Hell on Earth is actually a small town in Michigan where anyone can be mayor for a day.  Located near the college town of Ann Arbor in southeast Michigan, Hell is a fairly average township with an odd name, a name it has held since 1841.  There are a number of theories as to how the town received its name.  The most likely (but least fun) explanation is that it came from a pair of visiting Germans who described the town as “so schön hell,” (“so beautifully bright”) in the 1830’s.  Other theories concern town founder George Reeves, who, when asked for an opinion on naming the new town, supposedly replied “I don’t know, you can name it Hell for all I care.”  Another theory states that Reeves, who owned a general store and grist mill, was known to pay farmhands in whiskey, prompting their wives complain that their husbands had “gone to Hell again,” when they failed to turn up for supper.  Finally, some believe that the town was simply named for the swampy, mosquito-ridden conditions that early settlers in the area first encountered prior to the town’s founding.  Visit during winter to see “Hell freeze over,” or you may have the chance to jocularly tell someone to “go to Hell” in the course of giving directions.  For the price of $100, a visitor can become the “Mayor of Hell” for one day, receiving a key to the city and the opportunity to be ignominiously impeached at the end of the day.  See the town’s official website for details.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/hell-michigan  See also https://www.gotohellmi.com/

In the 1950's and 1980's, Saturday morning were spent watching programs on your black and white television, and that would be your earliest memory of Jimmy Nelson.  He and his puppets, Danny O'Day and Farfel the dog, made the jingle--"N-E-S-T-L-E-S, NESTLES MAKES THE VERY BEST" . . .  and Farfel would sing . . . "Chawwclate!"  Read more and see pictures at http://www.leejaynelson.com/tributepage.html  See also http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_662701

"The Dog" is the twenty-first episode of Seinfeld.  The episode was the fourth episode of the show's third season.  It aired on October 9, 1991.  Jerry is on a plane back home when the drunk man next to him falls sick and asks Jerry to take care of his dog while he recovers.  He promises to call him and take the dog back when he comes to New York.  The dog "Farfel" (although it can frequently be heard barking loudly, the dog is never seen) turns out to be very disobedient and Jerry can't go out anywhere.  https://worldhistoryproject.org/1991/10/9/the-dog-season-3-episode-4-of-seinfeld-premiers

Farfel is a tiny, pellet-shaped egg noodle with ingredients similar to German spaetzle or Hungarian nokedli.  Farfel was once a popular side dish in Jewish Ashkenazi cuisine and was served simply seasoned alongside meat or poultry.  The word farfel is Yiddish.  Farfel is sometimes called egg barley, though it contains no barley, and doesn't much look like it, either.  You can find commercially prepared, ready to cook farfel in the kosher section of many supermarkets.  You will see the toasted egg barley available as well.  Look for Manischewitz Premium Enriched Egg Noodles Barley Shape and for Manischewitz Toasted Barley Shape Egg Noodles.  To further confuse matters, most folks nowadays are more familiar with matzo farfel, small bits of broken matzo used in Passover recipes.  Matzo farfel likely gets its name more from its size and shape, rather than its culinary qualities, for while it's small (though not as small as "real" farfel), it in no way behaves like an egg noodle in recipes.  https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-farfel-2121591

Peak Bloom April 3-6, 2019 for cherry blossoms in Washington, DC  The peak bloom date is defined as the day when 70% of the Yoshino Cherry (Prunus x yedoensis) blossoms are open.  Peak bloom varies annually depending on weather conditions.  The most likely time to reach peak bloom is between the last week of March and the first week of April.  Extraordinary warm or cool temperatures have resulted in peak bloom as early as March 15 (1990) and as late as April 18 (1958).  The Yoshino trees typically bloom for a period of several days.  The length of the blooming period depends on weather conditions.  Cool, calm weather can extend the length of the bloom, and a rainy, windy day can bring an abrupt end to the ephemeral blossoms.  A late frost can prevent the trees from blooming at all.  Read more and see graphics at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/cherryblossom/bloom-watch.htm

The Strait of Sicily (also known as Sicilian Strait, Sicilian Channel, Channel of Sicily, Sicilian Narrows and Pantelleria Channel is the strait between Sicily and Tunisia.  The strait is about 145 kilometres (90 mi) wide and divides the Tyrrhenian Sea and the western Mediterranean Sea, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.  The maximum depth is 316 meters (1,037 ft).  Deep currents in the strait flow from east to west, and the current nearer the surface travels from west to east.  This unusual water flow is of interest to oceanographers.  There are regular ferries between Sicily and Tunis across the Strait of Sicily.  The island of Pantelleria lies in the middle of the strait.  See map at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strait_of_Sicily

While people generally consider the island of Sicily, just off the coast of the Italian Peninsula, to be European, it is in fact a part of the African plate.  The African plate itself contains large pieces of the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Atlantic Ocean, and Sicily forms the boundary of Africa’s Mediterranean sea plate.  The African plate is a large tectonic plate, one of the many that cover the surface of the Earth.  Tectonic plates float on top of the hot liquid magma of the Earth’s mantle like chunks of ice on a lake.  The African plate makes up a large part of the Earth’s crust, and includes not only the continent of Africa, but also large amounts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  The African plate itself seems to be splitting apart.  The East African Rift valley runs from Ethiopia southward, creating some of Africa’s largest lakes, such as Lake Tanganyika.  This rift is a result of the eastern area of Africa diverging from the western area.  Geologists debate whether this means that Africa is in fact composed of two plates, or if the African plate itself is splitting into two pieces.  Chris Burke   https://sciencing.com/african-plate-8667337.html

One of America's most respected and enduring poets, W.S. Merwin, has died.  Merwin's poetry is known for its mystery and wonder, and he was twice named the U.S. poet laureate.  He also won a National Book Award and two Pulitzer Prizes.  Merwin died March 15, 2019 at his home in Hawaii.  He was 91 years old.  Merwin wrote a lot and for a long time.  As a 5-year-old in New Jersey, he wrote hymns for the Presbyterian church where his father was a minister.  Merwin found inspiration in his conservation work and in his Maui home.  He wrote the poem "Place" about his time there:  "On the last day of the world  I would want to plant a tree  what for  not for the fruit  the tree that bears the fruit  is not the one that was planted  I want the tree that stands  in the earth for the first time  with the sun already  going down  and the water  touching its roots  in the earth full of the dead  and the clouds passing  one by one  over its leaves"   Merwin's Maui home, where he raised more than 2,000 trees, will all be set aside as part of the Merwin Conservancy.  Noah Adams  https://www.npr.org/2019/03/15/509122300/poet-w-s-merwin-who-was-inspired-by-conservation-dies-at-91

Vessel (alternately called Hudson Yards Staircase) is a public structure and landmark that was built as part of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project in Manhattan, New York City.  Construction started in April 2017.  The structure topped out in December 2017 and opened on March 15, 2019.  The elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises 16 stories and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings that visitors would be able to climb.  Designed by the British designer Thomas Heatherwick, Vessel is the main feature of the 5-acre (2.0 ha) Hudson Yards Public Square.  The structure also has ramps and elevators to make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.  Stephen Ross, the CEO of Hudson Yards' developer Related Companies, said that The Staircase's unusual shape was intended to make the structure stand out like a "12-month Christmas tree."  The copper-clad steps, arranged like a jungle gym and modeled after Indian stepwells, would be able to hold up to 1,000 people at a time.  Heatherwick said that he intends for visitors to climb and explore the structure as if it were an actual jungle gym.  At the top of the structure, visitors could have views of the Hudson River coastline.   See graphics and technical details at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vessel_(structure)

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (November 12, 1928–March 12, 2019) was an American children's writer.  She has written more than 130 books for children and teens and her books have been translated into several languages.  They have won awards including Book of the Year by the Library of Congress or have become selections by the Literary Guild.  Perhaps Sharmat's most popular work features the child detective Nate the Great.  He was inspired by and named after her father, who lived to see the first Nate book published.  Sharmat's husband Mitchell Sharmat expanded Nate's storyline by creating Olivia Sharp, his cousin and fellow detective.  Husband and wife wrote four Olivia Sharp books published 1989 to 1991.  During the 1990s, their son Craig Sharmat (then in his thirties) wrote three Nate books with his mother.  In the mid-1980s Sharmat wrote three books published in 1984 and 1985 under the pseudonym Wendy Andrews.  Sharmat also wrote the Sorority Sisters series, eight short novels published in 1986 and 1987, romantic fiction with a sense of humor.  They are set in a California public high school.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_W._Sharmat

Irish Soda Bread   Easy to make   Shaggy to look at   Good to eat 

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/caraway_soda_bread/

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  Smaller than a breadbox, bigger than a TV remote, the average book fits into the human hand with a seductive nestling, a kiss of texture, whether of cover cloth, glazed jacket, or flexible paperback. - John Updike, writer (18 Mar 1932-2009)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2064  March 18, 2019 

The old Hebron United Methodist Church, built in 1903, sits at the corner of Main and 5th streets in Hebron, Ohio.  A congregation hasn’t used the church for years.  The marquee on the front lawn reads:  “The Chouse.  A private residence.”  Valerie Mockus and her husband, Gary, moved back to Ohio from Florida buying the church at auction for $80,0000 in 2017.  The congregation had taken amazing care of the building, Valerie said, and it had only a couple of minor issues.  The Mockuses enlisted the help of Project Architecture in Hebron and Build Pro 360 in Columbus for the renovation.  “It was challenging to say the least,” said Jeff Cramblitt, vice president of Build Pro 360.  “The whole intention was to keep it as original as possible.”  Converting a church into a livable space presented a number of challenges.  For one, there was no kitchen.  Another issue was reworking the plumbing because there wasn’t a full bathroom in the entire building.  Sheridan Hendrix  See pictures at https://www.limaohio.com/wire/state-wire/344338/old-house-of-worship-becomes-new-home-for-ohio-couple

There are 62 counties in the state of New York.  The original twelve counties were created immediately after the British takeover of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, although two of these counties have since been abolished.  The most recent county formation in New York was in 1914, when Bronx County was created from the portions of New York City that had been annexed from Westchester County in the late 19th century and added to New York County.   Five of New York's counties are each coextensive with New York City's five boroughs and do not have county governments.  They are New York County (Manhattan), Kings County (Brooklyn), Bronx County (The Bronx), Richmond County (Staten Island), and Queens County (Queens).  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_New_York_(state)

New York's Bronx County is home to Poe Cottage where Author Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life, home to the New York Yankees, maritime heritage as well as arts and entertainment such as off-off-Broadway shows.  Several colleges and universities are located in the Bronx. Fordham University, 3 CUNYs:  Hostos Community College, Bronx Community College and Herbert H. Lehman College, The College of Mount Saint Vincent, Manhattan College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and two colleges based in Westchester County have Bronx campuses:  College of New Rochelle and Mercy College.  The State University of New York Maritime College in Fort Schuyler (Throggs Neck)—at the far southeastern tip of the Bronx—is the national leader in maritime education and houses the Maritime Industry Museum.  The Bronx also includes several small islands in the East River and Long Island Sound, such as City Island and Hart Island. Rikers Island in the East River, home to the large jail complex for the entire city, is also part of the Bronx.  https://www.ny.gov/counties/bronx

Is it ukulele or ukelele?  Both spellings have been used ever since the uke was introduced to the USA in the early 1900s.  Most of the vintage song books and song sheets I've collected from the 1920s and 30s spell it "ukelele."  Aaron Copland named his jazz piece "Ukelele Serenade" (which, by the way, has no ukes in it!).  The most common spelling today is ukulele.  The proper pronunciation is always a hot topic on the forums.  The Hawaiian pronunciation is "ook-oo-leh-le."  Purists, Hawaiians and aficionados prefer that.  Like many other words absorbed into English like vanilla, for example--it usually gets pronounced by the rules of English, not its native tongue.  Most people in North America call it a "you-koo-lay-lee" or even "you-kuh-lay-lee."  http://www.ianchadwick.com/ukuleles/pronounce.htm

NECESSORIES  1.  Necessary accessories.  2.  Things that one typically carries on one's person every day in order to maintain one's current standard of living.  https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Necessories

Restaurants are so loud because architects don’t design them to be quiet.  Much of this shift in design boils down to changing conceptions of what makes a space seem upscale or luxurious, as well as evolving trends in food service.  Right now, high-end surfaces connote luxury, such as the slate and wood of restaurants.  According to Architectural Digest, mid-century modern and minimalism are both here to stay.  That means sparse, modern decor; high, exposed ceilings; and almost no soft goods, such as curtains, upholstery, or carpets.  These design features are a feast for the eyes, but a nightmare for the ears.  No soft goods and tall ceilings mean nothing is absorbing sound energy, and a room full of hard surfaces serves as a big sonic mirror, reflecting sound around the room.  The result is a loud space that renders speech unintelligible.  Another feature of today’s restaurants that greatly increases the loudness inside are open kitchens—where the making of the food is on full display.  Bars and restaurants continued to merge through the 1990s and 2000s, and that’s a big reason restaurants, on the whole, got noticeably louder.  Bars are raucous, and they present a different dining atmosphere from typical sit-down restaurants.  As the bar and dining area began to occupy the same space, their clientele and atmospheres combined, and the result was a lot louder than either one alone.   Kate Wagner  https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/

deleted musical scene from the movie Vice starring Christian Bale and Steve Carell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP2HBuepqK4  2:22

Franklin Patrick Herbert, Jr. (1920–1986) was an American science fiction writer best known for the novel Dune and its five sequels.  Though he became famous for his long novels, he was also a newspaper journalist, photographer, short story writer, book reviewer, ecological consultant and lecturer.  The Dune saga, set in the distant future and taking place over millennia, deals with complex themes such as human survival and evolution, ecology, and the intersection of religion, politics, and power.  Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time and the series is widely considered to be among the classics of the genre.  Herbert began researching Dune in 1959.  He was able to devote himself wholeheartedly to his writing career because his wife returned to work full-time as an advertising writer for department stores, becoming the breadwinner during the 1960s.  He later told Willis E. McNelly that the novel originated when he was supposed to do a magazine article on sand dunes in the Oregon Dunes near Florence, Oregon.  He became too involved and ended up with far more raw material than needed for an article.  The article was never written, but instead planted the seed that led to Dune.  Dune took six years of research and writing to complete and it was much longer than commercial science fiction of the time was supposed to be.  Analog (the renamed Astounding, still edited by John W. Campbell) published it in two parts comprising eight installments, "Dune World" from December 1963 and "Prophet of Dune" in 1965.  It was then rejected by nearly twenty book publishers.   Beginning in 2012, Herbert's estate and WordFire Press have released four previously unpublished novels in e-book and paperback formats:  High-Opp (2012), Angels' Fall (2013), A Game of Authors (2013), and A Thorn in the Bush (2014).  In recent years, Frank Herbert's son Brian Herbert and author Kevin J. Anderson have added to the Dune franchise, using notes left behind by Frank Herbert and discovered over a decade after his death.  Brian Herbert and Anderson have written two prequel trilogies (Prelude to Dune and Legends of Dune) exploring the history of the Dune universe before the events within Dune, as well as two post-Chapterhouse Dune novels that complete the original series (Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune) based on Frank Herbert's own Dune 7 outline.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Herbert#cite_note-PW_Dune_1997-45  The Muser read the book first and then was disappointed to find one character in the film featured with much more time and importance than in the book.

The Ides of March is a day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to 15 March.  It was marked by several religious observances and was notable for the Romans as a deadline for settling debts.  In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.  The Romans did not number days of a month from the first to the last day.  Instead, they counted back from three fixed points of the month:  the Nones (5th or 7th, depending on the length of the month), the Ides (13th or 15th), and the Kalends (1st of the following month).  The Ides occurred near the midpoint, on the 13th for most months, but on the 15th for March, May, July, and October.  The Ides were supposed to be determined by the full moon, reflecting the lunar origin of the Roman calendar.  See Julius Caesar, a play by William Shakespeare and The Ides of March, a novel by Thornton Wilder.  Read more and see graphics at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2063  March 15, 2019

Cush-cush/Couche-couche/Cosh-cosh  This simple cornbread dish was once the everyday supper for Cajuns.  Served with milk, figs or cane syrup and even chopped pork cracklings.  Find recipe at https://www.realcajunrecipes.com/recipe/cosh-cosh-or-cush-cush-or-couche-couche/

The Healey Guest House, or "Cocoon House" in Sarasota, Florida was designed by Ralph S. Twitchell and partner Paul Rudolph in 1948.  The structure was built as a guest house for a member of the Twitchell family. The architects had formed a partnership several years earlier drawing upon each other's abilities and interests.  Ralph Spencer Twitchell had worked in Sarasota since the 1920's when he served as office supervisor for Dwight James Baum.  That office completed work on Sarasota's best known Mediterranean Revival buildings including the Ca 'd Zan, The El Vernona Hotel (later known as John Ringling Towers), the El Vernona Apartments (now known as Belle Haven Apartments), the Sarasota Times Building and the Sarasota County Courthouse.  The basis for much of Twitchell's work, including after his association with Paul Rudolph, was in the use of innovational materials, successfully addressing Sarasota's climate, bringing the outdoors indoors, simplicity of design, and custom treatments for each client's needs.  While those elements were not the sole property of Twitchell, an atmosphere of inspired architecture prevailed in Sarasota spanning the 1950's and 1960's, which has become known in architectural circles as the Sarasota School of Architecture.  The Cocoon House was selected in 1953 by the New York Museum of Modern Art as one of the 19 examples of houses built since World War II as a pioneer design foreshadowing the future.  The structure has been the subject of considerable study, appearing in most of the major architectural periodicals of the time.  Today the structure is a regular topic in architecture school curricula.  See picture at http://www.sarasotahistoryalive.com/history/buildings/cocoon-house  See also https://savingplaces.org/stories/paul-rudolphs-cocoon-house-emerges-newly-restored#.XFoec1VKiUk

The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts provides information and multimedia documents about dance—old and new—to the dance community and the general public.  On average, over 12,000 people a year study oral histories, manuscripts, photographs, original designs, engravings, books, programs, reviews, and other materials in the world's most comprehensive dance library.  The Division actively documents dance works, using experienced professional videographers, and initiates oral history interviews with artists.  Its study collection ranges from anthropologist Claire Holt's photographs of Javanese ritual to the letters and choreographic notes of modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey.  Recent additions include the Rudolf Nureyev Collection, the Jerome Robbins Collection, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation Collection.  In the fall of 2001, the Library for the Performing Arts returned to a newly renovated building in Lincoln Center. www.nypl.org  Learn more in Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library, an essay by Imogen Sara Smith.  http://danceheritage.org/nypl.html

A Velocity of Being:  Letters to a Young Reader, a collection of original letters to the children of today and tomorrow about why we read and what books do for the human spirit, is composed by 121 of the most interesting and inspiring humans in our world:  Jane Goodall, Yo-Yo Ma, Jacqueline Woodson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Mary Oliver, Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, Rebecca Solnit, Elizabeth Gilbert, Shonda Rhimes, Alain de Botton, James Gleick, Anne Lamott, Diane Ackerman, Judy Blume, Eve Ensler, David Byrne, Sylvia Earle, Richard Branson, Daniel Handler, Marina Abramović, Regina Spektor, Elizabeth Alexander, Adam Gopnik, Debbie Millman, Dani Shapiro, Tim Ferriss, Ann Patchett, a 98-year-old Holocaust survivor, Italy’s first woman in space, and many more immensely accomplished and large-hearted artists, writers, scientists, philosophers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and adventurers whose character has been shaped by a life of reading.  Read more, see graphics, and sign up for newsletter at https://www.brainpickings.org/2018/11/20/a-velocity-of-being-letters-to-a-young-reader/  Thank you, Muse reader!

Phishing is the act of committing fraud by posing as a legitimate and often widely-known company or brand.  People buy up domains that are closely related in spelling to a real domain and duplicate the actual brand’s website.  Then they go about capturing information for the purpose of identity theft.  Spoofing is the act of forging an email heading so that it appears it came from someone else.  This is common among fraudsters who want to install keyloggers on victims’ computers.  They hope to obtain bank account information and passwords.  Ghosting is a term for breaking up with someone by cutting of contact with them completely.  The person ghosting ignores any attempts of further contact.  Catfishing is the act of luring someone into a perceived (or real) relationship via an online persona that doesn’t exist.  https://www.bark.us/blog/phishing-spoofing-ghosting-catfishing/

A Revitalized Historic Farm Thrives in One of Boston’s Oldest Neighborhoods by Amy Sutherland   In 2013, a Boston city crew bushwhacked its way across a mostly vacant, overgrown lot in the densely residential neighborhood of Mattapan.  The site had been neglected for at least a few years, and it showed.  Trees, brambles, and vines threatened to tumble over the surrounding graffiti-covered fence.  Some neighbors had taken to dumping their trash over the chain link.  A shingled old house stood amid the thicket, its second-floor windows open to the weather and intruders.  For two weeks, crew members cleared out trash and cut back the jungle.  They filled six dumpsters.  Finally, they got a good look at the house and carriage house (which became known as “the barn”).  One of the city’s few 18th-century farmsteads was still standing.  Five years later, thanks to a $3.8 million restoration project spearheaded by nonprofit Historic Boston Inc. (HBI), not only have the historic house and barn been saved, but rows of vegetables grow where once only weeds did.  The Fowler Clark Epstein Farm, named for its three major owners over its 200-plus-year history, saw its first harvest in decades in summer 2018.  One of the oldest existing farms in Boston is once again in operation.  When more than 500 people showed up for the grand opening in late June of 2018, the farm looked like a farm for the first time in more than a century.  Over the summer and fall, the institute’s trainees could be spotted each morning weeding their way down the rows of vegetables, which grew taller by the day.  In September, 2018 the farm hosted its first wedding.  On Friday afternoons through October, people came to the farmers market to buy the well-priced produce and to see for themselves how the former eyesore has been transformed.  Read extensive article and see many pictures at https://savingplaces.org/stories/a-revitalized-historic-farm-thrives-in-one-of-bostons-oldest-neighborhoods#.XFoel1VKiUk

The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has published an open letter to mark the 30th anniversary of the day—March 12, 1989—when he submitted his original proposal for an information management system that went on to underpin the birth of online services.  The proposal, dubbed “vague but exciting” by his boss at the time, married hypertext with Internet TCP and domain name system ideas.  Berners-Lee also had to design and build a web browser and put together the first web server.  The first website was put up a couple of years later, running on a NeXT computer at CERN, where Berners-Lee had worked.  In recent years, Berners-Lee has made a series of public interventions, warning especially about corporate capture of the online sphere.  He’s also working on new decentralization technologies to try to break the grip of dominant digital walled gardens.  The academic turned entrepreneur certainly cannot be accused of shying away from the societal challenges his invention now poses.  But his anniversary letter urges people not to give up on the web. “If we give up on building a better web now, then the web will not have failed us. We will have failed the web,” he suggests.  The letter, which can be read in full here on the Web Foundation’s site, boils the problem of web misuse into three distinct categories:  Deliberate, malicious intent, such as state-sponsored hacking and attacks, criminal behaviour, and online harassment.  System design that creates perverse incentives where user value is sacrificed, such as ad-based revenue models that commercially reward clickbait and the viral spread of misinformation.  Unintended negative consequences of benevolent design, such as the outraged and polarised tone and quality of online discourse.  Natasha Lomas  https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/12/marking-30-years-of-the-web-tim-berners-lee-calls-for-a-joint-fight-against-disinformation/

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi).  Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in the month/day format) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π.  In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.  Pi Approximation Day is observed on July 22 (22/7 in the day/month format), since the fraction ​²²⁄₇ is a common approximation of π, which is accurate to two decimal places and dates from Archimedes.  Two Pi Day, also known as Tau Day, is lightly observed on June 28 (6/28 in the month/day format).  In 1998, the earliest known official or large-scale celebration of Pi Day was organized by Larry Shaw at the San Francisco Exploratorium, where Shaw worked as a physicist, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, then consuming fruit pies.  The Exploratorium continues to hold Pi Day celebrations.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2062  March 13, 2019

Fire-and-Ice Ohio Chili  Jeni Britton-Bauer adds richness to this wonderful chili with a surprise ingredient:  dark chocolate ice cream.  She loves serving the chili over spaghetti because it has a great sauce-like consistency.  Serves 8  Find recipe at https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/fire-and-ice-ohio-chili

In 2015, the Obama White House put out a call to amateur historians to search their attics and archives for a relic of women’s history:  the original, signed copy of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions from the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York, one of the nation’s first organized events for women’s rights.  Back then, about 300 people gathered for the two day convention in upstate New York and more than 100 women and men signed the manifesto, declaring it time for women to claim their rights in society.  Located in a hamlet in the Finger Lakes region of New York State, this event launched the women’s rights movement and spawned subsequent conventions.  But unlike the Declaration of Independence—on which the Declaration of Sentiments was modeled—the original manuscript may no longer exist.  The search yielded a few clues, but no manuscript with either notes in the margin or signatures at the end.  But Seneca Falls did propel subsequent conventions for women’s rights, and three years later, Susan B. Anthony would join the growing suffrage movement.  In September 1848, following the Rochester Convention, Elizabeth Cady Stanton forcefully reflected on the ridiculousness of being excluded:  “To have the rights of drunkards, idiots, horse-racing, rum selling rowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fully recognized, whilst we ourselves are thrust out from all the rights that belong to citizens—it is too grossly insulting to the dignity of woman to be longer quietly submitted to.  The right is ours, have it we must—use it we will.”  The content of the Declaration of Sentiments is widely available.  Liz Robbins and Sam Roberts  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/09/nyregion/declaration-of-sentiments-and-resolution-feminism.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

Pugliese bread refers to the southeastern Italian region of Apula (Puglia in Italian).  The bread falls in the rustic category because the hydration is in excess of 65 percent.  Pugliese utilizes a blend of durum and regular bread flours.  See pictures and recipe from Cathy at

https://www.breadexperience.com/pugliese-bba/  makes two 1-pound loaves (or use part or all of the dough to make pizza)

“To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius.  And easier.  Because it's true.  It's a new world every heart beat.”  *   “Nothing like poetry when you lie awake at night.  It keeps the old brain limber.  It washes away the mud and sand that keeps on blocking up the bends.  Like waves to make the pebbles dance on my old floors.  And turn them into rubies and jacinths; or at any rate, good imitations.”  ― Joyce Cary, The Horse's Mouth  https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/76129.Joyce_Cary

In the words of his biographer, Alan Bishop, Joyce Cary (1888-1957) was 'a prolific, independent, wide-ranging writer with a place in three literatures (English, Irish, Nigerian) difficult to categorize because his writing integrates the traditional and experimental.'  Faber & Faber is reissuing twelve of his works:    Mister Johnson, Herself Surprised, To Be a Pilgrim, The Horse's Mouth, A Prisoner of Grace, Except the Lord, Not Honour More, Castle Corner, Charley is My Darling, A House of Children, The Moonlight and A Fearful Joy.  Although never fashionable, Joyce Cary has always had his admirers:  'This novelist has exemplified the rule that when a writer dies, he or she may suffer a lapse in attention.  You say to someone ''Joyce Cary'' and they say ''Who?''  Amazing!  He was a marvellous writer, fresh, funny and popping with life.'  Doris Lessing  https://www.faber.co.uk/author/joyce-cary/

March 8, 2019  Crab is considered a delicacy, a dish most people are not going to make back home.  Crab legs are also easy to heap onto the plate in a giant pile.  Combine a luxury food with the intensity of the buffet experience, and you have a recipe for flaring tempers.  In 2013, a 7-year-old and his family were kicked out of a Sarasota, Fla. buffet when the restaurant’s staff informed the family that the boy—who suffered from autism—was eating too many crab legs.  “Obviously ‘all-you-can-eat’ buffet was not correct and I’m upset that my 7-year-old son’s birth day was ruined,” his mother told ABC Action News at the time.  Three years later, a brawl broke out in a Manchester, Conn. restaurant.  According to the Hartford Courant, the initial police report from the April 3, 2016 incident noted the fight “appears to have started during a dispute about crab legs in the buffet line.”  Multiple people were involved in the fight, and a woman used pepper spray on another diner.  Huntsville, Ala. police officer Gerald Johnson was just trying to enjoy his Friday evening dinner at the Meteor Buffet on Feb. 22, 2019 when the crab-craziness sparked unrest.  “Literally, as I sat down and maybe took two bites out of my plate,” Johnson told Huntsville’s News 19, pandemonium struck.  “There’s a woman who’s beating a man,” Johnson recounted.  “People are moving around, plates are shattering everywhere.”  The officer moved in to break up the fracas.  He watched as two diners, an elderly man and adult woman, started fencing one another with the metal tongs used to pick up crab legs.  A day later, and almost 1,000 miles away, a similar outburst interrupted the dinner rush at the Queens Buffet in Queens, N.Y.  On Feb. 23. a woman—only identified by the New York Post as Christine — watched as her 10-year-old son attempted to get some crab legs.  An adult woman nudged the boy away from the line with her hip.  “I was like, ‘Can you please do me a favor?  I would appreciate it if you kept your hands off my child.’  And the mother comes over and she was like ‘You already had the first two batches,’” Christine told the New York Post.  “I said ‘Listen, he’s 10-years-old, he’s going to grab maybe six or seven and we’re leaving.  We’re gonna’ keep it moving,’" she told the paper.  When the woman then called her a slur, she said, “everybody came over and started screaming.”  A brawl exploded inside the restaurant.  Video from the fight showed hair pulling and flailing arms.  According to the restaurant’s manager, Budi Chan, two groups mixed it up, one pack of 16 people facing off against a group of seven.  Kyle Swenson  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/08/crab-legs-sparked-brawl-buffet-day-later-hundreds-miles-away-it-happened-again/?utm_term=.a5f3401fecfe

LONGSWORD DANCING  Although commonly referred to as Sword dancing, there are two distinct forms.  The sword of the north east of England tends to be a double-handled flexible metal strip known as a rapper.  In Yorkshire the implement is more sword-like, being single-handled, and rigid and called a longsword.  The dance is basically six or eight men in a circle, each holding the end of his neighbours sword.  They perform circling and intertwining “figures” without breaking the circle or letting go the swords, except at the climax of the dance when the swords are interlocked to form the “lock” which is then held aloft.  The traditional time of performance is Christmas and after, although nowadays, many teams may be seen throughout the year at festivals, fetes and concerts.  https://themorrisring.org/about-morris/longsword  See also List of Morris and Sword Sides by Dance Style at http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/morris/style.html and Morris Dancing, Sword Dancing, Clog Dancing etc at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLq-p1Oyhj0  9:30  Over 20 groups performed on the streets of Lincoln - Saturday September 6th, 2014. 

The Eastern Screech-Owl, a robin-sized nightbird, does not screech; the voice of this species features whinnies and soft trills.  https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/eastern-screech-owl

The Western Screech-Owl's most distinctive vocalization is its "bouncing ball" song:  a series of 5–9 short, whistled hoots, speeding up ping-pong-ball fashion toward the end. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/sounds 

Owls don't have eyeballs.  The eyes are long and shaped more like a tube.  Owl eyes can't turn in their sockets because of this shape.   Owls and the related nightjars (including Whip-poor-wills and nighthawks) are among the only birds that have a larger upper eyelid than lower eyelid.  That, their forward-facing eyes, and feather-covering at the base of their beak, make them appear more human-like than other birds.  Their human-sounding voices are one reason so many cultures throughout the world have stories and folklore about owls.  https://journeynorth.org/tm/spring/OwlFacts.html

Reader feedback to story on size of Detroit:  Detroit at 140 square miles is quite small when one considers Jacksonville, Florida at nearly 875 sq. miles.  However, Jacksonville incorporated the entire county.  Thank you, Muse reader! 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2061  March 12, 2019 

Decommissioned in 1985, Route 66 remains a pop culture icon of titanic proportions.  The lure of the open road draws travelers from around the planet, and road trip adventures have been popularized in film, fiction, television, and song.  And despite a return to its origins as a hodgepodge of secondary highways and local routes, a trip down memory lane is still possible for anyone willing to spend the time mapping out directions.  “Although it is no longer an official U.S. highway,” says Amy Webb, a senior field director with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “in many of the smaller towns, Route 66 is still the biggest economic generator.”  As such, the National Trust is partnering with Route 66 business owners and enthusiasts, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal agencies to invigorate this long stretch of Americana.  Read article by Dennis Hockman and see pictures at https://savingplaces.org/stories/traveling-route-66-reflections-from-one-of-the-worlds-most-fabled-stretches-of-blacktop#.XFofvVVKiUk

"A library is a focal point, a sacred place to a community; and its sacredness is its accessibility, its publicness.  It’s everybody’s place."  "Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free.  A great library is freedom."  American writer Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018)   https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/11/06/ursula-k-le-guin-libraries/

The End of Work:  The Decline of the Global Labor Force and the Dawn of the Post-Market Era is a non-fiction book by American economist Jeremy Rifkin, published in 1995 by Putnam Publishing Group.  In 1995, Rifkin contended that worldwide unemployment would increase as information technology eliminated tens of millions of jobs in the manufacturing, agricultural and service sectors.  He predicted devastating impact of automation on blue-collar, retail and wholesale employees.  While a small elite of corporate managers and knowledge workers would reap the benefits of the high-tech world economy, the American middle class would continue to shrink and the workplace become ever more stressful.  As the market economy and public sector decline, Rifkin predicted the growth of a third sector—voluntary and community-based service organizations—that would create new jobs with government support to rebuild decaying neighborhoods and provide social services.  To finance this enterprise, he advocated scaling down the military budget, enacting a value added tax on nonessential goods and services and redirecting federal and state funds to provide a "social wage" in lieu of welfare payments to third-sector workers.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Work  Thank you, Muse reader!

When Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919 in the town of Weimar, by bringing together existing institutions--the old Academy of Fine Arts and a more recently established School of Applied Arts--he proclaimed:  "Let us conceive, consider and create together the new building of the future that will bring all into one simple integrated creation:  architecture, painting and sculpture rising to heaven out of the hand of a million craftsmen, the crystal symbol of the new faith of the future."  From the beginning the Bauhaus--which literally means construction house--sought to unify art and craft, both by bringing these disciplines together (literally) under one roof and in the nature of the curriculum that was taught.  Among the most influential teachers in the early years of the Bauhaus was Johannes Itten, the expressionist painter, who led a preliminary course for all students exploring colour, formal experimentation and the transcendental possibilities of abstraction, which he saw as connecting to inner mental states.  After this preliminary course, which was at various times taught by such luminaries as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Josef Albers, students would graduate to more specialised studies, such as weaving, metalwork, pottery and cabinet making.  Over the following years, a student at the Bauhaus might encounter Marcel Breuer leading the cabinet-making department and developing those radical and iconic furniture designs, Gunta Stölzl revolutionising the art of textile design and production through abstraction and unorthodox materials, metalworking with teachers such as Moholy-Nagy and Marianne Brandt producing designs that would readily translate to mass-production, and Kandinsky and Klee exploring new ways to consider form.  Although the Bauhaus lasted little more than a decade, a simple measure of its significance is that no school of architecture or design can legitimately claim not to have been influenced by it in some way.  Read more and see many graphics at

https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/01/bauhaus-100-guide-architecture-design/

"You have to understand, Detroit is a huge city.  Not in terms of population—not anymore, at least—but it's 140 square miles in area.  You could fit Boston and San Francisco inside the city borders, and still have room left over for Manhattan."  Let it Burn, #10 in the Alex McKnight series of novels by Steve Hamilton 

One of the telltale signs of spring in New York is the annual arrival of Rare Book Week, going on through March 12, 2019.  Besides the various pearls for sale among the well-stocked stacks at the three book and ephemera fairs, holding court around Manhattan are a slew of shows and exhibitions dedicated to celebrating the people and things of the book world.  One that serious bibliophiles should not miss is the Grolier Club’s exhibition of Pat Pistner’s miniature bindings and books, now on view in the second floor gallery.  The 275-item installation--a misleading number, given that some items, like the 42-volume set of Sherlock Holmes mysteries is counted as one piece--spans the history of texts written on a diminutive scale.  A miniature Babylonian cuneiform tablet accounting “plucked” sheep dating from approximately 2340 BCE shares space with sumptuous illuminated Books of Hours and contemporary artists’ books by Timothy Ely and Nancy Gifford.  From an archive that currently includes 4,000 items, the Naples, Florida-based bibliophile whittled down her selections to those she said best represented the considerable historical scope of her collection.  Barbara Basbanes Richter  See graphics at https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine_books_blog/2019/03/miniature-books-on-display-at-grolier-club-put-on-a-mighty-show.phtml

March 7, 2019  Two and a half years into her 10-year term, Carla D. Hayden is making good on her promise to throw open the doors of America’s “palace of knowledge” and invite ordinary citizens to join scholars in exploring its treasures.  The former head of Baltimore’s public library system and an Obama nominee, Hayden is focused on making the Library of Congress a cultural destination—a museum of American letters that will inspire, educate and, yes, even entertain.  “People don’t know that the Library of Congress has something for them,” said Hayden, who became the 14th librarian of Congress in 2016.  “We built a palace to knowledge and we wanted it to rival any palace in any European city.  [But] you have to let people come in and . . . be inspired.  That’s what it was designed for.”  Central to Hayden’s goals is a $60 million makeover of the library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, the historic 1897 architectural wonder known for its Great Hall, which is open to the public, and the Main Reading Room, the hushed temple where scholars work.  “Whatever you want to call yourself, you’re trying to tell stories, share the collection, help them to understand the place,” said David Mandel, the library’s director of the Center for Exhibits and Interpretation.  “The library has a long history of doing exhibitions.  This is trying to do it in a more modern way.”  The changes to the Jefferson Building are intended to attract more visitors, a Hayden priority.  The library had 1.9 million visitors in 2017, up from 1.6 in 2013.  “It isn’t an ivory tower only for select people.  It’s the people’s library,” said historian and author A. Scott Berg, who is doing research at the library for his next book.  “They are sitting on hundreds of thousands of amazing objects.  It’s part of [Hayden’s] desire and mission to share that with the American public.”  Peggy McGlone  Read more and see many pictures at https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/the-library-of-congress-wants-to-attract-more-visitors-will-that-compromise-its-scholarly-mission/2019/03/07/582d590e-1a90-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html?utm_term=.a34db06c0a3a   

State legislatures from New England to the West Coast are considering proposals to end the leaping, clock-shifting confusion of hours lost or gained, and the conundrums it can create.  “I cannot change the rotation of the earth and sun,” said Kansen Chu, a California lawmaker who is sponsoring a bill to keep the state permanently on daylight time — one of at least 31 states that are addressing some aspect of daylight saving and its discontents.  “But I am hoping to get more sunlight to the people of California.”  The California proposal, and a similar bill passed by the Florida Legislature last year, would require an act of Congress to take effect.  When New York City, having tasted daylight saving as a temporary measure during World War I, decided to keep it in peacetime, retailers found that people shopped and spent more on their way home from work when there was more evening light, and Wall Street investors liked gaining an hour of overlap with trading on the London financial markets.  Supporters also argued that nudging the clock forward to have more of a summer’s daylight fall in the evening would save energy by reducing the need for artificial light.  Kirk Johnson  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/09/us/daylight-savings-time.html

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer. - Douglas Adams, author (11 Mar 1952-2001)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2060  March 11, 2019