforming and making this scroll available on a personal computer were enormous," said George Thoma, PhD, chief of the Communications Engineering Branch at NLM's Lister Hill Center.  Thoma led the Library's technical efforts and team.  "The memory requirements were immense, so we had to come up with ways to manage the memory for home use.  We created the illusion of rolling and unrolling by superimposing the frame by frame animation of the rolled section of the scroll on the large image of the entire papyrus."  In addition, creative animation techniques, dealing with bend modifying and lattice deformation, were necessary in order for the scroll to unroll and flip over correctly. Also, to explore the graceful, two-color calligraphy, a "zoom" mode offers a roving magnifying window, the design for which came with its own complexity.  "As far as I know, we may be the only Library in the world that has mastered the computation and technology to create an easily usable virtual scroll for a personal computer  user," Dr. Thoma added.  The British Library created Turning The Pages, but NLM has collaborated with that institution to create its own version.  There are now six books, in addition to the scroll, in the online version.  Two touch-screen versions are also on view at the National Library of Medicine, on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.  See graphics at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/turn_page_egyptian.html

The rubber hand illusion works like this:  seat a volunteer with her forearms resting on a table and her right hand hidden in a box that’s open at both ends.  Align a lifelike rubber hand with her right shoulder, where her real hand would be.  Using a paintbrush, stroke the right index finger of the rubber hand and, simultaneously and in sync, her real right index finger.  Tell her to carefully watch the rubber finger being stroked.  Ask her where her right index finger is.  (To reduce the risk of lying or cheating, have her close her eyes and use her left hand to point to it.)  In all likelihood, within 15 seconds or so her answer will drift toward the rubber hand, as she feels that her own hand has melted away and the fake hand has become hers.  Seeing only the rubber hand being stroked, she’ll feel as if her own is.  Even odder, the temperature of the real hand usually drops—as if the brain, which controls body temperature, no longer considers it part of the body.  When visual information (seeing the rubber hand being stroked) conflicts with tactile information (feeling but not seeing one’s own hand being stroked), the brain trusts what it sees over what it feels.  Sharon Begley   https://www.statnews.com/2016/10/20/brain-rubber-hand-illusion/

A 2008 animal rights law introduced in Switzerland makes it illegal to own just one guinea pig at a time.  The law was part of a legislative push to grant “social rights” to pets that tend to get lonely.  Guinea pigs, for example, are herd animals, so having at least one furry companion to share a cage with should supposedly boost their quality of life.  Because it’s unlikely that two guinea pigs will die at the exact same time, pet owners can find themselves in a legally sticky situation when one of their animals passes away.  Fortunately, there are now rent-a-guinea pig services in the country that provide partners to live with lonesome guinea pigs for the remainder of their lives.  There are other pets in Switzerland that are forbidden from living in isolation.  Goldfish are also required to have at least one tank-mate and parrots must either live or have the opportunity to socialize with other birds on a regular basis.  And though most cats may seem like solitary creatures to their owners, their social wellbeing is also protected in Switzerland; the law doesn’t go so far as to say that pet owners must have more than one cat, just that single cats should be able to see other cats when prowling outside or staring though a window.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/502372/it%E2%80%99s-illegal-own-single-guinea-pig-switzerland

"Fast fashion” is a term used by fashion retailers to describe inexpensive designs that move quickly from the catwalk to stores to meet new trends.  As a result of this trend, the tradition of introducing new fashion lines on a seasonal basis is being challenged.  Today, it is not uncommon for fast-fashion retailers to introduce new products multiple times in a single week to stay on-trend.  From the perspective of retailers, fast fashion is advantageous because the constant introduction of new products encourages customers to make frequent visits to stores.  Collections are often based on designs seen at the spring and autumn Fashion Week events.  Fast fashion enables mainstream consumers to purchase trendy clothing at an affordable price.  The speed at which fast fashion moves tends to help retailers avoid markdowns, which cut into margins.  Despite the advantages for customers, fast fashion has also been criticized on the grounds that it encourages a “throw-away” attitude via the built-in obsolescence of its products.  Some contend that such disposable fashion contributes to pollution, poor workmanship and poor working conditions in developing countries.  The trend has also been criticized on intellectual property grounds, with some designers alleging that their designs have been illegally mass-produced by retailers.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp  See also Fast fashion:  Inside the fight to end the silence on waste by Kelly-Leigh Cooper at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44968561

Harry Bright and Jakob Anser are authors of such books as That's a Fact Jack! A New Collection of Utterly Useless Information, WTF (science), and 201 Weird True Facts WTF (Psychology), and Are You Kidding Me?  Are the authors using pseudonyms?   Is it one author, using bright anser as a pun?  See artwork of Tang Yau Hoong who illustrated WTF (psychology) at https://digitalsynopsis.com/design/negative-space-art-illustrations-tang-yau-hoong/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1955  September 19, 2018 

Negative space is the space within, between, and around objects.  For example, negative space is the area between a cup and its handle; and it is the space between the petals of a flower.  It is also the space between an object and the edges of the canvas, i.e. the space around an object.  The opposite of negative space is positive space.  In drawing and painting, negative spaces are actual shapes that share edges with the positive shape--the object or objects you are drawing or painting--thereby creating the outline of your subject.  It is important when composing your drawing or painting to look at both the positive and the negative shapes and then to look back and forth between them to accurately assess proportions and relationships.  Learning to draw negative shapes demands a whole new way of seeing.  Regardless of what you are drawing or painting, the positive and negative shapes within the composition can be regarded as abstract shapes. You need to forget the "name" of objects, and what you think you "know" about them, and simply see them as shapes among a group of interlocking abstract shapes, like a jigsaw puzzle.  Some of those shapes are defined by the edge of the paper or canvas.  We are accustomed to seeing the positive shape as dark and the negative shape of light because the sky is lighter than the ground and objects appear dark against the sky.  However, that is not always the case.  Sometimes the positive and negative shapes can switch roles.  When this is done deliberately so that a shape could be seen as either figure or ground it is called a figure/ground reversal.  See this concept illustrated at https://www.thoughtco.com/negative-space-in-painting-2578774  In this diagram, you can see either two faces staring at each other, or a vase in the middle.  Marion Boddy-Evans  https://www.thoughtco.com/negative-space-definition-2573838

nontroversy  noun  (plural nontroversies)  A debate in the press or the blogosphere where one side has been repeatedly demonstrated to be clearly wrong but vocally advocates for their position.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/nontroversy

Dawson City:  Frozen Time, a two-hour documentary on lost film, frozen, forgotten and rediscovered   This meditation on cinema’s past from Decasia director Bill Morrison pieces together the bizarre true history of a long-lost collection of 533 nitrate film prints from the early 1900s.  Located just south of the Arctic Circle, Dawson City was settled in 1896 and became the center of the Canadian Gold Rush that brought 100,000 prospectors to the area.  It was also the final stop for a distribution chain that sent prints and newsreels to the Yukon.  The films were seldom, if ever, returned.  The now-famous Dawson City Collection was uncovered in 1978 when a bulldozer working its way through a parking lot dug up a horde of film cans.  Morrison draws on these permafrost-protected, rare silent films and newsreels, pairing them with archival footage, interviews, historical photographs, and an enigmatic score by Sigur Rós collaborator and composer Alex Somers.  Dawson City:  Frozen Time depicts the unique history of this Canadian Gold Rush town by chronicling the life cycle of a singular film collection through its exile, burial, rediscovery, and salvation.  https://www.kinolorber.com/film/view/id/2630  In large part, Morrison's film itself is a silent movie, illustrating the changing times of Dawson City with clips from films that were unearthed there.  As the documentary shows, Dawson City became a prime destination for fortune hunters when prospectors found gold there in 1897.  That part of the Yukon could only be reached via the 45-degree incline of the Chilkoot Pass, and authorities trying to impose order on the gold rush required every "stampeder" to bring along a full ton of provisions. 

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/2132497/Dawson-City-Frozen-Time/articles.html

Triple XXX Root Beer is serious business.  From the early days of its inception, to the loyal soft drink lovers who keep coming back for more, a Triple XXX Root Beer isn’t just any root beer.  In the 1920’s, close to 100 Triple XXX Thirst Stations dotted the landscape along the United States and Canada, with over 150 bottlers producing the frothy product.  It wasn’t just road warriors consuming Triple XXX Root Beer—you would’ve also found the soft drink for sale on Mississippi steamers.  Wondering where the Triple XXX moniker came from?  It all boils down to distinguishing a product’s excellence; a grading system.  Back in the day, sugar, gunpowder, and even kegs of beer were stamped with a certain number of X’s related to the quality, or grade, of the product.  One X on the package symbolized it was good.  Two XX meant it was even better.  Three XXX was tops—the best of the best.  Triple XXX Root Beer has its roots in the brewing industry and can be traced all the way back to Anheuser-Busch.  When prohibition came to Texas in 1916, the company reorganized its soft-drink production in their Galveston breweries to keep their doors from closing.  In 2008, the Ehresmans purchased the Triple XXX Root Beer brand, rights, and formula.  Bottled exclusively in Chicago, Triple XXX Root Beer is stocked by retailers across Indiana and available for purchase at both restaurant locations.  See pictures at https://www.triplexxxfamilyrestaurant.com/root-beer/

NYC's 8 New Libraries: City Finds Creative Ways to Revamp Facilities and Build Housing by Michelle Sinclair Colman  June 18, 2018   Libraries are not what they used to be.  At a luncheon hosted by the New York Building Congress, the Presidents and CEOs of the Brooklyn, Queens, and New York Public Library agreed that they have become a place for communities rather than the solitude and quiet isolation stereotypically associated with them.  As locals of all ages use the library to attend story hours, do homework, study for citizenship tests, learn to code, attend workshops, watch the World Cup, and work together in addition to checking out books, the design must be rethought to reflect the changes.  Throughout the city, libraries are moving or renovating into more modern, more appropriate spaces through partnerships with the city, the public library system, and residential developers.  Some of the projects seek to provide affordable housing and community spaces, others are luxury residential projects that provide new spaces in the building for local libraries.  Whether or not these projects create more affordable housing, the building of new libraries benefits all communities.  “Libraries are the last truly open democratic institution.” - Dennis Wolcott, President and CEO, Queens Public Library  Find extensive descriptions and pictures of the planned libraries:  The Inwood Library, Sunset Park Library, Brooklyn Heights Library, Elmhurst Public Library, Greenpoint Library, 53rd Street Library, The Queens Library at Hunters Point, and Mid-Manhattan Branch Library at

https://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/market-insight/features/future-nyc/nyc039s-8-new-libraries-city-finds-creative-ways-revamp-facilities-build-housing/17822

Current exhibits at the Toledo Museum of Art  Celebrating Libbey Glass, 1818-2018  through Nov. 25, 2018   Rebecca Louise Law: Community  through Jan. 13, 2019     Sights & Sounds: Art, Nature, and the Senses  through Feb. 24, 2019   Upcoming exhibits  Mel Chin: Two Me  Sep. 22, 2018 — Nov. 11, 2018   Frans Hals Portraits: A Family Reunion  Oct. 13, 2018 — Jan. 6, 2019   View details at https://www.toledomuseum.org/art/exhibitions

Researchers say they have found the world's oldest brewery, with residue of 13,000-year-old beer, in a prehistoric cave near Haifa in Israel.  The researchers say they cannot tell which came first, and in October 2018 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science:  Reports, they suggest the beer was brewed for ritual feasts to honour the dead.  "This accounts for the oldest record of man-made alcohol in the world," Li Liu, a Stanford University professor who led the research team, told Stanford News.  Ms Liu said they were looking for clues into what plant foods the Natufian people--who lived between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods--were eating, and during the search they discovered the traces of a wheat-and-barley-based alcohol.  The findings also suggest beer was not necessarily a surplus of making bread as previously thought.  The ancient brew, which was more porridge or gruel-like, is thought to have looked quite unlike what we know as beer today.  The research team has managed to recreate the ancient brew to compare it with the residue they found.  This involved first germinating the grain to produce malt, then heating the mash and fermenting it with wild yeast, the study said.  The ancient booze was fermented but probably weaker than modern beer.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-45534133

The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and The University of Toledo present:  Creative Writing and Book Making  (F) Sept. 21 | 3:30 p.m.  King Road Branch  Haiku Poetry Writing  (F) Oct. 12 | 3:30 p.m.  Reynolds Corners Branch  Writing Your First Novel  (T) Nov. 6 | 3:30 p.m.  University of Toledo's Carlson Library (Dorothy Price Room 2024)

The World's Most Beautiful Libraries  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/jul/31/libraries-world-most-beautiful-in-pictures  Thank you, Muse reader!  Find pictures of the largest library in Ireland that is home to the Book of Kells, and a library that houses bats to fight off insects.  See also 62 of the World's Most Beautiful Libraries at http://mentalfloss.com/article/51788/62-worlds-most-beautiful-libraries

The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58) contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation.  The Gospel texts are prefaced by other texts, including "canon tables", or concordances of Gospel passages common to two or more of the evangelists; summaries of the gospel narratives (Breves causae); and prefaces characterizing the evangelists (Argumenta). 

The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule".  It contains 340 folios, now measuring approximately 330 x 255 mm; they were severely trimmed, and their edges gilded, in the course of rebinding in the 19th century.  https://www.tcd.ie/library/manuscripts/book-of-kells.php

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1954  September 18, 2018  Thought for Today  To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life. - Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (18 Sep 1709-1784)

The Candid Candidate is a 1937 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop and Grampy.  Betty Boop campaigns for Grampy for Mayor, and wins by one vote (despite the fact the town's paper says it's a landslide).  However, he later finds out the job isn't as glamorous as he thought.  Nonetheless, he helps solve some of the city's issues, such as building a free bridge on the river, creating a public automatic root beer stand, etc., and the townspeople love him.  Link to The Candid Candidate on YouTube at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Candid_Candidate

Candid is from the Latin term candidum, which means not only “sincere” and “upright” but also “white” and “pure.”  Candidatus, the Latin predecessor of candidate, means “white robed,” and alludes to the fact that those campaigning for public office in ancient Rome wore white.  Candid also means “blunt” or “frank” but also came, by extension, to mean “spontaneous,” as in referring to someone photographed in a candid pose rather than a prepared one.  Meanwhile, candidate now can also refer to an applicant for any position, whether in a political context or otherwise, or to someone vying for an award or one who meets, or is on track to meet, all the requirements for something.  Campaigner, which refers to someone who embarks on a political campaign to seek office, derives ultimately from the Latin term campania, meaning “level ground” and referring to the type of terrain most easily traversed by an army on the march; campaign originally referred to a series of battles waged to produce a desired strategic outcome.  Contender, meanwhile, refers to someone who tries to win something, especially someone with a strong possibility of victory; the root word, contend, stems from the Latin verb contendere, meaning “stretch with” in the sense of a competitor who physically strives to win.  Nominee, from the Latin verb nominare, meaning “name,” pertains to someone who has been chosen to represent a political party for a specific office or someone who is being considered for a position.  Prospect denotes someone likely to win or be chosen; the word, from the Latin verb prospicere, meaning “look forward,” also refers in general to anticipation or possibility, or to a lookout or a scene or a survey.

https://www.dailywritingtips.com/the-candid-in-candidate/

Candide, ou l'Optimisme, is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment.  The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best (1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: Optimism (1947).   It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism by his mentor, Professor Pangloss.  The work describes the abrupt cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow and painful disillusionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.  Candide is characterized by its tone as well as by its erratic, fantastical, and fast-moving plot.  A picaresque novel with a story similar to that of a more serious coming-of-age narrative (Bildungsroman), it parodies many adventure and romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is bitter and matter-of-fact.  Still, the events discussed are often based on historical happenings, such as the Seven Years' War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.  As philosophers of Voltaire's day contended with the problem of evil, so does Candide in this short novel, albeit more directly and humorously.  Candide has enjoyed both great success and great scandal.  Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned to the public because it contained religious blasphemy, political sedition, and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naïveté.  However, with its sharp wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, the novel has since inspired many later authors and artists to mimic and adapt it.  It is among the most frequently taught works of French literature.  The British poet and literary critic Martin Seymour-Smith listed Candide as one of the 100 most influential books ever written.  Read much more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candide

Pangloss, fictional character, the pedantic and unfailingly optimistic tutor of Candide, the protagonist of Voltaire’s novel Candide (1759), a satire on philosophical optimism.  The name Pangloss—from the Greek elements pan-, “all,” and glōssa, “tongue”—suggests glibness and garrulousness.  A barbed caricature of the German philosopher and mathematician G.W. Leibniz and his followers, Pangloss has become a symbol of foolhardy optimism.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pangloss

Gargantua and Pantagruel, collective title of five comic novels by François Rabelais, published between 1532 and 1564.  The novels present the comic and satiric story of the giant Gargantua and his son Pantagruel, and various companions, whose travels and adventures are a vehicle for ridicule of the follies and superstitions of the times.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gargantua-and-Pantagruel

The Bat is a three-act play by Mary Roberts Rinehart and Avery Hopwood that was first produced by Lincoln Wagenhals and Collin Kemper in 1920.  The story combines elements of mystery and comedy as Cornelia Van Gorder and guests at her rented summer home spend a stormy night searching for stolen money they believe is hidden in the house, while they are stalked by a masked criminal known as "the Bat".  The Bat's identity is revealed at the end of the final act.  The play originated as an adaptation of Rinehart's 1908 mystery novel The Circular Staircase.  Rinehart and Hopwood altered the story to prepare it for Broadway, including adding the titular antagonist.  The connection to the novel led to a legal dispute over film rights with the Selig Polyscope Company, producers of a 1915 film adaptation of the novel, also titled The Circular Staircase.  After previewing under the title A Thief in the Night, the play opened as The Bat at the Morosco Theatre on Broadway on August 23, 1920.  The Bat was a critical and commercial success.  It ran for 867 performances in New York and 327 performances in London; several road companies took the show to other areas.  The play was revived twice on Broadway, in 1937 and 1953.  It had several adaptations, including a 1926 novelization credited to Rinehart and Hopwood but ghostwritten by Stephen Vincent Benét.  Three film adaptations were produced:  The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959).  The play and its adaptations inspired other comedy-mysteries with similar settings, and influenced the creation of the comic-book superhero Batman.  Read much more and see graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bat_(play)

Tarte flambée is an Alsatian/Palatine/Alemannic German dish, speciality of the Alsace, Baden-Württemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz region. (northeast France, south Germany), composed of bread dough rolled out very thinly in the shape of a rectangle (traditionally) or circle, which is covered with fromage blanc or crème fraîche, thinly sliced onions and lardons.  It is one of the most famous specialties of the region.  Depending on the region, this dish can be called Flammekueche, Flàmmeküeche, Flàmmaküacha or Flammekuechle in Alsatian, Flammkuche in Lorraine Franconian, Flammkuchen in German, which means "flame cake", or in French tarte flambée, which translates as "pie baked in the flames."  Contrary to what the direct translation would suggest, tarte flambée may or may not be usually flambéed, but cooked in a wood-fire oven.  In fact, the tarte flambée was originally a homemade dish which did not make its urban restaurant debut until the "pizza craze" of the 1960s.  A tarte flambée would be used to test the heat of their wood-fired ovens.  At the peak of its temperature, the oven would also have the ideal conditions in which to bake a tarte flambée.  The embers would be pushed aside to make room for the tarte in the middle of the oven, and the intense heat would be able to bake it in 1 or 2 minutes.  The crust that forms the border of the tarte flambée would be nearly burned by the flames.  The result resembles a thin pizza. There are many variations of the original recipe, in terms of the garniture.  The standard variations are:  Gratinée:  with added gruyère cheese; Forestière: with added mushrooms; Munster:  with added munster cheese; Sweet:  dessert version with apples and cinnamon, or blueberries, and flambéed with Calvados or another sweet liqueur.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarte_flamb%C3%A9e  Find recipe for flammkuchen, a pizza-like flatbread topped with cream, onions, and bacon, at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/259111/flammkuchen-tarte-flambee/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1953  September 17, 2018   Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is an American federal observance that recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens.  It is normally observed on September 17, the day in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia.  When Constitution Day falls on a weekend or on another holiday, schools and other institutions observe the holiday on an adjacent weekday.  The law establishing the present holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus spending bill of 2004.  Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day".  In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions, and all federal agencies, provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.  In May 2005, the United States Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_Day_(United_States)

Portuguese immigrants in Hawaii   Whereas Chinese and Japanese workers had come as single men, the Portuguese--almost without exception--brought their families and came to stay.  The Hawai'i Board of Immigration paid the passage for workers and their families and arranged employment for one year.  Ships still traveled around Cape Horn and the voyage could last six months.  As Europeans, the Portuguese were treated differently than Asian workers--they were offered an acre of land, a house and improved working conditions--but remained below haole owners in the plantation hierarchy.  As Europeans, they became eligible for U.S. citizenship (after 1898 when Hawai'i became a U.S. Territory), unlike Chinese and Japanese laborers.  Portuguese were often employed as middlemen between owners and Asian workers, becoming lunas or supervisors.  They also worked as strikebreakers during labor disputes.  While Portuguese proved themselves good workers, few renewed their contracts, preferring instead to buy their own land and work their own farms.  As the Portuguese community grew, it strengthened the Catholic Church in Hawai'i and loaned many of its traditions to local island culture.  Portuguese foods like malasadas (Portuguese doughnuts), pao doce (sweet bread) and Portuguese sausage remain popular.  Perhaps the most visible (and audible) Portuguese contribution is the 'ukulele.  Adapted from a Portuguese stringed instrument called the braguinha (from Madeira) or cavaquinho (from mainland Portugal), the 'ukulele was played by King Kalakaua and by 1900 it had become an accompaniment for the hula.  The first instruments arrived in 1879 with immigrants aboard the Ravenscrag.  By 1884, three instrument makers--Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo and Manuel Nunes--opened their shops for business to meet musicians' demands for 'ukulele.  They used Hawaiian koa and kou woods for their Island-made instruments.  The four-string instrument is still most common, but 'ukulele also come in six, eight and 10-string variations.  http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm?t=1&fuseaction=ig.page&PageID=305&returntoname=year&PageLayout=Print  Find recipe for four loaves of Portuguese Sweet Bread (Pao Doce) at http://www.konahistorical.org/index.php/tours/portuguese-stone-oven-baking/

The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed by the Federalist-dominated 5th United States Congress and signed into law by President John Adams in 1798.  They made it harder for an immigrant to become a citizen (Naturalization Act), allowed the president to imprison and deport non-citizens who were deemed dangerous (Alien Friends Act of 1798) or who were from a hostile nation (Alien Enemy Act of 1798), and criminalized making false statements that were critical of the federal government (Sedition Act of 1798).  The Federalists argued that the bills strengthened national security during an undeclared naval war with France (1798–1800).  Critics argued that they were primarily an attempt to suppress voters who disagreed with the Federalist party and its teachings, and violated the right of freedom of speech in the First Amendment.  The Naturalization Act increased the residency requirement for American citizenship from five to fourteen years.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts

See also Alien and Sedition Acts at http://www.ushistory.org/us/19e.asp

Ironville was a unique East Toledo, Ohio neighborhood.  Surrounded by pig-iron furnaces and oil refineries, it had an unmistakable odor.  It had more bars than grocery stores and churches combined.  And its residents never bothered to lock their doors.  Today, Ironville exists only in memories.  "We had the best of everything, in my opinion.  It was country, but it was close to the city," said Dr. Joe Hardin, a retired Toledo Zoo veterinarian.  The former neighborhood was bounded by Front, Bay, and Tiffin streets and Clarence Avenue, and traced its roots to the 1860s when a pig-iron smelting business was started.  Before that, Ottawa Indians lived in the marshy region.  Starting in 1960, the city bought the homes of about 250 families to clear for an industrial park.  Making it more painful for Ironville residents, the industrial park was never developed.  Ronald J. Mauter, 59, an amateur historian and Ironville native said the city paid a flat rate of $6,500 for houses and $8,500 for businesses when it purchased the property.  David Yonke  http://www.toledoblade.com/frontpage/2006/09/11/40-rekindle-memories-of-Ironville.html

Hector Boiardi, founder of Chef Boy-ar-dee Foods, one of the first packaged Italian food businesses in the nation, started his company in 1928, was its president until 1946 when he sold it to American Home Foods Company, a subsidiary of American Home Products Corporation of New York.  His company was first called Chef Boiardi, but Mr. Boiardi found that customers and salesmen had difficulty pronouncing his name, so he changed the brand name to the phonetic spelling, ''Boy-ar-dee.''  Born in Piacenza, Italy, Mr. Boiardi worked as an apprentice chef in a hotel in his hometown starting at the age of 11.  He came to the United States in 1917 and worked at hotels in New York and Greenbrier, W.Va., where he directed the catering at the reception for President Woodrow Wilson's second marriage.  Mr. Boiardi later moved to Cleveland, where he opened a restaurant.  So popular was the food at the restaurant that customers kept asking for portions of pasta, sauce and cheese to take home.  By 1928, he had built a small processing plant, and 10 years later his products were in national distribution.  He served as a consultant to American Home Foods until 1978.  https://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/23/us/hector-boiardi-is-dead-began-chef-boy-ar-dee.html

A team of researchers has uncovered the distinct computations that occur when we switch between different languages, a finding that provides new insights into the nature of bilingualism.  "A remarkable feature of multilingual individuals is their ability to quickly and accurately switch back and forth between their different languages," explains Esti Blanco-Elorrieta, a New York University doctoral candidate and the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  "Our findings help pinpoint what occurs in the brain in this process—specifically, what neural activity is exclusively associated with disengaging from one language and then engaging with a new one."  "Specifically, this research unveils for the first time that while disengaging from one language requires some cognitive effort, activating a new language comes relatively cost-free from a neurobiological standpoint," notes senior author Liina Pylkkanen, a professor in NYU's Department of Linguistics and Department of Psychology.  Previous research has linked language switching with increased activity in areas associated with cognitive control.  This is largely because these two processes happen simultaneously when those who speak two languages switch from one to the other.  To untangle this dynamic, the study's researchers, who also included San Diego State University's Karen Emmorey, studied bilingual individuals fluent in English and American Sign Language (ASL), who often produce both languages simultaneously.  "The fact that they can do both at the same time offers a unique opportunity to disentangle engagement and disengagement processes—that is, how they turn languages 'on' and 'off'," observes Blanco-Elorrieta.  https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-languages.html

The Toledo Lucas County Public Library is excited to announce its fall 2018 Film Focus schedule, featuring powerful, independent films.  This season, the series is being hosted at the King Road Branch on Mondays at 6:45 p.m., Sept. 24 - Oct. 29.  Film focus is free and open to the public.

In Syria (2017, Drama, Arabic, France)  (M) Sept. 24 | 6:45 p.m.

Jasper Jones (2017, Drama, English, Australia)  (M) Oct. 1 | 6:45 p.m.

Hotel Salvation (2016, Drama, Hindi, India)  (M) Oct. 8 | 6:45 p.m.

Paris Opera (2017, Documentary, French, France)  (M) Oct. 15 | 6:45 p.m.

In Between (2016, Drama, Hebrew and Arabic, Israel)  (M) Oct. 22 | 6:45 p.m.

Somers Town (2008, Comedy/Drama, English, United Kingdom)  (M) Oct. 29 | 6:45 p.m.

Quite different in its approach to a national reading-advocacy event from ‘Canada Reads,’ PBS’ ‘Great American Read’ project has named its 100 contenders for ‘best-loved novel.’  With the release April 20, 2018 of the 100 titles the Stateside program is has listed in its “new PBS series and multi-platform initiative that celebrates the joy of reading and the books we love,” it become apparent just how deeply different the two approaches are.  The 17-year-old annual Canada Reads from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) selects five contemporary works, each “defended” by a celebrity personality in four deeply serious, issue-driven debates.  It’s a powerful evocation of how forcefully literature can help reflect and enrich a nation’s political and cultural dialogue.  By contrast, the new US show is positioned as a “nationwide summer reading initiative” to choose “America’s best-loved novel” and in press materials dubs itself “the most expansive national celebration of books and reading aimed at engaging multi-generational readers across platforms ever created.”  And now that we can see the 100 titles put forward for the American show, it’s clear that there’s little comparison with the Canadian effort.  The program is being produced for PBS by Nutopia, the documentary-led production company founded by Jane Root, formerly president of Discovery Channel US.  Canada Reads searches for what its producers call “the title the whole country should read this year.”  By contrast, The Great American Read, looking for a “best-loved” standout, might be positioned as saying, “Read anything, absolutely anything, just read.”  You have Crime and Punishment and Fifty Shades of Grey on the same list; The Da Vinci Code and The Grapes of Wrath; Siddartha and I, Alex Cross.  The Canadian effort is advisory, the American one is populist.  The 100 titles are by authors from 15 countries, and cover five centuries of writings, from Cervantes’ 1603 Don Quixote to the National Book Award finalist Ghost by Jason Reynolds, a 2016 children’s book.  An author can be represented in the list only once, and a series counts as a single entry.  Porter Anderson  https://publishingperspectives.com/2018/04/pbs-great-american-read-100-titles/  See pictures of covers of the 100 novels selected for The Great American Read and vote at http://www.pbs.org/the-great-american-read/vote/

Cauliflower:  Over 70 Exciting Ways to Roast, Rice, and Fry One of the World's Healthiest Vegetables by Oz Telem  available in hardcover and Kindle September 2018   Check your local library.

GOOGLE SEARCHING AND VIEWING  Colleague searched Google for “dine and dash” September 12, 2018.  Got 1,160,000 results!  For “dine and dash” 2018 it was 643,000.  Muser:  "dine and dash" got 1,150,000 results, and "dine and dash" 2018 got 643,000 results, matching her friend's search.  At friend's suggestion, Muser changed the look of her Google results, changing 10 per page to 50 per page.  Since September 12, 2018, when the Muser types news.google.com or en.wikipedia.org, it brings up the site with a topic attached rather than the main page.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1952  September 14, 2018 

CITIES THAT DON'T KNOW THEIR PLACE  Venices of the North include Amsterdam, Bruges, Manchester and Stockholm.  Western Venices include Venice, California and Shannon in Ireland.  Venices of the East:  Bandar Seri Begawan, capital of Brunei, Suzhou in China, Osaka in Japan and Udaipur in India.  Venices of the South:  Tigre in Argentina.  Venice of the Pacific:  Nan Madol in the Federated States of Micronesia.  After Venice, the city that most others aspire to be like must be Paris.  Paris of the East:  Baku, Azerbaijan, Shangai.  Paris of the North:  Tromso, Norway.  Paris of the South:  Buenos Aires.  Paris of Siberia:  Irkutsk.  https://www.tourdust.com/blog/posts/paris-of-the-east-venice-of-the-north-where-will-it-end  Paris of the Antilles:  Throughout colonial times Cap-Haïtien was the capital of the French colony Saint-Domingue (now called Haiti and today its second most important city) and was called Cap-Français.  http://www.alekseitrofimov.eu/cap-haitien-once-the-paris-of-the-antilles-and-whats-left-of-it/

Louisiana Shrimp Cornbread  Uses raw, peeled Louisiana shrimp (can be any size; devein, if desired; may substitute peeled, cooked crawfish tails or diced, roasted andouille sausage)  Find recipe for 12 servings at https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/louisiana-shrimp-cornbread/12507/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5c234f614490  Adapted from chef-owner Frank Brigsten of Brigsten's Restaurant in New Orleans.  Tested by Bonnie S. Benwick

Michael Cunningham (born November 6, 1952) is an American novelist and screenwriter.  He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999.  Cunningham is a senior lecturer of creative writing at Yale University.  Cunningham was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Pasadena, California.  He studied English literature at Stanford University, where he earned his degree.  Later, at the University of Iowa, he received a Michener Fellowship and was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers' Workshop.  While studying at Iowa, he had short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly and the Paris Review.  His short story "White Angel" was later used as a chapter in his novel A Home at the End of the World.  It was included in "The Best American Short Stories, 1989", published by Houghton Mifflin.  In 1993, Cunningham received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1988 a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.  In 1995 he was awarded a Whiting Award.  Cunningham has taught at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in the creative writing M.F.A. program at Brooklyn College.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cunningham

June 25, 2018  What happens if you are Cinderella and the prince turns out to be your father?  Jamie Bernstein, Leonard Bernstein’s firstborn daughter, has written a memoir of her family, a family that her overwhelming dad—loving, inspired, and sometimes insufferable—dominated for decades.  The author grew up wriggling inside a paradox, struggling to become a self when so much of her was defined by her brilliant parent. “Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein” (HarperCollins) is unique among classical-music memoirs for its physical intimacy, its humor and tenderness, its ambivalence toward an irrepressible family genius.  After a whirlwind life as a young man, Bernstein married Felicia Montealegre, in 1951.  He was thirty-three; she was twenty-nine.  Montealegre was raised in Chile; her mother was Costa Rican and Catholic; her father, an American Jew, was a wealthy industrialist.  A South American aristocrat who became socially ambitious in America, Felicia was an accomplished actress with an elevated elocutionary style that was losing favor to so-called naturalistic modes; she was good at narrating oratorios.  They had three children:  Jamie, who is now sixty-five; a boy, Alexander, and another girl, Nina, says that her father was an ardent family man, attentive, affectionate, an unending didact who crammed his kids with poetry, music, Hebrew lessons.  The family gatherings were a conspiracy to have fun.  Parents and children created rhyming nonsense songs for special occasions; they made clowning home movies (“What Ever Happened to Felicia Montealegre?,” an overwrought salute to Bette Davis and Joan Crawford).  If Lenny’s effusiveness was sometimes hard to bear, plenty of smart people couldn’t get enough of him, including Mike Nichols, Richard Avedon, Betty Comden, Adolph Green, and the young Stephen Sondheim.  Lillian Hellman, terrifying to Jamie, was a growling presence.  With that crew around, however, and L.B. driving the entertainments, the long evenings could become barbed—anagrams and other word games were played as life-and-death matters, and more than one participant, Jamie says, left the room in tears.  After L.B.’s death, chagrin gives way to relief; life resumes its usual shapes of success and failure.  The overwhelmed children try to pull themselves together, and Jamie Bernstein finds a way—many ways, actually—of making a life out of music without being a musician, narrating concert works, creating an equivalent of the Young People’s Concerts (the Bernstein Beat, devoted to his music), making a film about the training of young American instrumentalists.  She and her brother and sister have devoted themselves to their father’s name, his work, and his recordings, and have helped along restorative efforts on his compositions and much else.  David Denby  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/06/25/leonard-bernstein-through-his-daughters-eyes  See also https://www.jamiebernstein.net/about/

Two common ingredients in Hungarian cuisine are paprika spice and tomato sauce and they are what put a Hungarian spin on this version of stuffed peppers known as toltott paprika.  It definitely wouldn't be Hungarian without the ever-present, but optional, garnish of sour cream.  Paprika in Hungarian also refers to the peppers from which the spice is made.  The peppers are native to the Americas and were taken to Hungary by merchants where it flourished.  Hungarian paprika is revered the world over because it is said the soil the peppers are grown in lends a flavor like no other.  The Spanish, however, will argue that their paprika, especially smoked paprika, is superior to Hungarian paprika.  It's all a matter of taste.  Barbara Rolek   See recipe for Hungarian stuffed cabbage and link to video, plus link to  recipes including, nokedli, stuffed cabbage, and stuffed kohlrabi bulbs at https://www.thespruceeats.com/hungarian-stuffed-peppers-toltott-paprika-recipe-1136772

Nokedli are fluffy Hungarian egg noodle dumplings.  In German cooking they are known as “spaetzle“ or “Spätzle.”

Libraries are an example of what I call “social infrastructure”:  the physical spaces and organizations that shape the way people interact.  Libraries don’t just provide free access to books and other cultural materials, they also offer things like companionship for older adults, de facto child care for busy parents, language instruction for immigrants and welcoming public spaces for the poor, the homeless and young people.  For older people, especially widows, widowers and those who live alone, libraries are places for culture and company, through book clubs, movie nights, sewing circles and classes in art, current events and computing.  For many, the library is the main place they interact with people from other generations.  For children and teenagers, libraries help instill an ethic of responsibility, to themselves and to their neighbors, by teaching them what it means to borrow and take care of something public, and to return it so others can have it too.  For new parents, grandparents and caretakers who feel overwhelmed when watching an infant or a toddler by themselves, libraries are a godsend.  In many neighborhoods, particularly those where young people aren’t hyper-scheduled in formal after-school programs, libraries are highly popular among adolescents and teenagers who want to spend time with other people their age.  One reason is that they’re open, accessible and free. Another is that the library staff members welcome them; in many branches, they even assign areas for teenagers to be with one another.  To appreciate why this matters, compare the social space of the library with the social space of commercial establishments like Starbucks or McDonald’s.  These are valuable parts of the social infrastructure, but not everyone can afford to frequent them, and not all paying customers are welcome to stay for long.  Eric Klinenberg  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/08/opinion/sunday/civil-society-library.html

Since 2002, Medina County Law Library (Ohio) has contracted with LexisNexis to provide search services for approximately 100 private practitioners (attorneys who are not employed by the County).  The access privilege for the private attorneys was paid by the law library.  In 2018, LexisNexis informed the law library that it was cancelling this license mid-term because the listed subscribers were not government professional users employed by the subscriber.  Of course LexisNexis was fully aware that the 100 or so subscribers were private sector attorneys when the company entered and repeatedly renewed its license with the law library.  So why the change?  Probably because the Company thinks it would make more money by forcing the private practitioners to contract directly and individually with LexisNexis.  On Sept. 6th, 2018 the Medina County Law Library sued LexisNexis for breach of contract.  Here’s the text of the Motion for Temporary Injunction https://lawlibrarianblog2.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/time-stamped-motion-for-temporary-injunction-lexisnexis-case.pdf  and the LexisNexis Complaint  https://lawlibrarianblog2.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/time-stamped-lexisnexis-complaint-with-exhibits-final-6-sep-2018-1.pdf  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1951  September 12, 2018