Elizabeth "Eliza" Acton (1799–1859) was an English food writer and poet, who produced one of Britain's first cookery books aimed at the domestic reader, Modern Cookery for Private Families.  The book introduced the now-universal practice of listing ingredients and giving suggested cooking times for each recipe.  It included the first recipes in English for Brussels sprouts and for spaghetti, and contains the first printed reference to Christmas pudding.  Acton was born n Sussex and raised in Suffolk where she ran a girls' boarding school before spending time in France.  On her return to England in 1826 she published a collection of poetry and released her cookery book in 1845, aimed at middle class families.  Written in an engaging prose, the book was well received by reviewers.  It was reprinted within the year and several editions followed until 1918, when Longman, the book's publisher, took the decision not to reprint.  In 1857 Acton published The English Bread-Book for Domestic Use, a more academic and studious work than Modern Cookery.  The work consisted of a history of bread-making in England, a study of European methods of baking and numerous recipes.  In the later years of its publication, Modern Cookery was eclipsed by the success of Isabella Beeton's bestselling Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861), which included several recipes plagiarised from Acton's work.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliza_Acton

ALL ABOUT BONES   (1)  In the last half of the 19th century, quickly following the advent of general anesthesia and the discovery of bacteria, some surgeons began specializing in treatments of the brain, eye, or other body parts.  Fracture treatment, however, remained within the domain of the generalist in cities and at times left to the care of bone setters in rural and impoverished areas.  This changed with the Industrial Revolution and specifically with the building of the Manchester Ship Canal in England, which remains the world’s longest river navigation canal at 36 miles.  (2)  Antwerp, Belgium’s second largest city, started as a river port during Roman times and grew to become the world’s diamond center.  Local legend tells of a giant who would extract tolls from boatmen navigating the river.  He cut off the hands of those resisting his tax.  A Roman legionnaire ended this nonsense by slaying the ogre and flinging his huge hand into the river.  Hantwerpen was the spelling of the city for centuries and means throwing the hand.  Some huge bones, unearthed years later, substantiated the legend.  The local museum displayed these remains as belonging to the giant until somebody realized that the bones were a fossilized rib and shoulder blade from a two-million-year-old right whale.  Scholarly research ensued and turned up aanwerp—soil deposited in a river delta—as the more likely source of the city’s name.  (3)  It may have started with primitive man clacking a couple of charred mastodon rib bones together.  Clack-clack.  Fellow cave dwellers looked up.  Then with a flip of the wrist, clackity-clackity-clack.  Music was born.  In several forms, “playing the bones” has continued to the present time.  Various museums display pairs of ancient Egyptian bone clappers in the shape of forearms and hands.  Shakespeare knew of the art.  In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Bottom commands, “I have a reasonable good ear in music; let us have the tongs and the bones.”  https://aboutbone.com

Quinoa is a brilliant and speedy ingredient for the kitchen.  Tender when cooked, with a delicate white furl of a tail, it has a nutty, satisfying taste.  Mixed with eggs, feta and herbs, and fried as a fritter, the cooked quinoa provides some welcome ballast to a dish that is bombproof.  Find recipe for Quinoa Fritters with Green Goddess Sauce at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/quinoa-fritters-with-green-goddess-sauce  Recipe excerpted with permission from New Kitchen Basics by Claire Thompson, published by Quadrille March 2019, RRP $35.00 hardcover.

In 1845, Peter Cooper dabbled with and patented a product which was "set" with gelatin.  It never did "jell" with the American public.  In 1897, Pearle Wait, a carpenter in LeRoy, New York was putting up a cough remedy and laxative tea in his home.  He experimented with gelatine and came up with a fruit flavored dessert which his wife, May, named Jell-O.  He tried to market his product but he lacked the capital and the experience.  In 1899 he sold the trademark to a fellow townsman for the sum of $450.  Jell-O changed from a hand-packaged business to a highly mechanized factory, and become one of LeRoy's most important industries.  The search for new products and unique advertising and merchandising break-throughs developed a phenominal record.  On December 31, 1925 the Jell-O Company, Inc. was sold to the Postum Cereal Company, Inc. by exchange of stock, thereby becoming the first subsidiary of a large merger that would eventually become General Foods Corporation.  And so the little Jell-O package which was born in LeRoy in 1897 grew from childhood to adulthood.  Jell-O left its hometown to make its way in the wide wide world in 1964.  Today Jell-O is manufactured by Kraft/General Foods in Dover, Delaware.  Read the rest of the story at http://www.jellogallery.org/history.html  Find Jell-O Museum information and map at http://www.jellogallery.org/visit-us.html

Why You Need a Network of Low-Stakes, Casual Friendships by Allie Volpe  Think of the parents you see in the drop-off line at school.  Your favorite bartender.  The other dog owners at the park.  The sociologist Mark Granovetter calls these low-stakes relationships “weak ties.”  Not only can these connections affect our job prospects, they also can have a positive impact on our well-being by helping us feel more connected to other social groups, according to Dr. Granovetter’s research.  Other studies have shown weak ties can offer recommendations (I found my accountant via a weak tie) and empower us to be more empathetic.  We’re likely to feel less lonely, too, research shows.  A 2014 study found that the more weak ties a person has (neighbors, a barista at the neighborhood coffee shop or fellow members in a spin class), the happier they feel.  Maintaining this network of acquaintances also contributes to one’s sense of belonging to a community, researchers found.  The desire to belong and form social attachments is a basic human need, alongside food, sleep and safety.  But once we hit 25, the number of friends we have peaks and begins to slowly dwindle over time, according to a 2016 study.  As we get older and priorities shift from after-work bowling league to after-school pickup, maintaining a loaded social calendar becomes less essential.  Staying socially engaged, then, is integral to personal fulfillment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/smarter-living/why-you-need-a-network-of-low-stakes-casual-friendships.html?te=1&nl=smarter-living&emc=edit_sl_20190513  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Borani-yeh Laboo  Nothing brightens up a meal and everyone’s moods more than a bowl of this fuchsia beet and yogurt dip.  The tang from the vinegar and yogurt balances and cuts through the earthy sweetness of the beets, and the tarragon adds a fresh bite.  You can cook the beets by steaming them on the stovetop or in the oven.  Or you can simply use store-bought cooked beets.  Scoop up with warm lavash bread, or spread on crisp endive leaves for a striking mazeh.  Serves 6

1 medium beet, cooked and peeled
1 cup Greek yogurt
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh tarragon (optional)
Olive oil for drizzling

Into a medium bowl, grate the beet on the large holes of a box grater.  Add the rest of the ingredients, except the olive oil, and mix to completely combine.  Cover and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour for the flavors to develop before serving.  Stir, drizzle with olive oil if you like, and serve.  MAKE AHEAD:  Prepare up to 3 days in advance and store in the fridge in an airtight container.  If the yogurt weeps, simply stir to incorporate again.  Drizzle with olive oil before serving.  Excerpted  BOTTOM OF THE POT:  Persian Recipes and Stories by Naz Deravian  Copyright © 2018 by Naz Deravian.  Reprinted with permission from Flatiron Books

http://potluckwithali.com/potluck/the-most-gorgeous-appetizer-is-also-the-simplest

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  I feel fairly certain that my hatred harms me more than the people whom I hate. - Max Frisch, architect, playwright, and novelist (15 May 1911-1991)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2098  May 15, 2019 

Artists the Muser is grateful for 

Konrad Cramer  http://www.artnet.com/search/artworks/?q=konrad%20Cramer

Clara L. Deike  http://www.artnet.com/artists/clara-l-deike/

Robert Kulicke  http://www.artnet.com/search/artworks/?q=robert%20kulicke

Guy Carleton Wiggins  http://www.artnet.com/search/artworks/?q=guy%20carleton%20wiggins

 In 1812, as a result of settlers moving into the region, the New York State Legislature created the Town of Bellona, taken from the western section of Caledonia.  In 1813, the State Legislature changed the name to LeRoy, after Herman LeRoy, a wealthy New York City merchant, land speculator, and owner of the Triangle Tract, a portion of which now contains the Town.  Located on the eastern border of Genesee County, The Village of LeRoy is one of the most picturesque communities in upstate New York.  First settled in 1797, the community is nestled along the beautiful Oatka Creek.  The tree-lined streets are lined with stately Victorian homes in a quiet setting only a half hour from Rochester and less than an hour from Buffalo.  http://www.leroyny.org/

“Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake.  Sing in the shower.  Dance to the radio.  Tell stories.  Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.  Do it as well as you possibly can.  You will get an enormous reward.  You will have created something.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country  “And on the subject of burning books:  I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.  So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media.  The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”  ― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/529521-practicing-an-art-no-matter-how-well-or-badly-is

The National Medal for Museum and Library Service is the nation’s highest honor for institutions that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities.  Since 1994, IMLS has presented the award to institutions that demonstrate extraordinary and innovative approaches to community service.  Link to 2019 winners and finalists at https://www.imls.gov/issues/national-initiatives/national-medal-museum-and-library-service/2019-medals

NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED - " You can't get anywhere unless you're willing to take a risk.  The saying dates back to Chaucer (c. 1374) and is similar to the late fourteenth century French proverb:  Qui onques rien n'enprist riens n'achieva (He who never undertook anything never achieved anything).  The proverb was included in John Heyword's collection of proverbs in 1546.  First cited in the United States in 'Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden.  It takes varying forms:  Nothing ventured, nothing lost, nothing ventured, nothing won, etc . . . "  From the "Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings" by Gregory Y. Titelman (Random House, New York, 1996).  https://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/951.html

Sun, Moon, and Talia is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.  Charles Perrault retold this fairy tale in 1697 as The Sleeping Beauty and also the Brothers Grimm in 1812 as Little Briar Rose.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun,_Moon,_and_Talia 

See also Sleeping Beauty, tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 410 translated and/or edited by  

D. L. Ashliman © 1998-2013 at  https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html

Charles Perrault (1628–1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française.  He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales.  The best known of his tales include Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood), Cendrillon (Cinderella), Le Chat Botté (Puss in Boots), La Belle au bois Dormant (The Sleeping Beauty) and Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard).  Some of Perrault's versions of old stories have influenced the German versions published by the Brothers Grimm more than 100 years later.  The stories continue to be printed and have been adapted to opera, ballet (such as Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty), theatre, and film.  Perrault was an influential figure in the 17th-century French literary scene, and was the leader of the Modern faction during the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Perrault

Actress Doris Day, who became one of the greatest box-office attractions of her time as the cheery, freckle-faced personification of wholesomeness, died May 13, 2019 at the age of 97.  Her shiny girl-next-door image was built on a series of innocent romantic comedies, including “Pillow Talk,” for which Day received an Oscar nomination, “That Touch of Mink” and “The Thrill of It All.”  Day also had hit records, most notably “Que Sera, Sera” from the movie “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”  It became her theme song, even though she had initially been reluctant to record it.  Day was born Doris von Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922, in Cincinnati and headed to California at age 14 to be a dancer.  She abandoned that dream after her right leg was broken in an auto accident.  Day concentrated on singing and at 16 had a job with Les Brown, one of the top orchestra leaders of the day, and recorded her first hit, “Sentimental Journey,” with him.  She changed her surname at the suggestion of a band leader who heard her sing “Day by Day.”  She stayed away from entertainment circles for more than 20 years after accepting a lifetime achievement honor from Golden Globe organizers in 1989 but released a CD in 2011.  Proceeds from the recording went to her animal foundation.  Bill Trott  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-doris-day/doris-day-hollywood-star-of-the-1950s-and-60s-dead-at-97-idUSKCN1SJ1E7

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2097  May 14, 2019 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg 

bibliotaph or bibliotaphe  (BIB-lee-uh-taf)  noun  One who hoards books.  From Greek biblio- (book) + taphos (tomb), which also gave us cenotaph.  Earliest documented use:  1823.

bouquiniste or bouquinist  (BOO-ki-neest)  noun  A dealer in old and used books.  From French bouquiniste, from bouquin (a colloquial word for a book, little book, or old book).  Earliest documented use:  1840.

pandect  (PAN-dekt)  noun  1.  A complete body of the laws of a country, organization, etc.  2.  A comprehensive treatise on a subject.  From Latin pandectes (encyclopedia), from Greek pandektes (all-receiving), from pan- (all) + dektes (receiver), from dekhesthai (to receive).  Ultimately from Indo-European root dek- (to take, accept), which also gave us dignity, discipline, doctor, decorate, docile, deign, condign, dogmatic, doxy, heterodox, philodox.  Earliest documented use:  1531.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

From:  Mike Cottrell  Subject:  bouquiniste  I had never encountered the word bouquinist(e) until reading your email this morning.  Then--quelle coincidence--I heard a programme on BBC Radio 4 Extra an hour ago called The Paris Bouquinists.

From:  Jenifer Grant  Subject:  biblio-tap-tap  If you include different languages, there is a coined word, biblio-tap-tap.  In Haiti, the Soros-funded library FOKAL reaches out to readers in neighborhoods with a converted pick-up truck, all fitted out with books to loan to kids and adults.  Tap-tap is the word for the brightly painted pick-up trucks converted to “taxis”.  In rural Deschapelles, Haiti, our Sister Cities Essex Haiti sponsored library, Bibliothèque Communautaire Deschapelles, the librarians have Biblio-Ecole and Bibio-Santé programs where they bring books to share with teachers and children in the village “ecoles” schools and the moms and children at the outlying “Centre Santés” (Hopital Albert Schweitzer Haiti Hospital Health Centers), reading to children, giving them a chance to hold and read or look at the books themselves, encouraging them to come to the library to enjoy the books and many programs offered there.

From:  Gopalakrishnan Sankaran  Subject:  bibliotaph  Your write-up for today kindles many memories.  I have been accumulating books from my younger years.  Now I am 89 and I have run short of storage space.  Any subject is grist to my reading mill.  Barring novels.  No patience tracking the plot.  Books abounding in humour are my cherished ones.  Authored by the likes of Erma Bombeck, P.G. Wodehouse, Richard Gordon, and the like.  I keep many diaries in which I write down passages, words, etc., that strike me as memorable.  I have lost count of such diaries.  Luckily for me, there is a friendly bookseller, a few steps from my home.  Knowing my taste in books, he keeps a lookout for such titles and alerts me.  In fact, he gives me a special discount.  One life is truly short for reading all what you want to read. 
From:  Katharine Dickens  Subject:  bibliotaph  Glad to know there is a word for people like me--with bookcases (full to overflowing) in almost every room in the house.  Trying to read a lot of them and now to pass them on to our local library for their book sale.  Don’t want my “children” to fuss with all of them at my demise.  Come by it honestly--both sets of grandparents as well as my parents had large libraries and some of their books are on my shelves.

Building on the 19th-century tradition established on the shores of New York’s Chautauqua Lake, Ohio Chautauqua is a five-day community event that combines living history performances, music, education, and audience participation into a one-of-a-kind cultural event the entire community will enjoy.  Daytime activities feature stimulating adult programs and hands-on workshops for youth hosted by local community organizations.  Each evening, family and friends gather as live music fills the air.  Then, a talented performer appears on stage, bringing a historic figure to life through personal stories and historic detail.  With its warm, nostalgic vibe, this truly unique experience is sure to open minds and start conversations.  The tour now travels to four towns in Ohio each summer.  Find information on the places featured in 2019 (Defiance, Milan, Geauga County and Warren) at http://www.ohiohumanities.org/ohio-chautauqua/

April 9, 2019  It was only about 40 years ago that plastic bags became standard at U.S. grocery stores.  This also made them standard in sewers, landfills, rivers and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  They clog drains and cause floods, litter landscapes and kill wildlife.  The national movement to get rid of them is gaining steam—with more than 240 cities and counties passing laws that ban or tax them since 2007.  New York recently became the second U.S. state to ban them.  But these bans may be hurting the environment more than helping it.  University of Sydney economist Rebecca Taylor recently published a study of bag regulations in California.  It's a classic tale of unintended consequences.  Before California banned plastic shopping bags statewide in late 2016, a wave of 139 California cities and counties implemented the policy themselves.  Taylor and colleagues compared bag use in cities with bans with those without them.  For six months, they spent weekends in grocery stores tallying the types of bags people carried out (she admits these weren't her wildest weekends).  She also analyzed these stores' sales data.  Taylor found these bag bans did what they were supposed to:  People in the cities with the bans used fewer plastic bags, which led to about 40 million fewer pounds of plastic trash per year.  But people who used to reuse their shopping bags for other purposes, like picking up dog poop or lining trash bins, still needed bags.  "What I found was that sales of garbage bags actually skyrocketed after plastic grocery bags were banned," she says.  This was particularly the case for small, 4-gallon bags, which saw a 120 percent increase in sales after bans went into effect.  Trash bags are thick and use more plastic than typical shopping bags.  "So about 30 percent of the plastic that was eliminated by the ban comes back in the form of thicker garbage bags," Taylor says.  On top of that, cities that banned plastic bags saw a surge in the use of paper bags, which she estimates resulted in about 80 million pounds of extra paper trash per year.  Plastic haters, it's time to brace yourselves.  A bunch of studies find that paper bags are actually worse for the environment.  They require cutting down and processing trees, which involves lots of water, toxic chemicals, fuel and heavy machinery.  While paper is biodegradable and avoids some of the problems of plastic, Taylor says, the huge increase of paper, together with the uptick in plastic trash bags, means banning plastic shopping bags increases greenhouse gas emissions.  That said, these bans do reduce nonbiodegradable litter.  What about reusable cloth bags?  We know die-hard public radio fans love them!  They've got to be great, right?  Nope.  They can be even worse.  A 2011 study by the U.K. government found a person would have to reuse a cotton tote bag 131 times before it was better for climate change than using a plastic grocery bag once.  The Danish government recently did a study that took into account environmental impacts beyond simply greenhouse gas emissions, including water use, damage to ecosystems and air pollution.  These factors make cloth bags even worse.  They estimate you would have to use an organic cotton bag 20,000 times more than a plastic grocery bag to make using it better for the environment.  Greg Rosalsky

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/04/09/711181385/are-plastic-bag-bans-garbage  Thank you, Muse reader!

Hoi polloi is an expression from Greek that means the many or, in the strictest sense, the people.  In English, it has been given a negative connotation to signify deprecation of the working class, commoners, the masses or common people in a derogatory or (more often today) ironic sense.  Synonyms for hoi polloi, which also express the same or similar distaste for the common people felt by those who believe themselves to be superior, include "Basket of deplorables", "the great unwashed", "the plebeians" or "plebs", "the rabble", "the masses","the dregs of society", "riffraff", "the herd", "the canaille", "the proles" (proletariat), "sheeple", and "peons".  The phrase probably became known to English scholars through Pericles' Funeral Oration, as mentioned in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War.  Pericles uses it in a positive way when praising the Athenian democracy, contrasting it with hoi oligoi, "the few."  Its current English usage originated in the early 19th century, a time when it was generally accepted that one must be familiar with Greek and Latin in order to be considered well educated.  The phrase was originally written in Greek letters.  Knowledge of these languages served to set apart the speaker from hoi polloi in question, who were not similarly educated.  There have been numerous uses of the term in English literature.  James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans, is often credited with making the first recorded usage of the term in English.  The first recorded use by Cooper occurs in his 1837 work Gleanings in Europe where he writes "After which the oi polloi are enrolled as they can find interest."  Lord Byron had, in fact, previously used the term in his letters and journal.  In one journal entry, dated 24 November 1813, Byron writes "I have not answered W. Scott's last letter,—but I will.  I regret to hear from others, that he has lately been unfortunate in pecuniary involvements.  He is undoubtedly the Monarch of Parnassus, and the most English of bards.  I should place Rogers next in the living list (I value him more as the last of the best school)—Moore and Campbell both third—Southey and Wordsworth and Coleridge.  Byron also wrote an 1821 entry in his journal " . . . one or two others, with myself, put on masks, and went on the stage with the 'oi polloi."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2096  May 13, 2019  

Deuki Hong still remembers the day he discovered what kimchi really was.  As is true for most Koreans, "there was never a time in my life when kimchi wasn't in my refrigerator," says Hong, the chef at Korean fried chicken shop Sunday Bird in San Francisco and coauthor of the cookbook Koreatown.  But when he started learning to cook in middle school, he was always more interested in watching Jacques Pépin reruns on the weekend than in the fiery red fermented cabbage that was always in the kitchen, which, to him, symbolized his inherited knowledge of everything about Korean cuisine.  Then his mother took him to the grocery store in New York where she'd been buying their kimchi.  "There was this whole section of red and green and white," he says—jars of heart-shaped perilla leaves and soybeans, and, traumatically, little quart containers of shucked oysters and julienned carrots.  "It was a culture shock to me, even though it was my own culture," Hong remembers.  "I thought [kimchi] was just one dish."  But kimchi is a lot more than cabbage. The term "is actually more of an active verb," says Lauryn Chun, the founder of Mother-in-Law's Kimchi and the author of an excellent primer on the subject, The Kimchi Cookbook.  "You can 'kimchi' just about anything."  JOSHUA SCHENKKAN   https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/11/guide-to-kimchi.html  Find location of H Mart stores selling Korean food at https://www.hmart.com/ourstores

It sounds like something from Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s The Shadow of the Wind and his The Cemetery of Forgotten Books:  a huge volume containing thousands of summaries of books from 500 years ago, many of which no longer exist.  But the real deal has been found in Copenhagen, where it has lain untouched for more than 350 years.  The Libro de los Epítomes manuscript, which is more than a foot thick, contains more than 2,000 pages and summaries from the library of Hernando Colón, the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus who made it his life’s work to create the biggest library the world had ever known in the early part of the 16th century.  Running to around 15,000 volumes, the library was put together during Colón’s extensive travels.  Today, only around a quarter of the books in the collection survive and have been housed in Seville Cathedral since 1552.  The discovery in the Arnamagnæan Collection in Copenhagen is “extraordinary”, and a window into a “lost world of 16th-century books”, said Cambridge academic Dr Edward Wilson-Lee, author of the biography of Colón, The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books.  The manuscript was found in the collection of Árni Magnússon, an Icelandic scholar born in 1663, who donated his books to the University of Copenhagen on his death in 1730.  The majority of the some 3,000 items are in Icelandic or Scandinavian languages, with only around 20 Spanish manuscripts, which is probably why the Libro de los Epítomes went unnoticed for hundreds of years.  It was Guy Lazure at the University of Windsor in Canada who first spotted the connection to Colón.  The Arnamagnæan Institute then contacted Mark McDonald at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, who passed it on to Wilson-Lee and his co-author José María Pérez Fernández, of the University of Granada, for verification.  After amassing his collection, Colón employed a team of writers to read every book in the library and distill each into a little summary in Libro de los Epítomes, ranging from a couple of lines long for very short texts to about 30 pages for the complete works of Plato, which Wilson-Lee dubbed the “miracle of compression”.  Because Colón collected everything he could lay his hands on, the catalogue is a real record of what people were reading 500 years ago, rather than just the classics.  “The important part of Hernando’s library is it’s not just Plato and Cortez, he’s summarising everything from almanacs to news pamphlets.  This is really giving us a window into the entirety of early print, much of which has gone missing, and how people read it--a world that is largely lost to us,” said Wilson-Lee.  Wilson-Lee and Pérez Fernández are currently working on a comprehensive account of the library, which will be published in 2020.  They are also working to digitise the manuscript, in collaboration with the Arnamagnæan Institute.  Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/10/extraordinary-500-year-old-library-catalogue-reveals-books-lost-to-time-libro-de-los-epitomes

Maybe it was part of President Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to end the "war on Christmas," freeing up believers to openly extol the virtues of stollen bread without fear of running afoul of fruitcake hate groups.  Whatever the case, Trump on May 5, 2019 was responding to a tweet from Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the famous Southern Baptist pastor and president of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, who suggested the president should have two years added to his first term as "pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup."  The term "failed coup" was a reference to special counsel Robert Mueller's two-year investigation.  An excerpt from the tweet:  "they have stollen two years of my (our) Presidency"  The misspelling sent readers back to 14th-century Germany, where stollen bread was reportedly created around Dresden in 1329.  Despite its inclusion of raisins, citron and butter, stollen apparently assumed a more ascetic persona during Lent, the 40 days when Christians may fast or make other sacrifices.  During Lent, bakers, it seems, were required to use only flour, oats and water to make stollen.  But as the treat became associated with the Christmas holidays, stollen reverted to its original form as a yeasted bread laced with candied fruit and spices.  The term "stollen" is derived from the German word for "tunnel," specifically to the type of man-made tunnels carved into the earth.  The area around Dresden has historically been mining country.  Tim Carman  https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-a-single-typo-turns-a-german-holiday-bread-into-a-twitter-star-2033906

Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio was created by a remarkable American family.  Inspired by viewing Audubon’s lithographs at the 1876 World’s Fair, twenty-nine year old artist Genevieve Jones began work on a companion to Birds of America, but this time illustrating the nests and eggs that Audubon left out.  Her brother collected the nests and eggs, her father paid all publishing costs, and Genevieve and her girlhood friend learned lithography and undertook the work of a lifetime.  Ninety copies were originally printed in 1886, and only about twenty-five copies exist as of 2012.  Originally the Jones family took subscriptions for the eventual publication of the book.  Among the original subscribers:  President Rutherford B. Hayes, and a young Harvard college student by the name of Theodore Roosevelt.  “If Audubon is the Robinson Crusoe of nature art, then the Jones are the Swiss Family Robinson."  Jonathan Rosen, author of The Life of the Skies

See pictures at https://landlibrary.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/a-young-artists-vision-and-the-family-that-saw-it-through/  See also https://www.sil.si.edu/ondisplay/nestsandeggs/essay.htm

The First Transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the "Pacific Railroad" and later as the "Overland Route") was a 1,912-mile (3,077 km) continuous railroad line constructed between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay.  The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive US land grants.  Construction was financed by both state and US government subsidy bonds as well as by company issued mortgage bonds.  The railroad opened for through traffic when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold "Last Spike" (later often referred to as the "Golden Spike") with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit.  See picture of the Last Spike ceremony on May 10, 1869 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2095  May 10, 2019 

In New York's  Hudson Valley, you needn’t look too hard to find record-setting accomplishments of all types, from the Bronck Museum’s 13-sided barn (oldest of its kind in the state) to the Walkway Over the Hudson (longest pedestrian bridge in the world).  But would you be surprised to learn that, for nearly 50 years, the highest and fastest roller coaster anywhere was located in Poughkeepsie?  Sadly, this golden age of midway magic was relatively short-lived.  “In the late 1920s,” says Gottlock, “the country was entering the Depression.  People had less expendable income—and going to an amusement park was a frill they couldn’t afford.  By the ’30s, steamships were beginning to decline because people now had cars.  They didn’t need to be taken to a destination by a train or a day liner—they could go anywhere.”  Many of the parks closed around this time, although several stayed in business into the 1940s and ’50s.   The Electric Park at Kinderhook Lake in Columbia County opened in 1901; it was one of dozens that opened around the country between the late 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century.  The term “electric park” referred to amusement parks that were developed, owned, and usually operated by railroad and power companies.  The rails provided the means for the massive movement of people during the work week, but weekend business was weak; in an effort to maximize profits, company owners developed destinations for families during the time when people were not at work.  The parks were constructed at an electric trolley stop, and were often illuminated by colorful lights.  It should be noted that Kinderhook’s Electric Park debuted some two years before the historic Luna Park at Coney Island in 1903.  The Woodcliff Pleasure Park in Poughkeepsie occupied a 27-acre site on what is now the northernmost portion of the Marist College campus.  It was a premier park whose heyday spanned the years from 1927-1941.  Its quick rise and sudden demise were nothing short of startling.  Read more and see pictures at http://www.hvmag.com/Hudson-Valley-Magazine/May-2014/Lost-Amusement-Parks-of-the-Hudson-Valley/

A color wheel is an illustrative model of color hues around a circle.  It shows the relationships between the primary, secondary, and intermediate/ tertiary colors and helps demonstrate color temperature.  Digital teams communicate exact colors through the use of hex codes.  Many color wheels are shown using 12 colors.  Three Primary Colors:  Red, Yellow, Blue; Three Secondary Colors:  Orange, Green, Violet; Six Tertiary Colors:  Red-Orange, Yellow-Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet--which are formed by mixing a primary with a secondary.  It’s important to note that some people add more intermediates, for 24 total named colors.  Neutral colors include black, white, gray, tans, and browns.  See color wheel at https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/color-basics.html  See also Primary, Secondary and Complementary Colours by V. Ryan © 2002-2017 at

http://www.technologystudent.com/designpro/pricol1.htm and Complementary Colors at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complementary_colors

6 Women You Didn’t Know Were Members of the Algonquin Round Table by Kevin Fitzpatrick  The Algonquin Hotel, 59 W. Forty-fourth Street, sits in the middle of “Club Row” a block west of Times Square.  In June 1919, not long after he returned from serving in the army, Alexander Woollcott was treated to a free lunch here.  Woollcott was the acerbic theater critic on the Times, and his hosts were two Broadway publicists, Murdock Pemberton and John Peter Toohey.  The men invited a colorful cast of characters from newspaper city rooms, magazine offices, and the Broadway milieu.  As the legends hold, Dorothy Parker, at the time a Vanity Fair staffer and freelance poet, and Edna Ferber, novelist and short fiction dynamo, were popular members.  But among the famous men—columnists Franklin P. Adams and Heywood Broun, composer Deems Taylor, playwrights Marc Connelly, George S. Kaufman, and Robert E. Sherwood, and humorist Robert Benchley—women were always in the midst.  Read stories and see pictures of actress Margalo Gillmore, reporter Jane Grant, editor Beatrice Kaufman, double Pulitzer-winner Margaret Leech, actress Peggy Wood, and feminist Ruth Hale.  (Ruth Hale sued the U.S. State Department because she wanted a passport issued in her own name, not as the wife of her husband, Heywood Broun.  She lost that fight.)  http://www.algonquinroundtable.org/6-women-you-didnt-know-were-members-of-the-algonquin-round-table/

What Is the Difference Between Waffles and Belgian Waffles? by Caitlin M. O'Shaughnessy   Belgian waffles originated at The Brussels World Fair Expo ’58 and were introduced in North America in 1962 at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle.  Authentic Belgian waffles, also known as liege waffles, typically have a yeasted batter which makes them light and fluffy yet crisp outside, but sometimes baking powder and/or baking soda are used instead.  Other versions rely on whipped egg whites (like this recipe for “True Belgian Waffles” that beats the egg yolks into the milk and butter, then whips up the whites and gently folds them in) for that airy texture.  Regular waffles (or American waffles) are made in a smaller waffle iron that doesn’t make pockets as deep as the Belgian waffle maker and heats up even faster because of its size.  https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/176608/what-is-the-difference-between-waffles-and-belgian-waffles/

Galettes (French Waffles)  Find recipe at http://www.whatmegansmaking.com/2009/12/galettes-french-waffles.html

Pizzelle means “small, flat, and round” and that’s exactly what these waffle/cookies are.   Find recipe at https://www.culinaryhill.com/pizzelle-italian-cookies/

waffle  verb  to talk or write a lot without giving any useful information or any clear answers.  dither to be unable to make a decision.  https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/waffle

Sewah Studios creates between 1,200 and 1,300 markers annually at its plant in Marietta, Ohio, and has created markers in all 50 states and around the world.  The company currently makes the official markers for more than 30 states and also supplies customers in England, France, Mexico, and Jamaica, and a few other countries as well.  Made of cast aluminum, the markers are handcrafted by some 20 employees—who do everything from gluing text onto the templates to pouring molten aluminum into molds to painting letters and logos to shipping them in custom-built crates.  Bradford Smith is president of Sewah Studios, the world’s leading historical marker manufacturer.  “We’ve always produced our signs by hand,” Smith says.  “That’s why they’re works of art.”  It’s certainly fitting that history-laden Marietta, the first permanent settlement in Ohio, dating to 1788, is the company’s home.  Local salesman, cartographer, and history buff E.M. Hawes founded it in an old organ factory in 1927 (“Sewah” is “Hawes” spelled backward).  Automobile tourism was gaining popularity, and Hawes saw an opportunity to build a roadside marker business.  “Hawes was a visionary,” Smith says.  “He saw a niche he could fill, and he did it with aluminum alloys.”  Ohio currently has more than 1,600 historical markers, and Sewah Studios has made every one since 1957.  Its relationship with some states, however, is even longer.  Sewah Studios, for example, has made Mississippi’s magnolia-adorned markers since 1949.  “It has proven to be a wonderful partnership for us,” says Jim Woodrick of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, “because Sewah Studios does a great job with its products and goes out of its way to help.”  In an online age where messaging is instantaneous, the markers are like permanent Post-It notes from the past.  They lend the nation’s landscape a sense of place, invite contemplation and conversation, and chronicle often unknown but always authentic stories that both educate and amaze.  They also cover every conceivable subject from actors (such as Steubenville’s Dean Martin marker) to zoos (such as the Toledo Zoo’s marker about its New Deal buildings).  “At Sewah Studios,” observes Smith, “we’re America’s storytellers.”  posted by Damaine Vonada  https://ohioec.org/ohio-cooperative-living/marking-history-mariettas-sewah-studios/

The longtime eatery Zahav in Philadelphia is focused on Israeli cuisine.  And on May 6, 2019, it won the James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant.  See list of winners at https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/us/james-beard-winners-2019-trnd/index.html

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  The buck stops here. - Harry Truman, 33rd US president (8 May 1884-1972)

WORD OF THE DAY  megapolitan  adjective  

 (comparative more megapolitan, superlative most megapolitan)

Of or pertaining to a megapolis (“a very large city or urban complex”). quotations ▼

noun  megapolitan (plural megapolitans)

Synonym of megapolis quotations ▼

An inhabitant of a megapolis.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/megapolitan#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2094  May 8, 2019

The setting of Winesburg, a fictional town in northwestern Ohio, is based closely on Clyde, Ohio, the town to which Sherwood Anderson’s family moved when he was seven years old and where he lived until his mother died in 1895.  After his mother’s death, Anderson spent two years working in a Chicago warehouse before returning to Clyde to join his Ohio National Guard unit for service in the Spanish-American War, where he saw no action and was posted to the American south and later Cuba.  After his return from Cuba he was in Clyde again briefly before leaving for Wittenberg Academy in Springfield, Ohio for what would be his last year of formal education.  After this brief period of schooling he moved to Chicago in 1900, departing from Clyde for good although he later returned to visit.  There is an actual Ohio town called Winesburg, but it is located in Holmes County, an area known for its Amish population, in the east central portion of the state.  The town of Clyde traces its origin to a frontier settlement called Hamer’s Corners.  This book, variously described as a novel or short story cycle, influenced Hemingway, Faulkner, and other writers who profoundly shaped American literature during the last century.  Winesburg, Ohio still holds its own.  Faulkner called Anderson “the father of all my works” and the one who showed him and others of his generation “the way.”  The Clyde Public Library, an elegant Carnegie library with a room devoted to Anderson and Clyde history, has a room called the Thaddeus B. Hurd Room, named after a local man, an architect by profession, who worked to preserve Clyde history.  Hurd’s father, Herman Hurd, was one of Sherwood Anderson’s boyhood friends.  The Hurd Room includes copies of all of Anderson’s books, including foreign language editions from both Europe and Asia.  A handsome painting by George White of the Alfred Stieglitz photo of Sherwood Anderson from 1923 hangs in the Thaddeus Hurd Room of the Clyde Public Library.  https://www.buckeyemuse.com/going-home-to-winesburg-sherwood-andersons-clyde-ohio/

A cabbage roll is a dish consisting of cooked cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings.  It is common to the cuisines of the Balkans, Central, Northern, Eastern Europe, Azerbaijan and Iran, as well as West Asia and Northern China.  Meat fillings are traditional in Europe, often beef, lamb, or pork seasoned with garlic, onion, and spices.  Grains such as rice and barley, mushrooms, and vegetables are often included.  Pickled cabbage leaves are often used for wrapping, particularly in Southeastern Europe.  In Asia, seafoods, tofu, and shiitake mushroom may also be used.  Chinese cabbage is often used as a wrapping.  Cabbage leaves are stuffed with the filling which are then baked, simmered, or steamed in a covered pot and generally eaten warm, often accompanied with a sauce.  The sauce varies widely by cuisine.  Always in Sweden and sometimes in Finland, stuffed cabbage is served with lingonberry jam, which is both sweet and tart.  In Eastern Europe, tomato-based sauces or plain sour cream are typical.  In Lebanon, it is a popular plate, where the cabbage is stuffed with rice and minced meat and only rolled to the size of cigar.  It is usually served with a side of yogurt and a type of lemon and olive oil vinaigrette seasoned with garlic and dried mint.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabbage_roll

On September 17, 1883, William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey.  He began writing poetry while a student at Horace Mann High School, at which time he made the decision to become both a writer and a doctor.  He received his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met and befriended Ezra Pound.  Pound became a great influence on his writing, and in 1913 arranged for the London publication of Williams’s second collection, The Tempers.  Returning to Rutherford, where he sustained his medical practice throughout his life, Williams began publishing in small magazines and embarked on a prolific career as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright.  Following Pound, he was one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement, though as time went on, he began to increasingly disagree with the values put forth in the work of Pound and especially Eliot, who he felt were too attached to European culture and traditions.  Continuing to experiment with new techniques of meter and lineation, Williams sought to invent an entirely fresh—and singularly American—poetic, whose subject matter was centered on the everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people.  He continued writing up until his death in New Jersey on March 4, 1963.  Link to information on Objectivists, Modernism, Metaphysical Poet and Imagism--and poems by William Carlos Williams  at https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/william-carlos-williams

Janet Echelman creates massive fiber pieces.  Each soft sculpture begins as a vision in her head, as she thinks about the site and the commission.  In her Boston studio, she and a design team use custom software to turn her vision into a virtual 3D model.  Then they turn to dozens of professionals to make it real.  Link to March 2011 TED talk "Taking imagination seriously" by Janet Echelman at https://ideas.ted.com/gallery-fantastical-floating-sculptures-that-will-send-your-mind-soaring/  9:26 

A company in Lewiston, Maine that makes and sells edible insects is planning a major expansion during 2019 as demand for crickets and other critters as snacks and garnishes grows.  The most popular flavors are cotton candy, because of the kids, and Italian lasagna.  Other flavors are Indian curry, lemon meringue, mango habanero, orange creamsicle, Mexican mole, sun dried tomato, jalapeno garlic and white cheddar.  While Entosense imports dried insects from Asia and Mexico, which it subsequently flavors and repackages for sale, it plans to once again start raising insects, including the Acheta cricket and scorpions, in Lewiston.  Lori Valigra  https://bangordailynews.com/2019/05/03/business/more-people-are-eating-insects-so-a-maine-company-that-sells-them-has-big-growth-plans/  Thank you, Muse reader!

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  When old words die out on the tongue, new melodies break forth from the heart; and where the old tracks are lost, new country is revealed with its wonders. - Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941)

Game of Thrones Gaffe  See the viral phot of the table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) from the May 5, 2019 episode.   Starbucks has chimed in on the epic gaffe.  “TBH we’re surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink,” the company wrote on Twitter, referring to their new tropical-inspired refreshment.  When one fan asked Starbucks what dragons drink anyway, they replied in the most fanboy way ever:  “Whatever they want.”  That’s a direct reference to the Season 8 premiere in which Dany said that when her dragons get hungry they eat “whatever they want.”  Well played, Starbucks.  UPDATE:  Here is the official response from HBO:  “The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake.  Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.”  Marcus James Dixon  https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/starbucks-responds-game-of-thrones-coffee-cup-gaffe-dragons/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2093  May 7, 2019