Lake Tahoe is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada.  Lying at 6,225 ft (1,897 m) above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America, and at 122,160,280 acre⋅ft (150.7 km³) it trails only the five Great Lakes as the largest by volume in the United States.  Its depth is 1,645 ft (501 m), making it the second deepest in the United States after Crater Lake in Oregon (1,949 ft or 594 m).  The lake was formed about two million years ago as part of the Lake Tahoe Basin, and its modern extent was shaped during the ice ages.  It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides.  The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe, or simply Tahoe; its English name is derived from its Washo name, Dáʔaw.  More than 75% of the lake's watershed is national forest land, covered by the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the United States Forest Service.  Lake Tahoe is fed by 63 tributaries.  These drain an area about the same size as the lake and produce half its water; the other half is produced by direct precipitation.  The Truckee River is the lake's only outlet, flowing northeast through Reno, Nevada, into Pyramid Lake which has no outlet.  It accounts for one third of the water that leaves the lake, the rest evaporating from the lake's surface.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe    

The origin of the phrase “in the nick of time” can be traced back to the 1500s, when the term “nick” signified “the critical moment.”  The phrase was initially just “in the nick,” and it referred to performing an action at the precise instant it was due.  During this period, a device known as a nick-stick was often used to track time, points, transactions, and specifically, events in sports.  A nick-stick had small, precise notches or ‘nicks’ that acted as markers.  Thus, if something was done “in the nick,” it meant the action was performed at the exact time or place it was intended to be.  The full phrase “in the nick of time,” as we use it today, has been documented in written records since 1643.  Over time, it has come to symbolize accomplishing something just before it becomes too late or before a deadline expires.  https://grammarist.com/idiom/in-the-nick-of-time/   

KNOCKOUT IN THE NICK OF TIME by Martha Esbin (excerpt)

She's got the knack knows where to look   takes a crack at it finds it in the nick of time.   The reference librarian knocks me out.   What's the question?  Without the correct question she'll wrack her brain wreak havoc with her schedule and wreck her week.  The reference librarian knocks me out. 

MUSIC by Martha Esbin

Sound

vital, vibrant

music consists of

organized sound, organized silence

space with energy

rests count

silence 

Diamante:  a seven-line poem in the shape of a diamond.  The first and last lines have one word, with the middle line being the longest.  Often the first word and the last word are opposites.   

Festa della Repubblica is the Italian National Day and Republic Day, which is celebrated on 2 June each year, with the main celebration taking place in Rome. The Festa della Repubblica is one of the national symbols of Italy.  The day commemorates the 1946 Italian institutional referendum held by universal suffrage, in which the Italian people were called to the polls to decide on the form of government following the Second World War and the fall of Fascism.  The ceremony of the event, organized in Rome, includes the deposition of a laurel wreath as a tribute to the Italian Unknown Soldier at the Altare della Patria by the President of the Italian Republic and a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festa_della_Repubblica   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2949  June 2, 2025   

Banchan will range from small dishes like sauteed spinach (sigeumchi) or marinated eggs (gyeran jorim) to large entrees such as braised chicken (andong jjimdak) or BBQ soy-marinated short ribs (yangnyeom galbi).  Banchan is generally meant to be stored in your fridge and portioned out at each meal.  It’s a great way to have a delicious, well- balanced meal on the table in minutes.  https://littlebanchanshop.com/pages/about-us  Thank you, reader.   

The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York.  The Tudor rose consists of five white inner petals, representing the House of York, and five red outer petals to represent the House of Lancaster.  The borough and county of Queens in New York City uses a Tudor rose on its flag and seal.  The flag and seal of Annapolis, Maryland, features a Tudor rose and a thistle surmounted with a crown.  The city of York, South Carolina is nicknamed "The White Rose City", and the nearby city of Lancaster, South Carolina is nicknamed "The Red Rose City".  York, Pennsylvania and Lancaster, Pennsylvania are similarly nicknamed, using stylized white and red roses in their emblems, respectively.  There are ten Tudor roses present on the crest of the England national football team.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_rose    

There are nearly 200 countries in the world, but when it comes to which is the largest, there is no competition.  With a total area of 6,592,850 square miles (17,075,400 square km), Russia is the world’s largest country.  A distant second is Canada, with 3,855,103 square miles (9,984,670 square km).  At the opposite end is Vatican City, which is the world’s smallest country.  It covers just 0.17 square mile (0.44 square km).  https://www.britannica.com/topic/list-of-the-total-areas-of-the-worlds-countries-dependencies-and-territories-2130540     

devil's tattoo (dev-uhlz ta-TOO)  noun  A rhythmic tapping of fingers, knuckles, or feet.

[From devil, from Old English deofol, from Latin and Greek diabolus

(accuser or slanderer), + tattoo (a series of hits, as on a drum), from

Dutch taptoe (shut the tap).  Earliest documented use: 1755.]   

NOTES: They say an idle mind is the devil's workshop.  Well, an idle hand

does a devil's tattoo on any available surface, usually as a sign of

impatience, agitation, or deep thought.  Wordsmith  May 29, 2025   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2948  May 30, 2025 

Bitonto is a commune in the Metropolitan City of Bari, in the Italian region of Apulia.  It lies to the west of Bari.  It is nicknamed the "City of Olives", due to the numerous olive groves surrounding the city.  The city was founded by the Peucetii, and its inhabitants referred to by the Greek settlers of the region as Butontinoi, an ethnonym of uncertain derivation.  According to one tradition, the city was named after Botone, an Illyrian king.  Its first city wall can be dated to the fifth to fourth centuries BC; traces remain coinage suggest that B in the foundations of the Norman walling.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitonto   

A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune   

Lawrence E. Mintz, professor emeritus of the Department of American Studies at the University of Maryland and an editorial board member of Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, surmises that the rubber chicken may have its origins in medieval times.  Chicken corpses were readily available; therefore jesters could employ them as props.  Hilarity ensues!  But Mintz says the birds came into common usage on the burlesque stage where “baggy pants” comedians would whack each other with them.  https://modernfarmer.com/2013/12/farm-pop-rubber-chicken/    

Bookworms, rejoice:  your quiet time is about to go public in the best way possible.  Reading Rhythms, the viral “reading party” series that has taken rooftops, bars and parks by storm, is setting up shop at Hudson Yards for a massive summer takeover.  Think of it as a silent disco for your brain with books instead of beats.   Kicking off, May 27 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.—with future dates already set for June 10 and July 8—this free outdoor gathering invites you to bring your favorite book, sprawl out near the Vessel and dive into a good read alongside a few hundred fellow New Yorkers.  The main event runs from 6 to 8 pm, featuring live ambient music, silent reading blocks and lightly guided discussions meant to spark connection over shared literary insights.  You’ll read.  You’ll talk.  Thank you, reader.   

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City.  By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas.  With 5.36 million visitors in 2023, it is the most-visited museum in the United States and the fifth-most visited art museum in the world.   In 2000, its permanent collection had over two million works.  The collection is divided into 17 curatorial departments.  The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums.  The first portion of the approximately 2-million-square-foot (190,000 m²) building was built in 1880.  A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, the museum was established by a group of Americans, including philanthropists, artists, and businessmen, with the goal of creating a national institution that would inspire and educate the public.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art    

The Metropolitan Museum’s Arts of Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania galleries return on May 31, 2025, in a reimagined Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.  Following a multiyear renovation, the three major collections—spanning five continents and hundreds of cultures—now stand as independent entities.  When the wing first opened in 1982, it brought a much broader perspective on global art history to The Met.  This new presentation, informed by the latest research and exchanges with a network of international experts, expands and deepens the stories of the objects.  Digital features, commissioned films, and new wall text provide more context, while favorite works beloved by longtime visitors are showcased in new ways.  There are also objects on view for the first time, including major acquisitions of historic and contemporary works in the Arts of Africa galleries, a gallery dedicated to light-sensitive ancient Andean textiles, and contemporary commissions and new acquisitions by Indigenous Pacific artists.  See photographs at https://www.metmuseum.org/hubs/the-michael-c-rockefeller-wing    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2947  May 29, 2025

The Hindenburg disaster at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937 brought an end to the age of the rigid airship.  The disaster killed 35 persons on the airship, and one member of the ground crew, but miraculously 62 of the 97 passengers and crew survived.  After more than 30 years of passenger travel on commercial zeppelins—in which tens of thousands of passengers flew over a million miles, on more than 2,000 flights, without a single injury—the era of the passenger airship came to an end in a few fiery minutes.  Hindenburg was the last passenger aircraft of the world’s first airline—her chief steward was the first flight attendant in history—and she was the fastest way to cross the Atlantic in her day.  Hindenburg’s passengers could travel from Europe to North and South America in half the time of the fastest ocean liner, and they traveled in luxurious interiors that would never again be matched in the air; they enjoyed meals in an elegant dining room, listened to an aluminum piano in a modern lounge, slept in comfortable cabins, and could even have a cigarette or cigar in the ship’s smoking room.  All that came to an end in 32 seconds because above the elegant passenger quarters were 7 million cubic feet of hydrogen gas.  https://www.airships.net/hindenburg/disaster/    

Apple Island may refer to several places: 

Apple Island (Massachusetts), a former island now incorporated into Logan International Airport complex in Boston 

Apple Island (Michigan), a small island in Orchard Lake in Oakland County, Michigan 

Apple Island (Missouri), an island in the Mississippi River

Æbelø, a Danish island

Tasmania, a state of Australia that is often referred to as "Apple Island" or the "Apple Isle"

Hanikatsi laid, an islet in Estonia

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

For about 100 years, Tasmania heavily marketed itself to the world as the "Apple Isle"—an idyllic English farming Utopia—to grow its apple exports and attract new residents.  But the export industry collapsed almost overnight in the 1970s when Tasmania was squeezed out of the European market.  The Apple Isle title sticks 50 years on, despite the state exporting only 8 per cent of Australia's apples last season and making up only 16 per cent of the domestic market.  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-07/apple-isle-tasmania-food-trail-tour-cider-australian-exports/101030058   

According to the official opal apple webpage, the Opal Apples are a cross between Golden Delicious and Topaz.  They were discovered in 1999, tested in 63 orchards throughout Europe and the Mediterranean for 12 years, and introduced to the US market in 2010.  Today, Opal apples are grown exclusively at Broetje Orchards in Prescott, WA. Peak season is December to March for conventional Opals, and November to January for the organic variety.  https://www.seriouseats.com/opal-apple-trader-joes-fruit-hybrid    

John William Cheever (May 27, 1912–June 18, 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist.  He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs".   His fiction is mostly set on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; the Westchester suburbs; old New England villages based on various South Shore towns around Quincy, Massachusetts, where he was born; and Italy, especially Rome.  His short stories included "The Enormous Radio", "Goodbye, My Brother", "The Five-Forty-Eight", "The Country Husband", and "The Swimmer", and he also wrote five novels:  The Wapshot Chronicle (National Book Award, 1958), The Wapshot Scandal (William Dean Howells Medal, 1965), Bullet Park (1969), Falconer (1977) and a novella, Oh What a Paradise It Seems (1982).  His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatized as the disparity between a character's decorous social persona and inner corruption, and sometimes as a conflict between two characters (often brothers) who embody the salient aspects of both—light and dark, flesh and spirit.   Many of his works also express a nostalgia for a vanishing way of life (as evoked by the mythical St. Botolphs in the Wapshot novels), characterized by abiding cultural traditions and a profound sense of community, as opposed to the alienating nomadism of modern suburbia.  A compilation of his short stories, The Stories of John Cheever, won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and a National Book Critics Circle Award, and its first paperback edition won a 1981 National Book Award.   On April 27, 1982, six weeks before his death, Cheever was awarded the National Medal for Literature by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  His work has been included in the Library of America.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cheever    

200^th anniversary  The opening of the Erie Canal had enormous impacts, felt almost immediately. The journey from Buffalo to New York City was cut from one month to one week, while shipping prices were slashed to one-tenth what they had previously been, leading to an explosion in trade between the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest.  New York City quickly established itself as America’s preeminent port.  New cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica arose on its banks as critical transportation and industrial centers.  The opening of the canal had enormous impacts, felt almost immediately.  The journey from Buffalo to New York City was cut from one month to one week, while shipping prices were slashed to one-tenth what they had previously been, leading to an explosion in trade between the Eastern seaboard and the Midwest.  New York City quickly established itself as America’s preeminent port.  New cities like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Utica arose on its banks as critical transportation and industrial centers.  The Erie Canal is scheduled to open for the 2025 navigation season on Friday, May 16, and in honor of the bicentennial, the season will run several weeks longer than usual, ending on Monday, November 3.  https://nystateparks.blog/2025/03/11/celebrating-200-years-along-the-erie-canal/    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2946  May 27, 2025 

Stone Soup is a European folk story in which hungry strangers convince the people of a town to each share a small amount of their food in order to make a meal. In varying traditions, the stone has been replaced with other common inedible objects, and therefore the parable is also known as axe soup, button soup, nail soup, bolt soup, and wood soup.  Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot.  Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the very hungry travelers.  Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire.  One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing.  The travelers answer that they are making "stone soup", which tastes wonderful and which they would be delighted to share with the villager, although it still needs a little bit of garnish, which they are missing, to improve the flavor.  The villager, who anticipates enjoying a share of the soup, does not mind parting with a few carrots, so these are added to the soup.  Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not yet reached its full potential.  More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient, like potatoes, onions, cabbages, peas, celery, tomatoes, sweetcorn, meat, milk, butter, salt and pepper.  Finally, the stone (being inedible) is removed from the pot, and a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by travelers and villagers alike.  Although the travelers have thus tricked the villagers into sharing their food with them, they have successfully transformed it into a tasty meal which they share with the donors.  Other uses of the term:    Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, a computer game which expanded on an abandoned project using contributions from many different coders       Stone Soup, a children's literary magazine published by the California-based Children's Art Foundation since 1973        Stone Soupercomputer, a computer composed of many small units      The film Fandango (1985) contains a wedding sequence towards the end which builds on the Stone Soup theme.  The protagonists need to hold a wedding ceremony, but they lack the necessary funds.  Therefore, they set up a folding card table by the main street of a sleepy Texas town, dust it off, and invite passersby to come to the wedding.  As they concoct stories of delinquent caterers and crashed champagne trucks, the friendly townspeople contribute their time and resources, the result being a magical wedding ceremony.

Gerald P. Murphy's stage adaptation of "Stone Soup" was published by Lazy Bee Scripts in 2008 and has had successful productions in US, UK and France.  Gerald Griffin wrote "The Collegians" (1829) which includes a version of limestone soup in chapter 30.  William Butler Yeats' play The Pot of Broth (1904) tells a version of the story in which a clever Irish tramp uses his wits to swindle a shrewish medieval housewife out of her dinner.   The story is the basis of Marcia Brown's 1947 children's book Stone Soup: An Old Tale (1947), which features soldiers tricking miserly villagers into cooking them a feast.  The book was a Caldecott Honor book in 1948 and was read aloud by the Captain (played by Bob Keeshan) on an early episode of Captain Kangaroo in the 1950s, as well as at least once in the 1960s or early 1970s.  In 1965, Gordon R. Dickson published a short story called "Soupstone", where a headstrong pilot is sent to solve a problem on a planet under the guise of a highly educated and competent official.  He succeeds by pretending to understand everything, but actually merely making the locals apply their already present knowledge and abilities to the task.  "Stone Soup" (1968), written by Ann McGovern and illustrated by Nola Langner, tells the story of a little old lady and a hungry young man at the door asking for food, and how he tricks her into making stone soup.  The book was reprinted and reissued in 1986 with Winslow Pinney Pels as the illustrator.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup  

Myoga is a perennial herb that grows wild in Japan, from the islands of Honshu to Okinawa, and is a member of the ginger family, Gingeraceae.  It is available all year round when grown in greenhouses, but when grown outside, its peak season is summer to fall.  Along with ginger and other herbs, both the flowers and stems have long been popular in Japan as a savory vegetable.  In fact, there are references to the plant in literature going way back to the Heian period (794-1185).  Myoga, although containing overtones of western ginger, is slightly less pungent.  It has a highly distinctive taste with a zesty tang.  This, added to its crunchy texture and refreshing feel on the palate makes it a firm favorite for use in a variety of dishes.  https://japanesetaste.com/blogs/japanese-taste-blog/what-is-japanese-g  Thank you, reader.  

May 22, 2025  The penny was one of the first coins made by the US Mint, entering circulation in 1793.  But over the past 10 years, the cost of producing it has risen from 1.3 cents to 3.69 cents per coin, according to the Treasury.  The Mint estimates that stopping production will result in an immediate annual saving of $56m (£42m) in reduced material costs.  Critics of the zinc and copper coin say producing it is a waste of money and resources, while those who want to keep it argue it keeps prices lower and boosts fund-raising for charities.  The phasing out of the coins will mean businesses will need to round prices up or down, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), who first reported the story.  "Confirming the WSJ story, the Treasury has made its final order of penny blanks this month and the United States Mint will continue to manufacture pennies while an inventory of penny blanks exists," a Treasury spokesperson said.  Other countries have discontinued similar coins. Canada ditched its one cent coin in 2012, citing the cost of minting it and its falling purchasing power due to higher prices.  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2j07858lno 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2945  May 23, 2025