Whist is a classic English trick-taking card game which was widely played in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Although the rules are simple, there is scope for scientific play.  Whist is a descendant of the 16th-century game of trump or ruff.  Whist replaced the popular variant of trump known as ruff and honours.  The game takes its name from the 17th-century whist (or wist) meaning quiet, silent, attentive, which is the root of the modern wistful.  According to Daines Barrington, whist was first played on scientific principles by a party of gentlemen who frequented the Crown Coffee House in Bedford Row, London, around 1728.  Edmond Hoyle, suspected to be a member of this group, began to tutor wealthy young gentlemen in the game and published A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742.  It became the standard text and rules for the game for the next hundred years.  In 1862, Henry Jones, writing under the pseudonym "Cavendish", published The Principles of Whist Stated and Explained, and Its Practice Illustrated on an Original System, by Means of Hands Played Completely Through, which became the standard text.  Many subsequent editions and enlargements of this work were published using the simpler title Cavendish On Whist.  By this time, whist was governed by elaborate and rigid rules covering the laws of the game, etiquette and play which took time to study and master.  In the 1890s, a variant known as bridge whist became popular which eventually evolved into contract bridge.  The traditional game of whist survives at social events called whist drives.  See rules, variants and graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whist  See also https://cardgames.io/whist/ 

menhir (plural menhirs)  noun  (archaeology) A single tall standing stone as a monument, especially one dating to prehistoric times. quotations ▼ Synonym:  orthostat  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/menhir#English

The Nobel Library is the public library of the Swedish Academy instituted to assist the evaluation of Nobel laureates to the Prize in Literature and other awards granted by the academy.  The library is located in the so-called Stock Exchange Building at 4, Källargränd, a short alley passing between Slottsbacken and Stortorget in Gamla stan, the old town in central Stockholm, Sweden.  Since its foundation in 1901, the primary task of the library is to acquire literary works and journals needed for the evaluation of the laureates, a task achieved by collecting works mainly in other languages than Swedish.  As of 2007, the collection encompasses some 200,000 volumes and is thus one of the largest libraries devoted to literature in northern Europe.  The library is offering loans to the general public and to other libraries in Nordic countries, as well as guided tours on request, lectures, and seminars.  The library was founded on November 16, 1901 in connection to the inauguration of the Nobel Institute of the Swedish Academy.  It was first accommodated in a ten-room-flat at Norra Bantorget in a building designed by Ferdinand Boberg, the so-called LO-borgen today accommodating the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) but at the time called Vasaborgen ("The Castle of Vasa").  The collection encompassed some 15,000 literary works after five years and within two decades the library had become cramped for space and was relocated to its present address.  Link to list of Nobel Laureates at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Library    

When Robert Indiana left New York for good, in 1978, he was a bitter man.  LOVE made him an international art star, but he felt he had little to show for it relative to his peers.  Pre-LOVE, Indiana worked in orbs and herms, using painted circles and shapes that resembled ginkgo leaves.  His herms were totemlike constructions, made with wooden beams, iron wheels, and other industrial elements that he found in his neighborhood.  His personal geography began showing up in his art as early as 1959, when he started working on The Slips, an eight-foot-tall oil-on-board painting naming the various slips of his neighborhood—Coenties, Catharine, Market, and five others.  Indiana began riffing on the idea of LOVE in 1961 as a two-dimensional painting entitled 4-Star Love.  Painting on a canvas of blood-red paint roughly twelve inches square, Indiana placed the word LOVE in block letters along the bottom edge, with an upright letter O.  Above the letters, he arranged four stars, two over two.  From that early idiom, the image evolved until it became its iconic self.  Instead of four stars, two over two, Indiana placed the four letters of LOVE two over two.  Just as he honored his mother with EAT—a massive, twenty-four-foot-square electric sculpture first shown at the World’s Fair in Queens in 1964—he honored his father with LOVE by framing the letters in the colors of the logo for Phillips 66, where his father worked pumping gas.  Finally, the touch of brilliance:  he tilted the letter O to the right just so, “as if the foot of the L has given it a kick,” the critic Grace Glueck wrote years later in the New York Times.  Bob Keyes  https://lithub.com/on-robert-indianas-love-hate-relationship-with-the-sculpture-that-made-him-a-starrobert-indianas-love-hate-relationship-with-the-sculpture-that-made-him-a-star/ Herms are squared stone pillars with a carved head on top (typically of Hermes), used in ancient Greece as a boundary marker or a signpost.   

Robert Indiana (1928-2018) was adopted as an infant by Earl Clark and Carmen Watters Clark and named Robert Earl Clark.  He grew up in a financially unstable environment, as his father held a wide range of jobs, from an oil executive to pumping gas.  When Indiana was nine, his parents divorced and his mother went to work; her time as a diner waitress would be influential to Indiana's artistic career.  A free spirit, his mother frequently moved; by age seventeen, Indiana had lived in twenty-one different locations.  Indiana's early interest in art was initially encouraged by his first grade teacher, who thrilled him when she asked to keep a few of his drawings because she knew he would be a famous artist one day.  Forty years later, Indiana visited this teacher who showed him the saved drawings; he then signed them again as a successful artist.  https://www.theartstory.org/artist/indiana-robert/life-and-legacy/ 

It takes just seven ordinary, imperfect shuffles to mix a deck of cards thoroughly, researchers have found.  Fewer are not enough and more do not significantly improve the mixing.  The mathematical proof, discovered after studies of results from elaborate computer calculations and careful observation of card games, confirms the intuition of many gamblers, bridge enthusiasts and casual players that most shuffling is inadequate.  The finding has implications for everyone who plays cards and everyone, from casino operators to magicians, who has a stake in knowing whether a shuffle is random.  The mathematical problem was complicated because of the immense number of possible ways the cards in a deck can be arranged; any of 52 could be first in the deck, any of 51 could be second, 50 could be third and so on.  Multiplied out, the number of possible permutations, 52 factorial, or 52;51;50, etc. is 1063 or 10 with 62 zeros after it.  Gina Kolata  https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/09/science/in-shuffling-cards-7-is-winning-number.html 

COFFEE CAKE  Use coffee as the liquid in any cake you want to make. 

COKE CAKE  Use Coke as liquid in your cake batter.  (No need to add sugar to the mix.)   

The moon will be full at exactly 10:57 a.m. EDT (2:57 p.m. GMT) on October 20, 2021, when the sun, Earth and moon line up (in that order), according to NASA.  October's Hunter's Moon will appear full for three days, from Monday night (Oct. 18) through Thursday night (Oct. 21).  Skygazers can also catch another treat; the Orionid meteor shower, peaks Wednesday, although the light from the full moon may make it hard to see the shower's "shooting stars," Space.com, a Live Science sister site, reported.  Laura Geggel  Read more and see graphics at https://www.livescience.com/october-full-hunters-moon-2021 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2442  October 20, 2021 

According to food lore, freekeh’s fiery story dates back thousands of years, possibly as far back as 2,300 BC.  Allegedly, a Middle Eastern village came under enemy attack and their crops of young, green wheat caught fire during the siege.  The villagers ingeniously found they were able to salvage their food supply by rubbing away the burned chaff to reveal the roasted wheat kernels inside.  This is what we know today as freekeh, which means “to rub” or “the rubbed one.”  Freekeh is essentially wheat that has been harvested early, while the grains are still tender and green.  The kernels are then parched, roasted, dried and rubbed.  Technically, the term freekeh is actually the name of a process used to prepare grains, and not the name of a specific grain variety.  However, it typically refers to wheat, and generally to durum wheat.  The exact cooking instructions actually vary a bit, depending on the manufacturer (so we recommend you follow the instructions on your package).  In general, though, whole freekeh will need to cook for about 35-45 minutes, whereas cracked freekeh will need only about 10-25 minutes (depending on how finely cracked it is).  Different manufacturers also recommend slightly different ratios of freekeh to water.  Generally, it’s about 1 part freekeh to 2 or 2 1/2 parts water.  Some companies suggest that you cook the freekeh until all of the water is absorbed (similar to the way rice is often cooked), while others have you use a larger proportion of water and then drain away the excess water at the end of cooking (similar to how you’d cook pasta).  Shelley and Gretchen  https://twohealthykitchens.com/what-is-freekeh-and-how-do-you-cook-it/

"Tell me how you talk for a minute without using the letter A . . .  Easy.  Just start counting one two three four five six.  And so on.  You don’t hit a letter A until you get to a hundred and one.”  “Imagine the uproar if the Federal government tried to make everyone wear a radio transmitter around their neck so we can keep track of their movements.  But people happily carry their cell phones in their purses and pockets.”  “Iowa had a quarter of America’s best-grade topsoil all to itself, and therefore it was at the head of the list when it came to corn and soybeans and hogs and cattle.”  Reacher says:  “I like information.  I like facts.  Denver was named after James W. Denver, who was governor of the Kansas Territory at the time.”  A Wanted Man, the seventeenth book in the Jack Reacher series written by Lee Child

A simile is saying something is like something else.  A metaphor is often poetically saying something is something else.  An analogy is saying something is like something else to make some sort of an explanatory point.  You can use metaphors and similes when creating an analogy.  A simile is a type of metaphor.  All similes are metaphors, but not all metaphors are similes.  https://www.masterclass.com/articles/metaphor-similie-and-analogy-differences-and-similarities#what-is-an-analogy 

A rhombus is a flat shape with 4 equal straight sides.  All sides have equal length.  Opposite sides are parallel and opposite angles are equal.  It is a parallelogram.  Some people call it a rhomb or even a diamond.  The plural is rhombi or rhombuses, and, rarely, rhombbi or rhombbuses (with a double b).  The name "rhombus" comes from the Greek word rhombos:  a piece of wood whirled on a string to make a roaring noise.  See graphics at https://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/rhombus.html   

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  locavore  (LOH-kuh-vohr)  noun  One who eats locally grown food.  Coined by Jessica Prentice (b. 1968), chef and author.  From local, from Latin locus (place) + -vore (eating), from vorare (to devour).  Earliest documented use:  2005.    

A chicane is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography.  Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety.  For example, one form of chicane is a short, shallow S-shaped turn that requires the driver to turn slightly left and then slightly right to continue on the road, requiring the driver to reduce speed.  The word chicane is derived from the French verb chicaner, which means "to create difficulties" or "to dispute pointlessly", "quibble", which is also the root of the English noun chicanery.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane 

Nicholas Bracegirdle (born 28 February 1971), known professionally as Chicane, is an English musician, composer, songwriter, and record producer.  Among his works are singles "Offshore", an Ibiza trance anthem included in many compilations in both chill-out and dance versions; "Saltwater", which featured vocals by Clannad member Máire Brennan, and the UK number-one hit "Don't Give Up", featuring vocals by Bryan Adams, which also became a top ten hit on singles charts across Europe and Australia.  Far from the Maddening Crowds, Chicane's debut studio album from 1997, is still considered a seminal release among the trance music community, and his second studio album, 2000's Behind the Sun, was certified gold in the UK.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicane_(musician)  

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (“TCLF”) announced on October 14, 2021 that Julie Bargmann, UVA School of Architecture Professor of Landscape Architecture and founder of D.I.R.T. (“Dump It Right There”) studio, is the inaugural winner of the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize (“Oberlander Prize”).  The biennial Oberlander Prize, which includes a $100,000 award, two years of public engagement activities focused on the laureate’s work and landscape architecture more broadly and is named for the late landscape architect Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, is bestowed on a recipient who is “exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary” and has “a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture.”  Bargmann, a native of Westwood, New Jersey, attended Carnegie Mellon University where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where she graduated with a Master of Landscape Architecture in 1987.  She was named winner of the 1989-90 Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture and began her prolific teaching career in 1992 following seminal years early in her career at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates.  In 1995 she joined the faculty of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture and throughout her nearly thirty years teaching at the A-School she has created innovative and experimental studios, including many that focused on Superfund sites in collaboration with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that have examined how industrial sites and their social histories combine to create the connective tissue that reforms and revitalizes communities.  See pictures at https://www.arch.virginia.edu/news/the-uva-school-of-architectures-julie-bargmann-wins-the-inaugural-cornelia-hahn-oberlander-international-landscape-architecture-prize   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2441  October 19, 2021

When one thinks of the almighty New York Literary Scene, it is usually Manhattan and Brooklyn they are imagining, not Queens, New York City’s largest borough and the most diverse place in the world.  To get into a bookish mood, begin at the Paper Factory Hotel, a 100-year-old building where an impressive multi-story tower of books sits inside the entrance.  The affordable hotel, located in Long Island City, was at one time a printing press and radio station.  Much of the interior retains the original architecture of the factory, and you’ll find old typewriters, printing machines, and books inside the rooms, lobby, and co-working space of the hotel.  Little bookstores have been popping up and thriving all over the borough, including Long Island City’s Book Culture.  The LIC location hosts a number of readings and story times a month.  LIC BAR is also set in a one-hundred-year-old building with an original bar and tin ceilings, fireplace in winter, and a sweet outdoor garden in summer.  There’s music or a reading on most nights, and the bar serves as host to one of Queens’ most well-known reading series, LIC Reading Series.  Sara Finnerty  Read more and see pictures at https://lithub.com/how-to-spend-a-literary-long-weekend-in-queens-ny/   

The face that launched a thousand ships refers to Helen of Troy, describing the fact that a massive war was mounted on her behalf.  Helen of Troy might also be called Helen of Sparta, as she was the wife of King Menelaus of Mycenaean Sparta.  Paris, Prince of Troy, stole her.  As a result Menelaus led a war against Troy, resulting in Paris’ death and the rescue of Helen.  Whether Helen wanted to be rescued is a matter for debate.  Where history ends and mythology begins in this story is uncertain.  It is widely believed that the Trojan War actually occurred, but the existence of Helen of Troy is less certain.  In any case, the romance of a stolen and retrieved bride has endured for centuries, as the term the face that launched a thousand ships was not coined until the turn of the seventeenth century.  Christopher Marlowe referred to Helen of Troy this way in his The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus:  “Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships / And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”  Today, the face that launched a thousand ships is still most often used to describe the unsurpassed beauty of Helen of Troy, though it may be used to describe the beauty of any woman.  The term is also often parodied.  https://grammarist.com/phrase/the-face-that-launched-a-thousand-ships/

Sloppy Jane Sliders  https://kelseynixon.com/sloppy-janes/   

The BEST Sloppy Joe Recipe  https://natashaskitchen.com/sloppy-joe-recipe/   

Unsloppy Joes  https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/13893/unsloppy-joes/   

Easy bbq sandwiches shared by Amanda Brown  https://www.amandajanebrown.com/2012/09/easy-bbq-sandwiches-2.html   

Fount of knowledge or wisdom vs font of knowledge or wisdom   A fount of knowledge is a term used to describe something, but usually someone, who contains all the answers, something or someone that has a large aggregate of information.  A fount of wisdom is also a term used to describe something, but usually someone, who contains all the answers or has a large aggregate of information.  While the phrases are interchangeable, fount of wisdom may also be used in a sarcastic manner.  Fount is a shortened form of the word fountain, just as mount is a shortened form of the word mountain.  Font of knowledge and font of wisdom are mondegreens, which are phrases rendered by misinterpreting the proper terms.  https://grammarist.com/phrase/fount-of-knowledge-or-wisdom-vs-font-of-knowledge-or-wisdom/   

When Time magazine selected the British artist Banksy—graffiti master, painter, activist, filmmaker and all-purpose provocateur—for its list of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010, he found himself in the company of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Lady Gaga.  He supplied a picture of himself with a paper bag (recyclable, naturally) over his head.  Most of his fans don’t really want to know who he is (and have loudly protested Fleet Street attempts to unmask him).  But they do want to follow his upward tra­jectory from the outlaw spraying—or, as the argot has it, “bombing”—walls in Bristol, England, during the 1990s to the artist whose work commands hundreds of thousands of dollars in the auction houses of Britain and America.  Today, he has bombed cities from Vienna to San Francisco, Barcelona to Paris and Detroit.  And he has moved from graffiti on gritty urban walls to paint on canvas, conceptual sculpture and even film, with the guileful documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, which was nominated for an Academy Award.  Will Ellsworth-Jones  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-banksy-4310304/   

Gary Paulsen, whose books taught generations of kids how to survive in the woods with only a hatchet, died October 13, 2021 at the age of 82.  Paulsen was best known for those wilderness survival stories, though he wrote more than 200 books during his lifetime, and three of his novels, Hatchet, Dogsong and The Winter Room, were Newbery Honor books.  When he was 5 years old, Paulsen's mother put him on a train, alone, with nothing but a $5 bill and a suitcase, and sent him to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm in Northern Minnesota.  There he learned how to catch and cook fish over a campfire, and use the smoke to keep the mosquitoes away at night—skills that characters in his later novels would use to survive.  The woods were a sanctuary to him.  The other place Paulsen sought refuge during those cold Minnesota winters was in the library, where a watchful librarian took notice of him and gave him a library card, and then books, and then a Scripto notebook and a number two pencil, to write down his thoughts.  "She said, 'You should write down some of your thought pictures,' which I called them," Paulsen said.  "I said, 'For who?' and she said 'For me.'  I would not be a writer.  None of this would have happened except for that."  Gary Paulsen is survived by his wife and son, and one final novel.  Northwind, a historical adventure about a young person's battle to stay alive against the odds, will be published in January 2022.  Samantha Balaban  https://www.npr.org/2021/10/14/1045981769/gary-paulsen-hatchet-author-obituary   

On October 18, 1851, Herman Melville’s sixth novel, Moby-Dick, was published in London in three volumes under the title The Whale.  (It was common at the time, before international copyright laws, for American writers to publish in England first as a way to avoid pirated books.)  By that time, Melville’s fortunes had been declining for some time; though his debut Typee—based on his experiences in the South Pacific—had been a critical and commercial success, his next few books were less favorably received, and his American publisher Harper & Brothers had not only refused to pay him an advance for Moby-Dick but had claimed that he owed them $700 in unsold books.  However, English publisher Richard Bentley offered Melville £150 and “half profits” to publish the novel.  Melville paid for the typesetting himself, and sent over proofs with his own revisions and edits geared toward British readers.  But when Bentley published the book, a month before the American edition in a printing of only 500 copies, it looked very different from what Melville had intended.  According to the Melville Electronic Library, the British text was expurgated in over 200 places, the Epilogue (in which Ishmael’s fate is revealed) was missing, the Etymology and Extracts were in the wrong place, and of course, there’s the title—which simply Melville hadn’t decided to change in time.  He did, however, manage to get Bentley to include one late addition:  the book’s dedication to his beloved Nathaniel Hawthorne.  It was not a hit.  We may consider Moby-Dick to be one of the Great American Novels (whale chapters and all) now, but at the time, Melville’s total earnings from the book came to a mere $556.37, and when he died in 1891—not just a failed novelist but a failed poet as well—the New York Times spelled the title of his magnum opus wrong.  https://newsletterest.com/message/74707/This-Week-in-Literary-History-MobyDick-Is-Published-for-the-First-Time-as-The-Whale-in-a-Printing-of-Only-500-Copies   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2440  October 18, 2021 

Valley City is an unincorporated community in central Liverpool Township, Medina County, Ohio.  Settled in 1810, the surrounding township was established in 1816.  Together with Litchfield and York Townships, Liverpool Township composes the Buckeye Local School District.  Valley City is part of Ohio District 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives.  Valley City is known for being "The Frog Jump Capital of Ohio."  Since 1962, it has held an annual contest patterned after Mark Twain's story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."  On April 2, 1964, two years after the first contest was held, Governor Jim Rhodes proclaimed this contest the official state frog jumping championship.  In 1969, a few Valley City champion frogs competed in the larger contest in Calaveras County, California, including one belonging to Governor Rhodes.  Today, the contest is held at the Mill Stream Park in early August.  In the early 1800s, due to the discovery of salt on the west side of Rocky River near Hardscrabble in Liverpool Township, this area, previously part of the Connecticut Western Reserve, was known as Valley Center.  The name was later changed to Valley City when local community leader Andrew "Cranky" Yandy made the case that the city was not technically in the center of the valley.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_City,_Ohio  

How to Be More Tree:  Essential Life Lessons for Perennial Happiness  Liz Marvin, Annie Davidson (Illustrator)  This beautifully illustrated book brings together sixty essential life lessons inspired by the infinite wisdom of trees.  Trees do not have brains to think with, or nervous systems that cause them to feel things, and yet they are undeniably clever.  From their ability to adapt, to their understanding of the strength of networks and mutually beneficial relationships, they put us to shame with their natural ability to thrive, even when they find themselves in less than ideal environments.  We learn about the importance of asking for help when you need it from elms, who call in an army of parasitic wasps when they're being attacked by caterpillars.  And acacias, who look out for each other by producing a gas when they're being nibbled on by herbivores to warn their nearby friends, while the Chinese pistache show us the power in pacing yourself, and why slow growth can lead to stronger foundations.  From the importance of patience, to drawing strength from others, to weathering the storm, to dealing with life's most persistent irritants--this is a celebration of the heroes of the forest, and an essential companion for dipping into when we need a little inspiration.  128 pages, Kindle Edition  First published November 14, 2019  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48803849-how-to-be-more-tree   

More than a few bibliophiles would prefer that their prized possessions be kept in a bank vault as opposed to a bookshelf, but few actually get to see their dream in action.  Enter The Last Bookstore, an iconic Los Angeles book shop with a not-so-subtly symbolic name that is housed in the grand atrium of what was once a bank.  The marble pillars and mile-high ceiling remain from the old bank, but in place of patrons and guarded stacks of cash, bookshelves line the walls and artful displays of books abound.  Not to imply that everything is brand new and sparkly.  The bookstore actually specializes in reasonably priced used books, and takes great pride in offering a selection of well-kept vintage books as well.  Anyone who’s ever loved a vintage book will know exactly what that means for the musty, decadent smell that hangs in the air in this seemingly sacred place.  Almost as if to make a point about beauty in disarray, the bookshelves are placed every which way all throughout the store, and sculptures have been custom-built from overstocked or damaged copies.  There are even hidden nooks, like the old bank vault itself, where books are winkingly displayed.  There is a section of hardbacks arranged by color.  Most of the fiction is purposefully unarranged, meant to inspire treasure hunts among shoppers.  In short, every inch of the place is designed to make book lovers fall in love with it, and it succeeds.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/last-bookstore   

Twenty-one states have the distinction of being the birthplace of a president.  One president's birth state is in dispute; North and South Carolina (British colonies at the time) both lay claim to Andrew Jackson, who was born in 1767, in the Waxhaw region along their common border.  Jackson himself considered South Carolina as his birth state.  Born on December 5, 1782, Martin Van Buren was the first president born an American citizen (and not a British subject).  The term Virginia dynasty is sometimes used to describe the fact that four of the first five U.S. presidents were from Virginia.  The number of presidents born per state, counting Jackson as being from South Carolina, are:

One: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Carolina

Two: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Vermont

Four: Massachusetts

Five: New York

Seven: Ohio

Eight: Virginia

Eleven states have one president.  Find list of U.S. Presidents indicating date of birth and state of birth at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_home_state  

September 8, 2021  Over the course of the pandemic, we've seen all sorts of shortages:  meat and ketchup and Caffeine-Free Coke—and even the refrigerators you store all that stuff  in.  Luckily, we don't eat wood, because shifts in supply and demand have also caused the price of lumber to skyrocket around the globe.  But that doesn't mean the timber shortage isn't also hitting the food and beverage world:  Winemakers are reportedly struggling to score all the wood they're looking for.  The most obvious use of wood in winemaking is the barrel-aging process—but many wineries also use wood to package their most precious bottles.  Mike Pomranz  https://www.foodandwine.com/news/timber-shortage-wine-industry   Thank you, Muse reader!    

National Dictionary Day in the United States celebrates the American lexicographer Noah Webster who was born on October 16, 1758.  Wiktionary   

West Virginia would love to have you.  That's the message the state is sending to urban residents across the country with a new program that gives remote workers $12,000, and a year-long pass to the state's grandest natural destinations, if they agree to relocate to the "Wild and Wonderful" state for at least two years.  The initiative is funded by former Intuit CEO Brad D. Smith and his spouse Alys, who launched the program to support economic development in Smith's home state.  It's currently accepting applications for remote workers who want to live in Morgantown; future slots will be for Lewisburg and Shepherdstown.  Program participants get cash every month, with the first $10,000 stretched out over 12 months.  The final $2,000 comes in the participant's second consecutive year of living in West Virginia.  Ally Schweitzer    https://www.npr.org/local/305/2021/04/14/987174386/west-virginia-is-paying-remote-workers-12-000-to-move-there

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2439  October 15, 2021

 

The snark is a fictional animal species created by Lewis Carroll in his nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark.  According to Carroll, the initial inspiration to write the poem--which he called an agony in eight fits--was the final line, For the snark was a boojum, you see.  Carroll was asked repeatedly to explain the snark.  In all cases, his answer was he did not know and could not explain.  The poem describes several varieties of snark.  Some have feathers and bite, and some have whiskers and scratch.  The boojum is a particular variety of snark, which causes the baker at the end of the poem to "softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again".  The snark's flavour is meager and hollow, but crisp (apparently like a coat too tight in the waist), with a flavour of will-o-the-wisp.  It is sometimes served with greens.  It also sleeps late into the day.  While the snark is very ambitious, and has very little sense of humor, it is very fond of bathing-machines, and constantly carries them about wherever it goes.  It is also handy for striking a light; the Annotated Snark suggests that this could mean either that its skin is useful for striking matches on, or that it breathes fire.  The domain of the snark is an island filled with chasms and crags, very distant from England.  On the same island may also be found other creatures such as the jubjub and bandersnatch.  The snark is a peculiar creature that cannot be captured in a commonplace way.  Above all, courage is required during a snark hunt.  The most common method is to seek it with thimbles, care, forks, and hope.  One may also "threaten its life with a railway share" or "charm it with smiles and soap".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snark_(Lewis_Carroll) 

SNARK  verb  If someone snarks, they criticize another person in an unkind way.  [informal]  uncountable noun  Snark is unkind criticism of someone or something.  https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/snark 

Parrot tulips open their ruffled petals in mid to late spring after most other tulips have bloomed and faded, extending the color show.  Their huge blooms span up to 5 inches across, with streaks of color shooting through the petals like brilliant flames.  Tall, elegant stems give parrot tulips a statuesque posture that make them a standout in the garden and a striking addition to floral arrangements.  Parrot tulips are available in more than 50 varieties, most of which are multi-colored.  Some of the shades are revealed gradually, as the blooms fully open.  Anne Balogh   See pictures and planting tips at https://www.gardendesign.com/bulbs/parrot-tulips.html

Actress Audrey Hepburn was actually born Audrey Kathleen Ruston, and didn’t start using the name Audrey Hepburn until 1948.  In 1940 during German occupation, she also took on the pseudonym Edda van Heemstra.  This was because her “English sounding” birth-given name was deemed too dangerous for the time, so she used an alias to avoid being captured by Germans.  Audrey was fluent in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Flemish (a variation of Dutch).  A hybrid breed to tulip was named after the star. The Netherlands Flower Information Society said that this act was “a tribute to the actress’s career and her longtime work on behalf of UNICEF.”  https://www.gosocial.co/10-things-didnt-know-inspirational-audrey-hepburn/   

This is a dude his ears protrude in most expansive magOnitudOde his OcolOlar of the latest date surrounds . . . A gaudy tie surrounds his throat . . . Here is his plated watch chain not the best . . .  See graphic with additional words at https://newspaperarchive.com/seov2/annapolis-evening-capital-jun-07-1884-p-3/  Thank you, Muse reader!   

Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance.  It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own.  Concrete poetry relates more to the visual than to the verbal arts although there is a considerable overlap in the kind of product to which it refers.  Historically, however, concrete poetry has developed from a long tradition of shaped or patterned poems in which the words are arranged in such a way as to depict their subject.  Though the term ‘concrete poetry’ is modern, the idea of using letter arrangements to enhance the meaning of a poem is old.  Such shaped poetry was popular in Greek Alexandria during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, although only the handful which were collected together in the Greek Anthology now survive.  Examples include poems by Simmias of Rhodes in the shape of an egg, wings and a hatchet, as well as Theocritus’ pan-pipes.  The post-Classical revival of shaped poetry seems to begin with the Gerechtigkeitsspirale (spiral of justice), a relief carving of a poem at the pilgrimage church of St. Valentin in the German town of Hesse.  The text is carved in the form of a spiral on the front of one of the church pews and is one of several decorative designs there created in 1510 by master carpenter Erhart Falckener.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry   

Karen Tei Yamashita is published by Coffee House Press, a small independent publisher in Minneapolis, rather than a massive publisher in New York.  She has not won a fame-inducing prize like a Pulitzer, Booker, or National Book Award.  She also hasn’t picked a literary lane, not just in terms of form—writing novels, short stories, nonfiction, and plays—but in terms of style and themes as well, writing historical fiction, magical realism, postmodern maximalism, social realism, and more.  If you are new to Yamashita, this means her voice is so varied and playful and her topics so diverse that any book is an appropriate introduction.  Find a list of five of her books to help you find a place to start.  Josh Cook  https://lithub.com/why-everyone-should-read-the-great-karen-tei-yamashita/   

A Rube Goldberg machine, named after American cartoonist Rube Goldberg, is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.  Usually, these machines consist of a series of simple unrelated devices; the action of each triggers the initiation of the next, eventually resulting in achieving a stated goal.  In the United Kingdom, a similar contrivance is referred to as a "Heath Robinson contraption" after cartoons by the illustrator W. Heath Robinson.  The design of such a "machine" is often presented on paper and would be impossible to implement in actuality.  More recently, such machines are being fully constructed for entertainment (for example, a breakfast scene in Peewee's Big Adventure) and in Rube Goldberg competitions.  Over the years, the expression has expanded to mean any confusing or overly complicated system.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rube_Goldberg_machine   

Ruth Irene Tompson (1910–October 10, 2021) was an American camera technician, animation checker and supercentenarian.  She was known for her work on animated features at The Walt Disney Company and was declared a Disney Legend in 2000.  Ruthie Tompson was born on July 22, 1910 in Portland, Maine and raised in Boston, Massachusetts.  She then moved with her family to Oakland, California in November 1918 at age eight.  In 1924, her parents divorced and her mother, Arlene, remarried artist John Roberts.  The family relocated to Los Angeles and their house was in the same block as the house of Robert Disney, uncle of Walt Disney.  This is where Roy and Walt Disney lived when they first came to Los Angeles.  See filmography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthie_Tompson

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2438  October 13, 2021

“I know that you know that sarcasm is the weapon of weakness.”  “You can be anonymous, that’s what’s the trouble with the Internet.”  “You belong to society, you give to society.”  The Burgess Boys, the fourth book by Elizabeth Strout, published in 2013.   

In 1811, an Old Fogey was a nickname for an invalid, wounded soldier; derived from the French fougueux (“fierce or fiery”).  old fogey (plural old fogies)  noun  (idiomatic)  An old and over-conservative person. quotations ▼ Related terms  young fogey  fogey  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/old_fogey   

Cesare Pavese, (1908-1950), Italian poet, critic, novelist, and translator, who introduced many modern U.S. and English writers to Italy.  Born in a small town in which his father, an official, owned property, he moved with his family to Turin, where he attended high school and the university.  Denied an outlet for his creative powers by Fascist control of literature, Pavese translated many 20th-century U.S. writers in the 1930s and ’40s:  Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, John Steinbeck, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner; a 19th-century writer who influenced him profoundly, Herman Melville (one of his first translations was of Moby Dick); and the Irish novelist James Joyce.  He also published criticism, posthumously collected in La letteratura americana e altri saggi (1951; American Literature, Essays and Opinions, 1970).  His work probably did more to foster the reading and appreciation of U.S. writers in Italy than that of any other single man.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Cesare-Pavese   

COMIC STRIP HUMOR  Cats are natural ignorers.  (Garfield)   

The earliest hand gesture emoji were a raised fist, a hand with two fingers making a "V" shape and an open raised palm.  Initially these represented "rock", "scissors" and "paper", though a "V" shape can also represent "peace" or "victory" and a raised fist "Black Lives Matter".  Lauren Gawne, a linguist at La Trobe University in Australia, is hoping that an emoji of a raised little finger will one day make the cut. This gesture might make English speakers think of "pinky promises" or even sipping tea, but in India it is a useful code for subtly asking for directions to the toilet.  The proposal for the raised little finger put forward by Gawne and her colleagues suggests it can mean:  fancy, classy, etiquette, promise, effort, toilet and power move.  William Park  Read extensive article at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210818-the-hand-gestures-that-last-longer-than-spoken-languages

A Mufti is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion (fatwa) on a point of Islamic law (sharia).  The word mufti comes from the Arabic root f-t-y, whose meanings include "youth, newness, clarification, explanation."  A number of related terms derive from the same root.  A mufti's response is called a fatwa.  The person who asks a mufti for a fatwa is known as mustafti.  The act of issuing fatwas is called iftāʾ.  The term futyā refers to soliciting and issuing fatwas.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti 

Mufti is a 2017 Indian Kannada-language neo-noir action thriller film directed by Narthan, making his debut, and produced by Jayanna Combines.  The film tells the story of a police officer, played by Sriimurali, who tracks down and confronts an underworld boss, played by Shiva Rajkumar.  Production started in July 2016, and the film was released on 1 December 2017.  Initial reception of the film was positive.  It was declared blockbuster of the Year.  And was one of the highest-grossing movies in Shivarajkumar film career.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(film) 

A mufti day (also known as casual clothes day, casual Friday, colour day, own clothes day, home clothes day, plain clothes day, non-uniform day, free dress day, civvies day, dress down day, uniform-free day) is a day where students and staff go to school in casual clothing instead of school uniform.  This is found in many countries where students are required to wear uniform, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Fiji, Australia, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Bangladesh.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mufti_(dress) 

Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus is a play written by Taylor Mac.  The play is set in the aftermath of William Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.  The play premiered on Broadway in April 2019 starring Nathan Lane and received seven Tony Award nominations.  The play premiered on Broadway at the Booth Theatre in previews on March 11, 2019 and officially on April 21.  The cast consisted of Nathan Lane (Gary), Kristine Nielsen (Janice), and Julie White (Carol).  The production was directed by George C. Wolfe and produced by Scott Rudin, with scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Ann Roth, and lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer.  The play received seven Tony Award nominations, including for Best Play and Best Featured Actress in a Play (White and Nielsen).  The play closed on June 16, 2019 after 45 previews and 65 regular performances.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary:_A_Sequel_to_Titus_Andronicus  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Taylor Mac (born Taylor Mac Bowyer 1973) is an American actor, playwright, performance artist, director, producer, and singer-songwriter active mainly in New York City.  In 2017, Mac was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  Mac was a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  See awards, residencies and bibliography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Mac 

The rare noun wether means a castrated male sheep.  The word bellwether (from the Middle English bellewether) originally referred to a wether that wore a bell around his neck and led the herd.  Today, while herders may still use the term in that sense, the word is more often used metaphorically, meaning one that serves as a leader or as a leading indicator of future trends.  Bellwether may be a noun or an adjective.  The word is occasionally misspelled bellweather, perhaps partially because bellwethers sometimes predict the weather.  https://grammarist.com/usage/bellwether/   

Official 'Ted Lasso' biscuit recipe  https://www.today.com/food/here-s-official-ted-lasso-biscuit-recipe-t230627

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2437  October 12, 2021