The name Renée is French for "reborn."  The name Guy is of Old German origin, and the meaning is "wood".  Diana is of Latin origin and means divine.  Katherine is of Greek origin and means pure.  Lucille comes from Lucia, whose famous namesake was a fourth-century patron saint of the blind (like Lucia, Lucille means “light”).  

The pistachio nut is a member of the Cashew family, which also includes sumac, mango and poison ivy.  Pistachios have been cultivated for over 7,000 years and are mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.  They are popular in Greece, and are used there in many pastries.  Legend has it that the Queen of Sheba decreed pistachios an exclusively royal food, going so far as to forbid commoners from growing the nut for personal use.  Nebuchadnezzar, the ancient king of Babylon, had pistachio trees planted in his fabled hanging gardens.  In the first century A.D., the Emperor Vitellius debuted this prized nut in his capital city of Rome.  According to Moslem legend, the pistachio nut was one of the foods brought to Earth by Adam.  Pistachio production in the U.S. was 346 million pounds in 2004.  The U.S. is the world's 2nd largest producer of pistachios, Iran is the largest.  Pistachios are one of only two nuts mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 43:11) the other being almonds.  Pistachios are also called the 'green almond' and are known as the 'smiling nut' in Iran and the 'happy nut' in China.  http://www.foodreference.com/html/f-pistachios.html 

A chemically pure and structurally perfect diamond is perfectly transparent with no hue, or color.  However, in reality almost no gem-sized natural diamonds are absolutely perfect.  The color of a diamond may be affected by chemical impurities and/or structural defects in the crystal lattice.  Depending on the hue and intensity of a diamond's coloration, a diamond's color can either detract from or enhance its value.  For example, most white diamonds are discounted in price when more yellow hue is detectable, while intense pink diamonds or blue diamonds (such as the Hope Diamond) can be dramatically more valuable.  Of all colored diamonds, red diamonds are the rarest.  The Aurora Pyramid of Hope displays a spectacular array of naturally colored diamonds, including red diamonds.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_color 

Alternating layers of Yukon Gold and sweet potatoes make this cheesy gratin a perfect Thanksgiving side dish.  It’s adapted from Recipes From the President’s Ranch (The White House Historical Association) by Matthew Wendel, former personal chef to President George W. and Laura Bush.  He began cooking for the Bushes at the Texas Governor’s Mansion and followed them to the White House and to their Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas.  He prepared his homey West Texas fare for heads of state, from Angela Merkel to Tony Blair.  “I made this gratin mostly at Camp David in the fall.  It’s great for a crowd.”  https://parade.com/1118194/alison-ashton/potato-gratin-with-gruyere-and-fresh-rosemary-recipe/

Franklin Pierce Adams, (1881-1960) or F.P.A. as he was known to readers in his lifetime, was best known for his witty and satirical column “The Conning Tower,” which was syndicated in the New York Tribune, the New York World, the New York Herald Tribune, and the New York Post.  In his column, to which he had a cult-like following, Adams wrote limericks, puns, and satirical prose to dissect political events, review books and plays, and parody the age.  A forthright writer who had the freedom to comment on whatever he chose, F.P.A. peppered his column with light verse.  He scorned unrhymed free verse, and his poetry was clever and catchy, utilizing the kind of quipping that was the very spirit of his column.  His audience was known to repeat these “F.P.A.isms” everywhere.   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/franklin-pierce-adams 

World-famous painter Edvard Munch willed all of his works still in his possession to the municipality of Oslo.  The donation amounted to about 28 000 paintings, sketches, photographs and sculptures.  It has long been clear that their current home, Oslo's Munch Museum, is insufficient both with respect to displaying and maintaining this collection.  In 2008, Oslo's city council decided to build a new museum for Munch's art.  An architectural competition for the new museum was announced, and in 2009 an international jury named as the winner Spanish architect Juan Herreros' proposal Lambda.  The tower, which sits on a three-story podium, has two zones:  one static and one dynamic.  The static zone is an enclosed concrete structure, which complies with stringent requirements in order to protect the art.  The dynamic zone has an open, transparent façade with beautiful views over the city and the Oslo fjord.  With a total of 13 floors and 11 gallery spaces, MUNCH will be able to offer a wide range of approaches to Edvard Munch and his art, and to juxtapose his oeuvre with those of other modernists and contemporary artists.  Take a sneak peek at the new MUNCH museum, Deichman main library, and National Museum at https://www.visitoslo.com/en/your-oslo/new-architecture/on-the-horizon/lambda/  MUNCH in Bjørvika is currently scheduled to open in the autumn of 2021. 

The phrase to warm the cockles of one’s heart means to give one a comforting feeling of contentment.  The noun cockle now denotes specifically an edible burrowing bivalve mollusc with a strong ribbed shell common on sandy coasts (Genus Cardium, family Cardiidae).  But it was formerly applied more vaguely to other bivalves and their shells.  This is because this word is from Old French coquille, meaning shell (with the English shifting of the stress, the original Middle-English forms such as cokille have become cockle, in the same way that gentle is from Middle-English forms such as gentile).  In his textbook Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530), the teacher and scholar of languages John Palsgrave translated both the English terms coccle fysshe and cokell shell as French coquille.  The expression the cockles of one’s heart is first recorded in Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds.  Find other origin stories at https://wordhistories.net/2017/09/27/cockles-of-heart-origin/

‘Big Shot’: Vaccine Theme Songs Have Their Moment The Wall Street Journal  April 13, 2021  p. A1

The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play. - Arnold J. Toynbee, historian (14 Apr 1889-1975) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2351  April 14, 2021

In the fifth century B.C.E., Zeno of Elea offered arguments that led to conclusions contradicting what we all know from our physical experience—that runners run, that arrows fly, and that there are many different things in the world.  The arguments were paradoxes for the ancient Greek philosophers.  Because many of the arguments turn crucially on the notion that space and time are infinitely divisible, Zeno was the first person to show that the concept of infinity is problematical.  In the Achilles Paradox, Achilles races to catch a slower runner—for example, a tortoise that is crawling in a line away from him.  The tortoise has a head start, so if Achilles hopes to overtake it, he must run at least as far as the place where the tortoise presently is, but by the time he arrives there, it will have crawled to a new place, so then Achilles must run at least to this new place, but the tortoise meanwhile will have crawled on, and so forth.  https://iep.utm.edu/zeno-par/  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno 

White Castle is an American regional hamburger restaurant chain with 377 locations across 13 states, with its greatest presence in the Midwest.  It has been generally credited as the world's first fast-food hamburger chain.  It is known for its small, square hamburgers referred to as "sliders".  The burgers were initially priced at five cents until 1929 and remained at 10 cents until 1949.  In the 1940s, White Castle periodically ran promotional ads in local newspapers which contained coupons offering five burgers for ten cents, takeout only.  On January 14, 2014, Time labeled the White Castle slider as the most influential burger of all time.  Walter (Walt) A. Anderson (1880–1963), a cook, had been running food stands in Wichita since 1916 when he opened his first diner in a converted streetcar.  After a second and third location, he was looking to open a fourth location when he met Edgar Waldo "Billy" A. Ingram, an insurance and real-estate man, and together they started the White Castle chain.  White Castle was founded in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas.  Anderson partnered with Ingram to make White Castle into a chain of restaurants and market the brand and its distinctive product.  Anderson and Ingram started with only $700 for the original White Castle in Wichita, Kansas.  The original location was the northwest corner of First and Main; the building is no longer standing.  At the time, Americans were hesitant to eat ground beef after Upton Sinclair's 1906 novel The Jungle had publicized the poor sanitation practices of the meat packing industry.  The founders set out to change the public's perception of the cleanliness of the industry they were creating.  To invoke a feeling of cleanliness, their restaurants were small buildings with stainless steel interiors, and employees outfitted with spotless uniforms.  Their first restaurants in Wichita, Kansas, were a success, and the company branched out into other Midwestern markets, starting in 1922 with El Dorado, Kansas.  Since fast food was unknown in the United States at the time of White Castle's founding, there was no infrastructure to support the business, as is common with today's fast-food restaurants.  The company established centralized bakeries, meat supply plants, and warehouses to supply itself.  It was said that the only things that they did not do themselves were raise the cows and grow their own wheat.  Ingram developed a device to produce previously unheard of paper hats (for employees to wear as part of the uniform).  In 1932, Ingram set up a subsidiary, Paperlynen, to produce these hats and other paper products used in his restaurants as well as for many other purposes.  At the time, White Castle's distribution stretched from Wichita to New York.  Ingram decided the central office should be in the center of the distribution area.  (To accommodate this, in 1936, the central office would relocate to Columbus, Ohio.  Furthermore, in the same year, Ingram decided to close all of the restaurants in the two smallest-profit markets, Wichita and Omaha.)  In 1955, Paperlynen produced over 42 million paper hats worldwide with more than 25,000 different inscriptions.  White Castle also created a subsidiary in 1934 named Porcelain Steel Buildings that manufactured movable, prefabricated, steel frame structures with porcelain enamel interior and exterior panels that could be assembled at any of its restaurant sites.  This is the first known use of this material in a building design.  Anderson is credited with the invention of the hamburger bun as well as "the kitchen as assembly line, and the cook as infinitely replaceable technician," hence giving rise to the modern fast-food phenomenon.  Due to White Castle's innovation of having chain-wide standardized methods, customers could be sure that they would receive the same product and service in every White Castle restaurant.  Ingram's business savvy not only was responsible for White Castle's success but for the popularization of the hamburger.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant) 

In the pink is an English idiom that means to be at the peak of health, to be in perfect condition.  The expression in the pink to mean to be at the peak of health goes back to the 1500s when the word pink did not refer to a color.  At that time, the word pink referred to a certain type of flower called dianthus, still referred to as pinks in the English vernacular, today.  Pinks, the flowers, were considered the pinnacle of floral design and so the word pink came to mean anything that was the pinnacle of excellence.  The word pink is derived from the Danish term pinck oogen, which translates as half-closed eyes or small eyes, a clear reference to the appearance of the dianthus flower.  Unbelievably, the word pink to mean a color was not used until the end of the 1700s, and not in general use until the 1800s.  https://grammarist.com/idiom/in-the-pink/  See pictures of the perennial dianthus at https://www.thespruce.com/perennial-dianthus-flower-1316045 

Grendel is a character in the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf (AD 700–1000).  He is one of the poem's three antagonists (along with his mother and the dragon), all aligned in opposition against the protagonist Beowulf.  Grendel is feared by all in Heorot but Beowulf.  He is usually depicted as a monster or a giant, although his status as a monster, giant, or other form of supernatural being is not clearly described in the poem and thus remains the subject of scholarly debate.  The character of Grendel and his role in the story of Beowulf have been subject to numerous reinterpretations and re-imaginings.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grendel 

Although Grendel looks something like a man—having two arms (or claws), two legs, and one head—he is much larger and can defeat dozens of men at a time.  He is protected from man's weapons by a magic charm.  He is a mix of man and beast; his fury is based on very human feelings of resentment and jealousy.  The novelist and Anglo-Saxon scholar John Gardner explores the inner conflicts of the character in his 1971 novel, Grendel, an intensely moving, funny, and perceptive book.  https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/b/beowulf/character-analysis/grendel  See also https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/grendel/characters/  Grendel, the first and most terrifying monster in English literature from the great early epic Beowulf, tells his own side of the story in this frequently banned book.  "It deserves a place on the same shelf as Lord of the Flies, Cat's Cradle and Catcher in the Rye."-Christian Science Monitor.  https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/book/515158/grendel/john-gardner/ 

April 12 is the International Day of Human Space Flight, which is recognized by the United Nations to celebrate the start of the space era, to reaffirm space science and technology’s contributions towards achieving sustainable development goals, and to emphasize the need to maintain outer space for peaceful purposes.  It commemorates the first human space flight by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, which took place on April 12, 1961.  Wikipedia 

If life's lessons could be reduced to single sentences, there would be no need for fiction. - Scott Turow, author and lawyer (b. 12 Apr 1949) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2350  April 12, 2021 

Blueback herring, alewife, hickory and American shad are members of the herring family (Clupeidae).  They are anadromous fishes, which means they spend the majority of their adult lives at sea and migrate up coastal rivers in the spring to spawn in freshwater.  See pictures at https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Fishing/documents/Shad_Herring_ID_032017.pdf

Red Cabbage and Corn Slaw  serves 4  Link to other recipes at https://www.ricardocuisine.com/en/recipes/8060-red-cabbage-and-corn-slaw 

Libraries are essential in a process of giving citizens access to knowledge.  In digital times they are needed more than ever before.  In times of the internet, everyone can visit a library without leaving home.  It’s just a matter of opening a library website, and you can not only borrow an ebook but also ask the librarian an online question.  Most importantly, however, libraries are the places where you can expect smart and clear answers to even the most difficult questions.  "The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library."  Albert Einstein (1879-1955)  Find other library quotes at https://www.librarianshipstudies.com/2018/05/quotes-libraries-librarians-library-information-science.html 

List of gravity hills and magnetic hills around the world.  A gravity hill is a place where a slight downhill slope appears to be an uphill slope due to the layout of the surrounding land, creating the optical illusion that water flows uphill or that a car left out of gear will roll uphill.  Many of these sites have no specific name and are often called just "Gravity Hill", "Magnetic Hill", "Magic Road" or something similar.  Go to United States to see if your state is listed at    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gravity_hills 

The "sword of Damocles" is a modern expression, which to us means a sense of impending doom, the feeling that there is some catastrophic threat looming over you.   That's not exactly its original meaning, however.  The expression comes to us from the writings of the Roman politician, orator, and philosopher Cicero (106-43 BC).  Cicero's point was that death looms over each of us, and we ought to try to be happy in spite of that.  Others have interpreted his meaning to be similar to "don't judge people until you've walked in their shoes".  Others, such as Verbaal (2006) argue that the story was part of a subtle suggestion to Julius Caesar that he needed to avoid the pitfalls of tyranny: the denial of spiritual life and the lack of friends.  The way Cicero tells it, Damocles was the name of a sycophant (adsentator in Latin), one of the several yes-men in the court of Dionysius, a 4th century BC tyrant.  Dionysius ruled Syracuse, a city in Magna Graecia, the Greek area of southern Italy.  To his subjects, Dionysius appeared to be very rich and comfortable, with all the luxuries money could buy, tasteful clothing and jewelry, and access to delectable food in lavish feasts.  Damocles was prone to compliment the king on his army, his resources, the majesty of his rule, the abundance of his storehouses, and the greatness of his royal palace:  surely, said Damocles to the king, there had never been a happier man.  Dionysius turned to him and asked Damocles if he would like to try living Dionysius's life.  Damocles readily agreed.  Dionysius had Damocles seated on a golden couch, in a room decorated with beautiful woven tapestries embroidered with magnificent designs and furnished with sideboards chased in gold and silver.  He arranged for a feast for him, to be served by waiters hand-picked for their beauty.  There were all kinds of exquisite food and ointments, and even incense was burned.  Then Dionysius had a glittering sword hung from the ceiling by a single horsehair, directly over Damocles' head.  Damocles lost his appetite for the rich life and begged Dionysius to let him go back to his poor life, for, he said, he no longer wanted to be happy.  K. Kris Hirst  Read more at https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-sword-of-damocles-117738 

“Their small Victorian house would be called humble if it weren’t so cozy that it feels sumptuous.”  “There’s always two sides to every story, and sometimes ten.”  “When you pretend to believe things that aren't true, just because it's easier than dealing with the facts, you turn your whole life into a lie.”  Life Expectancy, a novel by Dean Koontz 

Slant rhyme is a type of rhyming where words sound similar but do not rhyme exactly.  Slant rhyme is also called imperfect rhyme, near rhyme, or oblique rhyme.  Find examples at https://writingexplained.org/grammar-dictionary/slant-rhyme 

The long-established and distinguished surname Harper may be either of Anglo-Saxon or Old French origin, and is an occupational name for a player on the harp.  The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "hearp", Middle English "harp", with the addition of the agent suffix "-er".  In medieval times, the harper was one of the most important figures at baronial halls, festivals and fairs, and the Brehon laws of Scotland and Ireland ranked the playing of the harp as "the one art of music which deserves nobility".  Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation.  In England this was known as Poll Tax.  Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.  https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Harper  Harper is also a given name. 

Banker, also spelled Bankes, derives from the Northern Middle English "bank(e)", itself coming from the Old Danish "banke" meaning a ridge or hillside, and was originally given as a topographical name to someone who lived on the slope of a hillside or by a riverbank. 
https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Banker 

Wright, as well as the much rarer forms of Wrighte, Wraight, Wraighte, Wreight, Wrate, and patronymics Wrightson and Wrixon, is an early English surname.  It is occupational and was used to describe a maker of machinery or objects, mostly in wood.  The derivation is from the Olde English pre-7th century word 'wyrhta' meaning a craftsman, itself from the verb 'wyrcan', meaning to work or construct as in wheelwright, cartwright, millwright and wainwright.  When 'wyrhta' was used on its own, it often referred to a builder of windmills or watermills.  Perhaps not surprisingly this is one of the first occupational surnames to be recorded.  https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Wright  Today wright can be a suffix:  for instance, playwright and wainwright.  (Wain is an old, nearly obsolete word for wagon.)

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2349  April 9, 2021

Nama means bow, as means I, and te means you.  Therefore, namaste literally means “bow me you” or “I bow to you.”  To perform Namaste, we place the hands together at the heart chakra, close the eyes, and bow the head.  It can also be done by placing the hands together in front of the third eye, bowing the head, and then bringing the hands down to the heart.  This is an especially deep form of respect.  In the West the word “Namaste” is usually spoken in conjunction with the gesture.  In India, it is understood that the gesture itself signifies Namaste, and therefore, it is unnecessary to say the word while bowing.   https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/beginners/beginner-faqs-why-yoga/the-meaning-of-quot-namaste-quot/

Sprung rhythm is a poetic rhythm designed to imitate the rhythm of natural speech.  It is constructed from feet in which the first syllable is stressed and may be followed by a variable number of unstressed syllables.  The British poet Gerard Manley Hopkins said he discovered this previously unnamed poetic rhythm in the natural patterns of English in folk songs, spoken poetry, Shakespeare, Milton, et al.  He used diacritical marks on syllables to indicate which should be stressed in cases "where the reader might be in doubt which syllable should have the stress" (acute, e.g. shéer) and which syllables should be pronounced but not stressed (grave, e.g., gleanèd).  Some critics believe he merely coined a name for poems with mixed, irregular feet, like free verse.  However, while sprung rhythm allows for an indeterminate number of syllables to a foot, Hopkins was very careful to keep the number of feet per line consistent across each individual work, a trait that free verse does not share.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprung_rhythm 

There's so many great books in the world--who knows where they might take us next?  https://www.dclibrary.org/node/34747

Hans Christian Andersen’s tale “Danish Popular Legends” was first published in The Riverside Magazine for Young People, Vol. IV, pp. 470-474, New York, October 1870.  It has never been published in Denmark.  The hypertext is based on an etext found in the Andersen Homepage of the Danish National Literary Archive.  It may be somewhat surprising to learn that a number of Andersen’s tales were published in America even before being published in Andersen’s native Denmark.  According to Jean Hersholt’s introduction to The Andersen-Scudder Letters, University of California Press, 1949, ten tales were published by Horace Elisha Scudder, Andersen’s American editor, publisher and translator, in the above mentioned Magazine, in the years 1868-1870.  After the Magazine closed down, Scudder published four other tales, in the years 1871-1873, in Scribner’s Monthly, an illustrated magazine for the people: “Lucky Peer” (in four installments), “The Great Sea-Serpent”, “The Gardener and the Manor”, and “The Flea and the Professor”.  The hypertext of these four tales is based on the images found in the Making of America collection of Cornell University Library.  127 more tales are given in a hypertext rendition of Mrs. Paull’s nineteenth century translation, now in the public domain.  Four more tales, contributed by Mike W. Perry and marked by a (*), are digitized from Fairy Tales and Other Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, revised and partly re-translated by W.A. and J. K. Craigie, Oxford Univ. Press, London, 1914.  Mike also contributed the three tales marked by (**), from Wonder Stories Told for Children, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1900.  The remaining 29 tales are given in title only, using Jean Hersholt’s translation, published in three volumes in 1942-49 by The Heritage Press, and now collectors’ items.  Find list of Andersen’s 168 tales, in the chronological order of their original publication at http://hca.gilead.org.il/ 

Once upon a time, before the emperor tromped the streets of his kingdom in his new clothes, before the ugly duckling first waddled into the sunlight, and before the little mermaid sighed and turned into sea foam, a lad named Hans Christian Andersen penned his very first story–The Tallow Candle.  On October 2012 on the island of Funen, the same island where our esteemed author was born, a historian by the name of Esben Brage unearthed the manuscript from the bottom of an archive box.  Two months after the discovery, historians confirmed that the handwriting was unmistakably Andersen’s, and since the document was written in the mid-1820s, this would date all the way back to the author’s late teenage years.  The storyteller was a bright-eyed youth himself when he developed a deep love for stories, and penned one himself.  On the manuscript’s first page, a short dedication is scribbled in ink:  “To Madam Bunkeflod from her devoted H.C. Andersen.”  https://denmark.net/hans-christian-andersen/ 

While fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings saga await the mega-bucks Amazon series, they can indulge in a campier version of the famed fantasy tale.  If you love the cheesy films mocked by Mystery Science Theater 3000 and RiffTrax, you'll likely appreciate the shlocky goodness of a 1991 Soviet television version of the LOTR trilogy.  The TV movie aired on Soviet TV in 1991, then disappeared, not to be seen again until now, the Guardian newspaper reports.   aired on Leningrad Television, and was posted to YouTube by Leningrad Television's successor, 5TV, the newspaper reports.
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper   Link to two video clips at https://www.cnet.com/news/watch-the-delightfully-schlocky-soviet-version-of-lord-of-the-rings/ 

In the Indian caste system, there are four different varnas, or the major social classes, that caste-based surnames generally fall under.  The Brahmins form the top of this social hierarchy.  This class consists of the intellectuals, teachers, and priests.  A couple examples of Brahmin surnames are Bhat, ‘scholar’ in Sanskirt, and Mukherjee.  Next are Kshatriyas¸ the warriors at times of war and governors at times of peace.  Names such as Pusapati and Kothapalli are both Kshatriya surnames.  Singh, primarily a Punjabi Sikh surname meaning ‘lion’ in Sanskrit, was also adopted by the Hindu Kshatriya varna since the name alludes to the characteristics of a warrior.  Under the Kshatriyas are the Vaishyas, the farmers, traders, and merchants.  Families with the names Agrawal, Khandelwal and Mahawars all fall under this varna.  The last major social class of the caste system is the Shudras.  The Shudras are the community’s laborers, performing numerous different service jobs.  Patel, Yadav and Kurmi are a few of surnames historically associated with the Shudra working class.  Amy Franz  https://www.ethnictechnologies.com/blog/2018/10/2/a-peak-inside-hindu-name-origins-caste-based-surnames 

The theme for National Library Week (April 4-10, 2021), “Welcome to Your Library,” promotes the idea that libraries extend far beyond the four walls of a building—and that everyone is welcome to use their services.  During the pandemic libraries have been going above and beyond to adapt to our changing world by expanding their resources and continuing to meet the needs of their users.  Whether people visit in person or virtually, libraries offer opportunities for everyone to explore new worlds and become their best selves through access to technology, multimedia content and educational programs.  Actress, author and activist Natalie Portman is lending her star power to shine a spotlight on our nation’s libraries as the honorary chair of National Library Week 2021.  She will help highlight the essential role libraries, librarians and library workers play in serving their communities, especially during challenging times.   A lifelong fan of books, she shares the books she’s reading on her Instagram feed, as part of Natalie Portman's Book Club, using the hashtag #whatnatreads.  Natalie Portman’s “Fables” is her debut picture book.  https://programminglibrarian.org/articles/celebrate-national-library-week-2021-welcome-your-library 

National Beer Day is celebrated in the United States every year on April 7, marking the day that the Cullen–Harrison Act was enacted after having been signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933.  This led to the Eighteenth Amendment being repealed on December 5, 1933, with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Beer_Day_(United_States) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2348  April 7, 2021

J.K. Rowling, who is Joanne Murray in real life, has swept the world with her seven Harry Potter books.  These bestselling books have sold more than 400 million copies and have been successful in encouraging young people to enjoy reading.  Her book has also been made as basis for the series of Harry Potter movies.  Today, Harry Potter is considered a global brand that is worth around $15 billion.  In Odense, Denmark, a Harry Potter Festival takes place each year with the City Hall turned into a Hogwarts School.  The event is organized with the cooperation of the public library basically to get children to read books and love it.  https://denmark.net/hans-christian-andersen/ 

60 Best Historical Fiction Novels of All Time  List goes from #1, The Red Tent by Anita Diamant to #60, The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende.  https://reedsy.com/discovery/blog/best-historical-fiction

Typically, historical fiction books are written at least 30–50 years after the event or time period has taken place.  While some of it may be remembered from a lived experience, a lot of a historical fiction novel’s conception comes from research.  List goes from #1, A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles to #50, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.  Nikki Van Ry  https://bookriot.com/best-historical-fiction-books/

Christopher Lee (1922-2015)  His films have made more money than any other actor's in history.  As of May 2006, five of his films (the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the two Star Wars films in which he played Count Dooku) had total grosses in excess of $4.4 billion.  Even without considering Lee's other appearances dating back to 1948, his totals considerably surpass the figures of #3 billion and #3.8 billion claimed by Harrison Ford and Samuel L. Jackson, respectively.  *  As a veritable J.R.R. Tolkien expert and the only member of the cast who had met Tolkien himself, he often visited the Production department on the sets of the various Lord of the Rings movies to give advice and tips on the various attributes of the films.  *  According to his official website:  He speaks French, German, Italian and Spanish and can "get along" in Greek, Russian and Swedish.  *  One of his favorite bands is the Italian symphonic power metal band Rhapsody, and he has also appeared on one of their album (listen to the speech in the intro on the song "Unholy Warcry" on the album "The Dark Secret").  Lee also appears on the Rhapsody single "The Magic of the Wizard's Dream", where he does a duet with Rhapsody vocalist Fabio Leoni in English, German, Italian and French versions of the song.  *  At 6 feet 5 inches, he is entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as "The Tallest Leading Actor".  *  He appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 album "Band on the Run".  *  He played three characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories:  Sherlock himself, his brother Mycroft, and Sir Henry Baskerville.  *  On the self-titled debut album by Hollywood Vampires, a supergroup consisting of Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper, and Joe Perry, Lee is featured as a narrator in the track "The Last Vampire".  Being recorded shortly before his death, this marks Lee's final appearance on a musical record.  *  He appeared in The Wicker Man (1973) for free.  He named it as his favourite film of his own.  *  In his autobiography, he relates his first meeting with Peter Cushing during production of The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), in which he played the monster.  Lee stormed into a dressing room where Cushing was sitting and angrily shouted "I haven't got any lines!".  Cushing replied, "You're lucky; I've read the script."  *  He and his best friend Peter Cushing were huge fans of the Looney Tunes cartoons.  They would often imitate the voices of characters to one another and they were once asked to leave a theater showing a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon, because they were laughing hysterically.  *  Christopher Lee quote:  “I would rather have been an opera singer than anything else.”  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000489/bio   

TikTok-Inspired Baked Feta Pasta  Yield:  4 to 6 servings   Finnish food blogger Jenni Hayrinen first created the dish back in 2019 (creating the hashtag #uunifetapasta), but it’s easy to see why this recipe has achieved viral fame:  Cherry tomatoes and a whole block of feta are baked until bursting and softened, then tossed with garlic, basil and tender pasta for a beautifully cheesy dish. 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/fn-dish/news/how-to-tiktok-baked-feta-pasta-recipe-developer-tips  See also Baked feta pasta (original #uunifetapasta recipe translated into English) for 4 persons at  https://liemessa.fi/2020/09/baked-feta-pasta-original-recipe/

spaghettification (uncountable)  noun  (astrophysics)  The gravitational stretching of objects into long, thin shapes, usually near a black hole. [from late 20th c.] quotations ▼ Synonym:  noodle effect  (rare) The act of turning something into long, thin strands like spaghetti. quotations ▼ Derived terms  spaghettified (adjective)  spaghettify  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spaghettification#English 

There is a saying among some farmers in the Carolina Sandhills:  “A man would have to be a fool to cut down a longleaf pine.”  It’s not because the gangly-limbed tree is particularly beautiful.  The pine doesn’t have a magnolia’s flowers or an oak’s shade.  And it has nothing to do with the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker that calls the tree home.  The longleaf pine’s most obvious attribute is its strong, straight timber—perfect for utility poles.  The dropped needles are in such demand that a lucrative business has grown up around raking, baling and selling them to landscapers and homeowners as mulch.  Three varieties of pine needles are farmed, but the discarded debris of a longleaf pine is the most sought-after—and fetches the best price—because of its unusual length and high resin content, making it an attractive, water-retaining ground cover for gardens.  Some even call it “brown gold.”  And like anything valuable left just lying on the ground, theft is a problem.  That’s why North Carolina made it a felony to steal pine needles.  Todd C. Frankel   https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/31/pine-needle-mulch-north-carolina/   

Florida Lawsuit Alleges LexisNexis Invoice Program Helped Law Firm Defraud Client by Dan Roe  A countersuit by a Florida window screen company against Squire Patton Boggs alleges the legal research giant helped Squire concoct inflated legal research fees.  https://www.law.com/dailybusinessreview/2021/03/31/florida-lawsuit-alleges-lexisnexis-invoice-program-helped-law-firm-defraud-client/?slreturn=20210301113431  Thank you, Muse reader!  Read about Lexis-Nexis in a ten-page document at http://www.lexisnexis.com/anniversary/30th_timeline_fulltxt.pdf 

Easter Grain Pie  This fruity ricotta and wheat pie is dense and moist and very good.  A real Italian treat for Easter.  by Pamster2  16 servings https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/17432/easter-grain-pie/

Pastiera Napoletana is a buttery tart with a creamy filling that’s not overly sweet. This Italian grain pie mixes the flavors of smooth ricotta and pastry cream, candied citrus, cinnamon, and vanilla.  The filling is cheesecake-like, but not quite.  by Lora  10 servings  https://www.savoringitaly.com/pastiera-napoletana-neapolitan-easter/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2347  April 5, 2021