Funeral potatoes are a traditional Mormon potato hotdish, or casserole, that originated in the U.S. state of Utah. Funeral potatoes get their name from commonly being served as a side dish during traditional after-funeral dinners. Funeral potatoes are also served at other social gatherings, such as potlucks and communal meals, typically in areas with a significant Latter-day Saint population, such as Utah. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funeral_potatoes Thanks, Paul.
Of the many recipes I saw on the Web, my favorite is: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/dining/updated-funeral-potatoes-recipe.html
Marc Reeves, a conservator in the special collections department of the New York Public Library, is among a growing majority of book caretakers who believe the best recipe for preserving leather-bound books includes no oil at all. The New York Public Library gave up oiling books in the 1960s and Reeves and other conservators recommend that private book owners do the same. That's because they have found that oiling sometimes darkens leather and can create unsightly blotches if not applied properly. The oily finish also presents another rub: it can infiltrate the pages of a book long after its owner has re-shelved it. The conservator also suggests that owners of leather books consider purchasing archival boxes or sleeves for valuable leather books—the New York Public Library has boxed about 200,000 leather-bound volumes. Archival boxes, which can be bought for under $10 each from conservation supply firms, protect leather bindings from the normal wear-and-tear that comes with handling. These casings and paper sleeves also protect books from dust. Less dust means less need for dusting, which again minimizes the handling of these often fragile books. What ultimately determines the life span of leather is not whether it's oiled, but how well it was made. Leather made before the beginning of the 19th century usually lasts longer than leather made afterwards, because the earlier leather was manufactured with more care and more time. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/tips/preservingbooks.html
When Missouri became a state in 1820 her constitution defined her northern boundary as the parallel of latitude that passed through the "rapids of the river Des Moines." The land along this parallel was then in the possession of the Indians, but as soon as the Indian title expired Missouri took steps to establish her exact limits. In 1836 Missouri appointed a commission to locate this boundary. The United States and the Territory of Wisconsin were invited to have representatives on the commission, but failed to respond. Missouri went ahead alone. In 1837 her commission decided that the "rapids in the Des Moines River itself, and that the parallel of latitude indicated by the constitution must be the one passing through the great bend in the Des Moines River, near Keosauqua. By common usage, for many years the term "Des Moines Rapids" had been taken to mean the rapids in the Mississippi, just above the mouth of the Des Moines. So here was ground for stubborn argument. To increase the difficulties and confusion, the southern boundary of Wisconsin Territory was defined by Congress as the northern boundary of Missouri! Thus Missouri claimed a strip of land some thirteen miles wide, now forming Iowa's southern border. Not until January 3, 1851, did the Supreme Court of the United States make a final decree. Iowa won, for while the Supreme Court did not accept the claims of either side as to the rapids, an old Indian boundary line run by John Sullivan, government surveyor, in 1816, was selected by the court as the proper one. This was run over again by a commission, to correct errors. The eastern terminus came much below the point insisted on by Missouri, and Iowa was satisfied. The land claimed by both Iowa and Missouri was for the most part heavily wooded, and rich in bee trees. On this account the quarrel has been termed the "Honey War." Many jokes were made about the contest. Frontier poets even wrote verse about it. A Missouri wag composed quite a long poem, which had wide circulation through the settlements. It began as follows:
Ye freemen of this happy land, Which flows with milk and honey,
Arise! To arms! Your ponies mount! Regard not blood or money.
Old Governor Lucas, tiger-like, Is prowling round our borders,
But Governor Boggs is wide awake- Just to listen to his orders:
Three bee trees stand about the line Between our state and Lucas.
Be ready all these trees to fall And bring things to a focus.
We'll show old Lucas how to brag, And seize our precious honey!
He also claims, I understand, Of us three bits in money.
This "Honey War" was full of amusing incidents, arising from the confusion. Settlers living on the strip in dispute did not know whether they were Iowans or Missourians. http://iagenweb.org/history/moi/moi25.htm
The Toledo Museum of Art was incorporated on April 18, 1901. In the fall of 1901 temporary quarters were obtained in a vacant store room on Madison Avenue and the museum was opened. A little later it was removed to the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and Thirteenth Street. In 1911 Edward D. Libbey and his wife donated a tract of ground 400 by 500 feet, located at Monroe Street and Scottwood Avenue as a site for the art museum. Green & Wickes, architects of Buffalo, New York, were commissioned to make plans and in October, 1912, the Toledo Museum of Art was opened to the public. The museum was the first institution of its kind in the country to adopt the policy of arts education for the masses, and it was also the first to introduce music study into its activities, and to arrange for regular concerts. Toledo and Lucas County, Ohio 1623-1923, v. 1. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1923.
In 1901 Queen Victoria was succeeded by her son the Prince of Wales, Edward the VII. In 1901 there were about two hundred lawyers in Toledo with a population of about 132,000 and in 1910 they increased to over four hundred lawyers with a population of about 167,000. The members of the bar had access to three independent newspapers, the Times in the morning and two intense rivals in the evening, the Toledo News-Bee and the Toledo Blade. In 1910 John N. Willys bought out the Pope-Motor Car Co. and organized the Willys-Overland Company.
Hon. Thaddeus N. Walinski TBA Newsletter April 1978
Canada will withdraw the penny from circulation this year, saving taxpayers about C$11 million ($11 million) annually and forcing retailers to round prices to the nearest nickel, the government announced in its budget March 29. The Royal Canadian Mint, which has produced 35 billion pennies since it began production in 1908, will cease distribution this fall due to the coin’s low purchasing power. Production and handling cost for the one-cent coin are a C$150-million drag on the economy, according to a 2006 study by Desjardins, a Levis, Quebec-based financial institution. Business groups welcomed the move, which follows other countries such as Australia, Brazil and Sweden, and economists said it would have little impact on inflation. “If there’s a rounding up, you’d see a rounding down somewhere else,” said Craig Wright, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada. The savings to financial institutions alone may be about C$20-million a year, as banks reduce transportation, storage and handling costs, the study estimated. It costs the government 1.6 cents to produce one penny, which has been made of copper-plated zinc and copper-plated steel since 1997. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-29/canada-eliminates-penny-that-costs-penny-and-a-half-to-make.html A government statement said New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Sweden and others “have made smooth transitions to a penny-free economy.”
Monday, April 2, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Conversation is thinking in its natural state. Thinking is the conversation within us. The Soul Book, 3d. ed. by Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978) singer, social activist and composer of songs such as Little Boxes, Turn Around and Magic Penny.
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. The International Morse Code encodes the ISO basic Latin alphabet, some extra Latin letters, the Arabic numerals and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals as standardized sequences of short and long signals called "dots" and "dashes" respectively, or "dits" and "dahs". Because many non-English natural languages use more than the 26 Roman letters, extensions to the Morse alphabet exist for those languages. See the code at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Different sign languages are used in different countries or regions. For example, British Sign Language (BSL) is a different language from ASL, and Americans who know ASL may not understand BSL. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/asl.aspx
The American Manual Alphabet is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language when spelling individual letters of a word is the preferred or only option, such as with proper names or the titles of works. Letters should be signed with the dominant hand and in most cases, with palm facing the viewer. See chart at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_manual_alphabet
Thomas Augustine Arne (1710–1778) was a British composer, best known for the patriotic song. Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808. In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in Chancery pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was certainly one of the very first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Arne
Irving Berlin came up with “God Bless America” in 1918, while serving in the Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y. It was intended for a military revue called Yip Yip Yaphank. His musical secretary Harry Ruby remembered, “There were so many patriotic songs coming out at the time. Every songwriter was pouring them out. I said, ‘Geez, another one?’” Berlin decided Ruby was right, calling the song “just a little sticky.” He cut it from the score, stashing it away in his trunk. Two decades later, Berlin saw new hope in the old tune. “I had to make one or two changes in the lyrics, and they in turn led me to a slight change and improvement in the melody, one line in particular. The original ran: ‘Stand beside her and guide her to the right with a light from above.’ In 1918, the phrase ‘to the right’ had no political significance, as it has now (told to a journalist in 1938). So for obvious reasons, I changed the phrase to ‘Through the night with a light from above.’” http://performingsongwriter.com/god-bless-america/
William Jacob "Will" Cuppy (1884–1949) was an American humorist and literary critic, known for his satirical books about nature and historical figures. Many of Cuppy's articles for The New Yorker and other magazines were later collected as books: How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931); and How to Become Extinct (1941). Cuppy also edited three collections of mystery stories: World's Great Mystery Stories (1943); World's Great Detective Stories (1943); and Murder Without Tears (1946). His last animal book, How to Attract the Wombat, appeared two months after his death in 1949. Cuppy's best-known work, a satire on history called The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, was unfinished when he died. The book's appeal can be gauged by the fact that CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and his colleague Don Hollenbeck took turns reading from it on the air "until the announcer cracked up." In 2003, a committee of the International Astronomical Union approved the name "15017 Cuppy" for an asteroid. Cuppy described his mother as "a singer of great talent." While she sang in the choir of the Auburn Presbyterian Church, Will pumped the old-fashioned pipe organ, an experience that he said led to his membership in the "Guild of Former Pipe Organ Pumpers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Cuppy
"Family style" usually means that the host or hostess serves the meat, and the side dishes are passed to the right (counterclockwise) with each dinner guest helping himself. This helps maintain a sense of order at the table while all the dishes are being served. Exception to this rule: If someone sitting to your immediate left requests a second helping of potatoes, don't send the dish all the way around the table. It's perfectly fine to directly pass the dish to the left. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/table-manners/pass-food-peggy-dec04
Platters are passed from right to left because most people are right handed and find it convenient to hold the plate in the left hand while using the right hand to serve themselves food. Those who are left-handed can reach over with the right hand (thus having to experience how awkward it is to have food approaching from the wrong side) and transfer the platter to the right. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-15/features/0703130275_1_invited-etiquette-business-etiquette-books
”In 1989, Seeds of Change began with a simple mission: to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. By cultivating and sharing an extensive range of organically grown vegetable, flower, herb and cover crop seeds, we have honored that mission for almost 25 years." Find links to urban gardening, four season growing and gardening how-to at: http://www.seedsofchange.com/
The richest thing in the world is the earth, for from it come all our bounties.
Clever Manka, a Czech fairy tale http://ils.unc.edu/~sturm/storytelling/cuecards/clevermanka%20(Betsy%20Spackman).html
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment. The International Morse Code encodes the ISO basic Latin alphabet, some extra Latin letters, the Arabic numerals and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals as standardized sequences of short and long signals called "dots" and "dashes" respectively, or "dits" and "dahs". Because many non-English natural languages use more than the 26 Roman letters, extensions to the Morse alphabet exist for those languages. See the code at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
American Sign Language (ASL) is a complete, complex language that employs signs made by moving the hands combined with facial expressions and postures of the body. It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Different sign languages are used in different countries or regions. For example, British Sign Language (BSL) is a different language from ASL, and Americans who know ASL may not understand BSL. http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/asl.aspx
The American Manual Alphabet is a manual alphabet that augments the vocabulary of American Sign Language when spelling individual letters of a word is the preferred or only option, such as with proper names or the titles of works. Letters should be signed with the dominant hand and in most cases, with palm facing the viewer. See chart at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_manual_alphabet
Thomas Augustine Arne (1710–1778) was a British composer, best known for the patriotic song. Between 1733 and 1776, Arne wrote music for about 90 stage works, including plays, masques, pantomimes, and opera. Many of his dramatic scores are now lost, probably in the disastrous fire at Covent Garden in 1808. In 1741, Arne filed a complaint in Chancery pertaining to a breach of musical copyright and claimed that some of his theatrical songs had been printed and sold by Henry Roberts and John Johnson, the London booksellers and music distributors. The matter was settled out of court. Arne was certainly one of the very first composers to have appealed to the law over copyright issues. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Arne
Irving Berlin came up with “God Bless America” in 1918, while serving in the Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, N.Y. It was intended for a military revue called Yip Yip Yaphank. His musical secretary Harry Ruby remembered, “There were so many patriotic songs coming out at the time. Every songwriter was pouring them out. I said, ‘Geez, another one?’” Berlin decided Ruby was right, calling the song “just a little sticky.” He cut it from the score, stashing it away in his trunk. Two decades later, Berlin saw new hope in the old tune. “I had to make one or two changes in the lyrics, and they in turn led me to a slight change and improvement in the melody, one line in particular. The original ran: ‘Stand beside her and guide her to the right with a light from above.’ In 1918, the phrase ‘to the right’ had no political significance, as it has now (told to a journalist in 1938). So for obvious reasons, I changed the phrase to ‘Through the night with a light from above.’” http://performingsongwriter.com/god-bless-america/
William Jacob "Will" Cuppy (1884–1949) was an American humorist and literary critic, known for his satirical books about nature and historical figures. Many of Cuppy's articles for The New Yorker and other magazines were later collected as books: How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes (1931); and How to Become Extinct (1941). Cuppy also edited three collections of mystery stories: World's Great Mystery Stories (1943); World's Great Detective Stories (1943); and Murder Without Tears (1946). His last animal book, How to Attract the Wombat, appeared two months after his death in 1949. Cuppy's best-known work, a satire on history called The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody, was unfinished when he died. The book's appeal can be gauged by the fact that CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and his colleague Don Hollenbeck took turns reading from it on the air "until the announcer cracked up." In 2003, a committee of the International Astronomical Union approved the name "15017 Cuppy" for an asteroid. Cuppy described his mother as "a singer of great talent." While she sang in the choir of the Auburn Presbyterian Church, Will pumped the old-fashioned pipe organ, an experience that he said led to his membership in the "Guild of Former Pipe Organ Pumpers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Cuppy
"Family style" usually means that the host or hostess serves the meat, and the side dishes are passed to the right (counterclockwise) with each dinner guest helping himself. This helps maintain a sense of order at the table while all the dishes are being served. Exception to this rule: If someone sitting to your immediate left requests a second helping of potatoes, don't send the dish all the way around the table. It's perfectly fine to directly pass the dish to the left. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipes/table-manners/pass-food-peggy-dec04
Platters are passed from right to left because most people are right handed and find it convenient to hold the plate in the left hand while using the right hand to serve themselves food. Those who are left-handed can reach over with the right hand (thus having to experience how awkward it is to have food approaching from the wrong side) and transfer the platter to the right. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-03-15/features/0703130275_1_invited-etiquette-business-etiquette-books
”In 1989, Seeds of Change began with a simple mission: to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable, organic agriculture. By cultivating and sharing an extensive range of organically grown vegetable, flower, herb and cover crop seeds, we have honored that mission for almost 25 years." Find links to urban gardening, four season growing and gardening how-to at: http://www.seedsofchange.com/
The richest thing in the world is the earth, for from it come all our bounties.
Clever Manka, a Czech fairy tale http://ils.unc.edu/~sturm/storytelling/cuecards/clevermanka%20(Betsy%20Spackman).html
Thursday, March 29, 2012
For pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
Pilgrim verse, circa 1633 http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com/history.html
As their savory odor drifts upward, a dreamy look will overspread your countenance, and as you taste their rare succulence, their yielding tenderness, their glorious just-off-the-vine flavor, a feeling of blissful satisfaction will literally permeate you. Advertisement for frozen peas
The New Yorker, January 1936 http://www.foodreference.com/html/peas-and-dates.html
Phaedrus by Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett (excerpt)
SOCRATES: There is time enough. And I believe that the grasshoppers chirruping after their manner in the heat of the sun over our heads are talking to one another and looking down at us. What would they say if they saw that we, like the many, are not conversing, but slumbering at mid-day, lulled by their voices, too indolent to think? Would they not have a right to laugh at us? They might imagine that we were slaves, who, coming to rest at a place of resort of theirs, like sheep lie asleep at noon around the well. But if they see us discoursing, and like Odysseus sailing past them, deaf to their siren voices, they may perhaps, out of respect, give us of the gifts which they receive from the gods that they may impart them to men.
PHAEDRUS: What gifts do you mean? I never heard of any.
SOCRATES: A lover of music like yourself ought surely to have heard the story of the grasshoppers, who are said to have been human beings in an age before the Muses. And when the Muses came and song appeared they were ravished with delight; and singing always, never thought of eating and drinking, until at last in their forgetfulness they died. And now they live again in the grasshoppers; and this is the return which the Muses make to them -- they neither hunger, nor thirst, but from the hour of their birth are always singing, and never eating or drinking; and when they die they go and inform the Muses in heaven who honours them on earth. They win the love of Terpsichore for the dancers by their report of them; of Erato for the lovers, and of the other Muses for those who do them honour, according to the several ways of honouring them; -- of Calliope the eldest Muse and of Urania who is next to her, for the philosophers, of whose music the grasshoppers make report to them; for these are the Muses who are chiefly concerned with heaven and thought, divine as well as human, and they have the sweetest utterance. For many reasons, then, we ought always to talk and not to sleep at mid-day.
PHAEDRUS: Let us talk. Read more at: http://books.mirror.org/plato/phaedrus/
Gig Young (1913–1978) was an American film, stage, and television actor. Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, his parents John and Emma Barr raised him and his older siblings in Washington D.C. He developed a passion for the theatre while appearing in high school plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in Pancho, a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he and the leading actor in the play, George Reeves, were spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout. Both actors were signed to supporting player contracts with the studio. His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with another actor with the same name, Byron Barr), but after appearing in the 1942 film The Gay Sisters as a character named "Gig Young", the studio decided he should adopt this name professionally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young
Names as palindromes
Ada, Anna, Ava, Bob, Eve, Elle, Gig, Hannah
Mark Carter concedes that he's a digital hoarder. He estimates he has 24,000 MP3 files, 4,000 digital books, 2,000 CDs, 3,000 family photos saved on DVDs and at least 1,300 saved emails, including some from 20 years ago. "They're great memory aids," says the 42-year-old inventory manager at the Wal-Mart in Bloomington, Ill. "Digital hoarding is a huge problem. There is so much available storage, we don't have to make decisions anymore," says David D. Nowell, a neuropsychologist specializing in attention issues in Worcester, Mass. "The problem isn't that it slows down your computer—it slows down your brain," he warns, since each of those photos, links and folders demands some mental energy. Kathy Riemer, a communications consultant in Chicago, says her "digital retentiveness"—including 2,400 Word documents and 39,575 business emails, divided into 69 file groups—enhances her productivity and gives her peace of mind. "Saving it all helps me avoid recreating an already-built wheel and enables me to provide historic context for long-term projects," she says. Christina Villarreal, a cognitive-behavioral therapist in Oakland, Calif., says she has clients in the tech industry—young men mostly—who spend so much time and money amassing collections of music or games or gadgets that they withdraw from the real world. "They can't pay their rent or buy food because they have to have this latest piece of equipment to support their habit," says Dr. Villarreal. Melinda Beck Find out how to "dig out" at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577305520318265602.html
In January of 2012 the Design Review Board of Arts Commission of Greater Toledo selected local artist and stone worker Calvin Babich for a neighborhood art project commission. Calvin’s design concept features materials and construction methods that are common to Old Orchard. It also features three stylized fruit trees referencing the orchards that existed before the neighborhood was developed. See more information and a picture of the maquette at: http://www.acgt.org/index.php?option=com_morfeoshow&task=view&gallery=63&Itemid=135
Area residents may see Calvin at work on the Old Orchard side of Kenwood and Secor on March 29 and 30.
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
Pilgrim verse, circa 1633 http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com/history.html
As their savory odor drifts upward, a dreamy look will overspread your countenance, and as you taste their rare succulence, their yielding tenderness, their glorious just-off-the-vine flavor, a feeling of blissful satisfaction will literally permeate you. Advertisement for frozen peas
The New Yorker, January 1936 http://www.foodreference.com/html/peas-and-dates.html
Phaedrus by Plato Translated by Benjamin Jowett (excerpt)
SOCRATES: There is time enough. And I believe that the grasshoppers chirruping after their manner in the heat of the sun over our heads are talking to one another and looking down at us. What would they say if they saw that we, like the many, are not conversing, but slumbering at mid-day, lulled by their voices, too indolent to think? Would they not have a right to laugh at us? They might imagine that we were slaves, who, coming to rest at a place of resort of theirs, like sheep lie asleep at noon around the well. But if they see us discoursing, and like Odysseus sailing past them, deaf to their siren voices, they may perhaps, out of respect, give us of the gifts which they receive from the gods that they may impart them to men.
PHAEDRUS: What gifts do you mean? I never heard of any.
SOCRATES: A lover of music like yourself ought surely to have heard the story of the grasshoppers, who are said to have been human beings in an age before the Muses. And when the Muses came and song appeared they were ravished with delight; and singing always, never thought of eating and drinking, until at last in their forgetfulness they died. And now they live again in the grasshoppers; and this is the return which the Muses make to them -- they neither hunger, nor thirst, but from the hour of their birth are always singing, and never eating or drinking; and when they die they go and inform the Muses in heaven who honours them on earth. They win the love of Terpsichore for the dancers by their report of them; of Erato for the lovers, and of the other Muses for those who do them honour, according to the several ways of honouring them; -- of Calliope the eldest Muse and of Urania who is next to her, for the philosophers, of whose music the grasshoppers make report to them; for these are the Muses who are chiefly concerned with heaven and thought, divine as well as human, and they have the sweetest utterance. For many reasons, then, we ought always to talk and not to sleep at mid-day.
PHAEDRUS: Let us talk. Read more at: http://books.mirror.org/plato/phaedrus/
Gig Young (1913–1978) was an American film, stage, and television actor. Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, his parents John and Emma Barr raised him and his older siblings in Washington D.C. He developed a passion for the theatre while appearing in high school plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. While acting in Pancho, a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he and the leading actor in the play, George Reeves, were spotted by a Warner Brothers talent scout. Both actors were signed to supporting player contracts with the studio. His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with another actor with the same name, Byron Barr), but after appearing in the 1942 film The Gay Sisters as a character named "Gig Young", the studio decided he should adopt this name professionally. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_Young
Names as palindromes
Ada, Anna, Ava, Bob, Eve, Elle, Gig, Hannah
Mark Carter concedes that he's a digital hoarder. He estimates he has 24,000 MP3 files, 4,000 digital books, 2,000 CDs, 3,000 family photos saved on DVDs and at least 1,300 saved emails, including some from 20 years ago. "They're great memory aids," says the 42-year-old inventory manager at the Wal-Mart in Bloomington, Ill. "Digital hoarding is a huge problem. There is so much available storage, we don't have to make decisions anymore," says David D. Nowell, a neuropsychologist specializing in attention issues in Worcester, Mass. "The problem isn't that it slows down your computer—it slows down your brain," he warns, since each of those photos, links and folders demands some mental energy. Kathy Riemer, a communications consultant in Chicago, says her "digital retentiveness"—including 2,400 Word documents and 39,575 business emails, divided into 69 file groups—enhances her productivity and gives her peace of mind. "Saving it all helps me avoid recreating an already-built wheel and enables me to provide historic context for long-term projects," she says. Christina Villarreal, a cognitive-behavioral therapist in Oakland, Calif., says she has clients in the tech industry—young men mostly—who spend so much time and money amassing collections of music or games or gadgets that they withdraw from the real world. "They can't pay their rent or buy food because they have to have this latest piece of equipment to support their habit," says Dr. Villarreal. Melinda Beck Find out how to "dig out" at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303404704577305520318265602.html
In January of 2012 the Design Review Board of Arts Commission of Greater Toledo selected local artist and stone worker Calvin Babich for a neighborhood art project commission. Calvin’s design concept features materials and construction methods that are common to Old Orchard. It also features three stylized fruit trees referencing the orchards that existed before the neighborhood was developed. See more information and a picture of the maquette at: http://www.acgt.org/index.php?option=com_morfeoshow&task=view&gallery=63&Itemid=135
Area residents may see Calvin at work on the Old Orchard side of Kenwood and Secor on March 29 and 30.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
The monograph, "Lawn Tennis Tournaments, The True Method of Assigning Prizes with a Proof of the Fallacy of the Present Method," by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a 19th century mathematician better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll, is a proposal for a better way to conduct a sports tournament. Let's get one thing straight: Carroll didn't invent the bracket. In writing this nine-page plan, his only goal was to make it better. In Carroll's system, the draw would be assigned alphabetically with no attention paid to skill. If a player won his first-round match, Carroll proposed, he would advance to play other winners. But the losers would not be eliminated. Rather, they would move on to play other losers. The only way any player could be eliminated, he wrote, was after they had amassed three "superiors." He defined a superior as any player who has beaten you, or any player who has beaten a player who has beaten you. In a nutshell: Lots of competitors can advance in any given round, even if they don't win. Losing a single match to anyone won't kill you, so long as you keep winning. The only way to be knocked out is if the player who beats you drops two more matches along the way. In the monograph, Carroll sketched out a 32-player tournament using letters instead of names, and showed how a winner could be determined, using this approach, in nine rounds. Rachel Bachman http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304636404577297821444746352.html
Corsica lies approximately 112 miles south of the main French coast, and is itself about 115 miles long by about 52 miles wide, maximum dimensions. With 5,500 square miles, it is the third largest island in the western Mediterranean, and about a third of the surface area of Sardinia, its Italian neighbour to the south. Its coastline extends to over 600 miles and it rises to nearly 9,000 feet - the highest island in the Mediterranean. French is the official language, and is spoken by everybody but you will hear Corsican spoken everywhere, in the villages in particular. The Corsican language derives from the Genoese occupation and is close to Italian. Dialects vary from area to area - even from village to village. http://www.directcorsica.com/cpbookweb.pdf
Few travellers have not succumbed to Corsica's potent scenery and showered it with
epithets - lIe de Beaute, the Scented Isle, the Mountain of the Sea, the Granite Island. See pictures at: http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1995_files/AJ%201995%20123-130%20Harding%20Corsica.pdf
The Wild Maquis of Corsica by Sibylle Hechtel
I’d read stories about Corsica’s maquis, but the mixture of fragrances that greeted me when I arrived overwhelmed me. Corsica’s scented maquis reaches from the sea up to 3,000 feet. In appearance, it resembles California’s chaparral, but the similarity ends there. Even after one visit, if you put me on an airplane blindfolded and took me to Corsica, I would know with utter certainty that I stood in the maquis. Imagine standing on a fragrant hillside surrounded by eucalyptus, juniper, laurel, rosemary, highly scented shrubs of the rock rose family, heather, myrtle, sage, mint, thyme and lavender. Add to that more than a dozen aromatic flowers that grow only in Corsica and you’ll get an idea of the heady, clean aroma that infuses the island’s air. More than 2,500 species of wildflowers grow in Corsica, and about 250 of these are native to the island. http://www.herbcompanion.com/Gardening/The-Wild-Maquis-of-Corsica.aspx
John Newbery published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradl 1791 edition of Mother Goose's Melody which switched the focus from fairy tales to nursery rhymes, and in English this was until recently the primary connotation for Mother Goose. A book of poems for children entitled Mother Goose's Melody was published in England in 1781, and the name "Mother Goose" has been associated with children's poetry ever since. In music, Maurice Ravel wrote Ma mère l'oye, a suite for the piano, which he then orchestrated for a ballet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English language nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. Though not explicitly mentioned, he is typically portrayed as an egg and has appeared or been referred to in a large number of works of literature and popular culture. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in the seventeenth century. The riddle probably exploited, for misdirection, the fact that "humpty dumpty" was also eighteenth-century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person. The riddle may depend on the assumption that, whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as "Boule Boule" in French, or "Lille Trille" in Swedish and Norwegian; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English. In addition to his appearance in Through the Looking-Glass, as a character Humpty Dumpty has been used in a large range of literary works, including L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose (1901), where the rhyming riddle is devised by the daughter of the king, having witnessed Humpty's "death" and her father's soldiers' efforts to save him. Robert Rankin used Humpty Dumpty as one victim of a serial fairy-tale character murderer in The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002). Jasper Fforde included Humpty Dumpty in two of his novels, The Well of Lost Plots (2003) and The Big Over Easy (2005), which use him respectively as a ringleader of dissatisfied nursery rhyme characters threatening to strike and as the victim of a murder. See images of Humpty by William Wallace Denslow and John Tenniel at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty
Musée de Cluny du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages) sits in Paris's 5th arrondissement. The museum houses many notable medieval artifacts, including sculptures from the 7th and 8th century, important manuscripts, gold and ivory pieces, and many antique furnishings. The museum also owns a fine collection of tapestries of that era, including "The Lady and the Unicorn", a series woven in Flanders and made of wool and silk. These are often considered among the finest works of art from medieval Europe. The museum is housed in building known as the Hôtel de Cluny. Not a hotel in its most commonly known form but rather a expansive house, the Hôtel de Cluny was - in the early 14th century - owned by the abbots of Cluny, who headed a powerful Benedictine order. The complex also once included a college for religious education, but that is no longer standing. http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/museedecluny.htm
Venice continues to sink an average of one to two millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 inches) a year. "It’s a small effect, but it’s important," Yehuda Bock, a research geodesist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif., said. With the Adriatic rising in the Venetian lagoon at the same rate, the combined effect is a 4mm (0.16 inches) a year increase in sea level. This means that Venice could sink up to 80 mm (3.2 inches) by 2032. The study, which will be published March 28 in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, also found that the City of Water in north-east Italy is listing one millimeter or two (0.04 to 0.08 inches) eastward per year. http://news.discovery.com/earth/venice-sinking-120326.html
Corsica lies approximately 112 miles south of the main French coast, and is itself about 115 miles long by about 52 miles wide, maximum dimensions. With 5,500 square miles, it is the third largest island in the western Mediterranean, and about a third of the surface area of Sardinia, its Italian neighbour to the south. Its coastline extends to over 600 miles and it rises to nearly 9,000 feet - the highest island in the Mediterranean. French is the official language, and is spoken by everybody but you will hear Corsican spoken everywhere, in the villages in particular. The Corsican language derives from the Genoese occupation and is close to Italian. Dialects vary from area to area - even from village to village. http://www.directcorsica.com/cpbookweb.pdf
Few travellers have not succumbed to Corsica's potent scenery and showered it with
epithets - lIe de Beaute, the Scented Isle, the Mountain of the Sea, the Granite Island. See pictures at: http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1995_files/AJ%201995%20123-130%20Harding%20Corsica.pdf
The Wild Maquis of Corsica by Sibylle Hechtel
I’d read stories about Corsica’s maquis, but the mixture of fragrances that greeted me when I arrived overwhelmed me. Corsica’s scented maquis reaches from the sea up to 3,000 feet. In appearance, it resembles California’s chaparral, but the similarity ends there. Even after one visit, if you put me on an airplane blindfolded and took me to Corsica, I would know with utter certainty that I stood in the maquis. Imagine standing on a fragrant hillside surrounded by eucalyptus, juniper, laurel, rosemary, highly scented shrubs of the rock rose family, heather, myrtle, sage, mint, thyme and lavender. Add to that more than a dozen aromatic flowers that grow only in Corsica and you’ll get an idea of the heady, clean aroma that infuses the island’s air. More than 2,500 species of wildflowers grow in Corsica, and about 250 of these are native to the island. http://www.herbcompanion.com/Gardening/The-Wild-Maquis-of-Corsica.aspx
John Newbery published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradl 1791 edition of Mother Goose's Melody which switched the focus from fairy tales to nursery rhymes, and in English this was until recently the primary connotation for Mother Goose. A book of poems for children entitled Mother Goose's Melody was published in England in 1781, and the name "Mother Goose" has been associated with children's poetry ever since. In music, Maurice Ravel wrote Ma mère l'oye, a suite for the piano, which he then orchestrated for a ballet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Goose
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English language nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. Though not explicitly mentioned, he is typically portrayed as an egg and has appeared or been referred to in a large number of works of literature and popular culture. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term "humpty dumpty" referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in the seventeenth century. The riddle probably exploited, for misdirection, the fact that "humpty dumpty" was also eighteenth-century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy person. The riddle may depend on the assumption that, whereas a clumsy person falling off a wall might not be irreparably damaged, an egg would be. The rhyme is no longer posed as a riddle, since the answer is now so well known. Similar riddles have been recorded by folklorists in other languages, such as "Boule Boule" in French, or "Lille Trille" in Swedish and Norwegian; though none is as widely known as Humpty Dumpty is in English. In addition to his appearance in Through the Looking-Glass, as a character Humpty Dumpty has been used in a large range of literary works, including L. Frank Baum's Mother Goose in Prose (1901), where the rhyming riddle is devised by the daughter of the king, having witnessed Humpty's "death" and her father's soldiers' efforts to save him. Robert Rankin used Humpty Dumpty as one victim of a serial fairy-tale character murderer in The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse (2002). Jasper Fforde included Humpty Dumpty in two of his novels, The Well of Lost Plots (2003) and The Big Over Easy (2005), which use him respectively as a ringleader of dissatisfied nursery rhyme characters threatening to strike and as the victim of a murder. See images of Humpty by William Wallace Denslow and John Tenniel at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty
Musée de Cluny du Moyen Âge (National Museum of the Middle Ages) sits in Paris's 5th arrondissement. The museum houses many notable medieval artifacts, including sculptures from the 7th and 8th century, important manuscripts, gold and ivory pieces, and many antique furnishings. The museum also owns a fine collection of tapestries of that era, including "The Lady and the Unicorn", a series woven in Flanders and made of wool and silk. These are often considered among the finest works of art from medieval Europe. The museum is housed in building known as the Hôtel de Cluny. Not a hotel in its most commonly known form but rather a expansive house, the Hôtel de Cluny was - in the early 14th century - owned by the abbots of Cluny, who headed a powerful Benedictine order. The complex also once included a college for religious education, but that is no longer standing. http://www.aviewoncities.com/paris/museedecluny.htm
Venice continues to sink an average of one to two millimeters (0.04 to 0.08 inches) a year. "It’s a small effect, but it’s important," Yehuda Bock, a research geodesist with Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, Calif., said. With the Adriatic rising in the Venetian lagoon at the same rate, the combined effect is a 4mm (0.16 inches) a year increase in sea level. This means that Venice could sink up to 80 mm (3.2 inches) by 2032. The study, which will be published March 28 in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, also found that the City of Water in north-east Italy is listing one millimeter or two (0.04 to 0.08 inches) eastward per year. http://news.discovery.com/earth/venice-sinking-120326.html
Monday, March 26, 2012
The United States Secret Service is responsible for maintaining the integrity of the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems. As a part of this mission, the Secret Service constantly implements and evaluates prevention and response measures to guard against electronic crimes as well as other computer related fraud. The Secret Service derives its authority to investigate specified criminal violations from Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 3056. The counterfeiting of money is one of the oldest crimes in history. At some periods in early history, it was considered treasonous and was punishable by death. During the American Revolution, the British counterfeited U.S. currency in such large amounts that the Continental currency soon became worthless. "Not worth a Continental" became a popular expression of the era. During the Civil War, one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit. At that time, approximately 1,600 state banks designed and printed their own bills. Each bill carried a different design, making it difficult to detect counterfeit bills from the 7,000 varieties of real bills. While a national currency was adopted in 1862 to resolve the counterfeiting problem, it was soon counterfeited and circulated so extensively that it became necessary to take enforcement measures. As a result, on July 5, 1865, the United States Secret Service was established to suppress the widespread counterfeiting of the nation's currency. http://www.secretservice.gov/criminal.shtml
Find links to Conlangs (constructed languages) Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Solresol, Volapük, Other IALs, Tolkien's languages, Star Trek languages and D'ni at: http://www.omniglot.com/links/conlangs.htm
MEAN KITTY--words of Bucky Katt in comic strip Get Fuzzy
12/21/11 unsmartness
1/21/12 I feel oddly comforted in that I'm comforted and you're odd.
3/22/12 I know nothing about anything.
Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) Author of stories for the young at heart of all ages, the most well known of her creations are probably the lyrics to the song Morning Has Broken, written in 1931 for an old Gaelic tune, and highly popularized by the Cat Stevens rendition of it in 1971. Her father encouraged her writing from the age of five, and at 18 she wrote the lyrics for an operetta "Floretta" to the music created by her older brother, Harry Farjeon, who became a well respected composer. She had a wide range of friends with great literary talent including D.H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Frost. One of her most notable works Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard was written as a gift to the poet Edward Thomas. In 1956 she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for her contributions to children's literature. http://www.biographybase.com/biography/farjeon_eleanor.html
Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17, to file their 2011 tax returns and pay any tax due because April 15 falls on a Sunday, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Monday, April 16. According to federal law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have two extra days to file this year. Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Oct. 15 to file their 2012 tax returns. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=251825,00.html
Nearly everything about the Foxwoods Resort Casino is improbable, beginning with its scale. It is the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere — a gigantic, labyrinthine wonderland set down in a cedar forest and swamp in an otherwise sleepy corner of southeastern Connecticut. Forty thousand patrons pack into Foxwoods on weekend days. The place has 6,300 slot machines. Ten thousand employees. If you include everything — hotel space, bars and restaurants, theaters and ballrooms, spa, bowling alley — Foxwoods measures about 6.7 million square feet, more than the Pentagon. The owner of this enterprise is the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. The Pequots misjudged the market, borrowed too much and expanded unwisely. Foxwoods’s debt is on a scale befitting the size of the property — $2.3 billion. It would be easy to look at what has occurred at Foxwoods and think, Here are people who fell into money and didn’t know how to handle it. Which happens to be true. But how the casino reached this point, and the challenges its owners and operators now confront, is part of a much larger story — one involving the gradual relaxation of moral prohibitions against gambling, a desperate search for new revenue by state governments and the proliferation of new casinos across America. Casino gambling has become a commodity, available within a day’s drive to the vast majority of U.S. residents. Some in the industry talk of there being an oversupply, as if their product were lumber or soybeans. Foxwoods has had its own in-state competition since 1996 from the Mohegan Sun, which lies just west, across the Thames River. Owned by the Mohegan Tribe, it is a more modest property, though only by comparison — Mohegan is the second-largest casino in the hemisphere. In October, a casino opened at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens with 4,500 slot machines, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing an expansion plan for the site that includes a hotel and what would be the nation’s largest convention center. Michael Sokolove http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/magazine/mike-sokolove-foxwood-casinos.html
Guy Murchie (Jr.) (1907 1997), the son of Ethel A. and Guy Murchie Sr., was a Chicago Tribune photographer, staff artist and reporter, who had served as a war correspondent in England and Iceland from 1940 to 1942. His books included Men on the Horizon (1932), Song of the Sky (1954), Music of the Spheres (1961), and The Seven Mysteries of Life (1978). Murchie also illustrated his books with etchings and woodcuts of his own design. The American Museum of Natural History awarded him the John Burroughs Medal in 1956 for Song of the Sky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Murchie
Sonnets were published along with the music for The Four Seasons (which Vivaldi composed based on four paintings of the seasons by Marco Ricci.) The poems are generally thought to be written by Vivaldi himself -- based on comments he made in the margins of his sheet music, but there is some question over the attribution. Vivaldi was a prolific composer, writing 46 operas and over 500 concerti. His works, such as The Four Seasons, were much anticipated in their day, but dropped out of style and were figuratively and literally lost until the early 20th century when most of his work was 're-discovered' and popularized by several artists and musicians including the poet Ezra Pound. Read the sonnets at: http://theotherpages.org/poems/part2/vivaldi01.html
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, "Happy Birthday to You" is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" was written and composed by American siblings Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse; Mildred was a pianist and composer. The sisters created "Good Morning to All" as a song that would be easy to be sung by young children. The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1978, and probably existed even earlier. None of these early appearances included credits or copyright notices. In the European Union, the copyright of the song will expire on December 31, 2016. The actual American copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" began to draw more attention with the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to You" in his dissenting opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You
Find links to Conlangs (constructed languages) Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Solresol, Volapük, Other IALs, Tolkien's languages, Star Trek languages and D'ni at: http://www.omniglot.com/links/conlangs.htm
MEAN KITTY--words of Bucky Katt in comic strip Get Fuzzy
12/21/11 unsmartness
1/21/12 I feel oddly comforted in that I'm comforted and you're odd.
3/22/12 I know nothing about anything.
Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) Author of stories for the young at heart of all ages, the most well known of her creations are probably the lyrics to the song Morning Has Broken, written in 1931 for an old Gaelic tune, and highly popularized by the Cat Stevens rendition of it in 1971. Her father encouraged her writing from the age of five, and at 18 she wrote the lyrics for an operetta "Floretta" to the music created by her older brother, Harry Farjeon, who became a well respected composer. She had a wide range of friends with great literary talent including D.H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, and Robert Frost. One of her most notable works Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard was written as a gift to the poet Edward Thomas. In 1956 she won the Hans Christian Andersen Award for her contributions to children's literature. http://www.biographybase.com/biography/farjeon_eleanor.html
Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17, to file their 2011 tax returns and pay any tax due because April 15 falls on a Sunday, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Monday, April 16. According to federal law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have two extra days to file this year. Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Oct. 15 to file their 2012 tax returns. http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=251825,00.html
Nearly everything about the Foxwoods Resort Casino is improbable, beginning with its scale. It is the largest casino in the Western Hemisphere — a gigantic, labyrinthine wonderland set down in a cedar forest and swamp in an otherwise sleepy corner of southeastern Connecticut. Forty thousand patrons pack into Foxwoods on weekend days. The place has 6,300 slot machines. Ten thousand employees. If you include everything — hotel space, bars and restaurants, theaters and ballrooms, spa, bowling alley — Foxwoods measures about 6.7 million square feet, more than the Pentagon. The owner of this enterprise is the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation. The Pequots misjudged the market, borrowed too much and expanded unwisely. Foxwoods’s debt is on a scale befitting the size of the property — $2.3 billion. It would be easy to look at what has occurred at Foxwoods and think, Here are people who fell into money and didn’t know how to handle it. Which happens to be true. But how the casino reached this point, and the challenges its owners and operators now confront, is part of a much larger story — one involving the gradual relaxation of moral prohibitions against gambling, a desperate search for new revenue by state governments and the proliferation of new casinos across America. Casino gambling has become a commodity, available within a day’s drive to the vast majority of U.S. residents. Some in the industry talk of there being an oversupply, as if their product were lumber or soybeans. Foxwoods has had its own in-state competition since 1996 from the Mohegan Sun, which lies just west, across the Thames River. Owned by the Mohegan Tribe, it is a more modest property, though only by comparison — Mohegan is the second-largest casino in the hemisphere. In October, a casino opened at the Aqueduct racetrack in Queens with 4,500 slot machines, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing an expansion plan for the site that includes a hotel and what would be the nation’s largest convention center. Michael Sokolove http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/magazine/mike-sokolove-foxwood-casinos.html
Guy Murchie (Jr.) (1907 1997), the son of Ethel A. and Guy Murchie Sr., was a Chicago Tribune photographer, staff artist and reporter, who had served as a war correspondent in England and Iceland from 1940 to 1942. His books included Men on the Horizon (1932), Song of the Sky (1954), Music of the Spheres (1961), and The Seven Mysteries of Life (1978). Murchie also illustrated his books with etchings and woodcuts of his own design. The American Museum of Natural History awarded him the John Burroughs Medal in 1956 for Song of the Sky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Murchie
Sonnets were published along with the music for The Four Seasons (which Vivaldi composed based on four paintings of the seasons by Marco Ricci.) The poems are generally thought to be written by Vivaldi himself -- based on comments he made in the margins of his sheet music, but there is some question over the attribution. Vivaldi was a prolific composer, writing 46 operas and over 500 concerti. His works, such as The Four Seasons, were much anticipated in their day, but dropped out of style and were figuratively and literally lost until the early 20th century when most of his work was 're-discovered' and popularized by several artists and musicians including the poet Ezra Pound. Read the sonnets at: http://theotherpages.org/poems/part2/vivaldi01.html
"Happy Birthday to You", also known more simply as "Happy Birthday", is a song that is traditionally sung to celebrate the anniversary of a person's birth. According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, "Happy Birthday to You" is the most recognized song in the English language, followed by "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow". The melody of "Happy Birthday to You" was written and composed by American siblings Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill in 1893. Patty was a kindergarten principal in Louisville, Kentucky, developing various teaching methods at what is now the Little Loomhouse; Mildred was a pianist and composer. The sisters created "Good Morning to All" as a song that would be easy to be sung by young children. The combination of melody and lyrics in "Happy Birthday to You" first appeared in print in 1978, and probably existed even earlier. None of these early appearances included credits or copyright notices. In the European Union, the copyright of the song will expire on December 31, 2016. The actual American copyright status of "Happy Birthday to You" began to draw more attention with the passage of the Copyright Term Extension Act in 1998. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft in 2003, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer specifically mentioned "Happy Birthday to You" in his dissenting opinion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You
Friday, March 23, 2012
Q. What do the letters B, M, P and W have in common?
A. You must close your lips to pronounce them.
Marostica is a town in the province of Vicenza, in the Veneto region in northern Italy. It is mostly famous for its living chess event held every two years in September where people take on the roles of the various chess pieces (king, knight, bishop, etc.). This is typically done on an outdoor field, with the squares of the board marked out on the grass. Many Human Combat Chess Matches are choreographed stage shows performed by actors trained in stage combat. The story of the Chess Game dates back to 1454 when Marostica belonged to the Venetian Republic. http://italianmedia.com.au/w4/index.php/english-magazine/english-features/tourism-in-italy/5768-marostica-a-living-chess-game-with-real-people-on-the-board
Tom Swift (in the 2nd series Tom Swift, Jr.) is the name of the central character in five series of books, first appearing in 1910, totaling over 100 volumes, of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm. His adventures have been written by a number of different ghostwriters over the years. Most of the books are published under the collective pseudonym Victor Appleton. Translated into a number of languages, the books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Tom Swift has also been the subject of a board game and a television show. A number of prominent figures, including Steve Wozniak and Isaac Asimov, have cited "Tom Swift" as an inspiration. The series' writing style, which was sometimes adverb-heavy, suggested a name for a type of adverbial pun promulgated in the 1960s, the "Tom Swifties". Some examples are: "'I lost my crutches,' said Tom lamely"; and "'I'll take the prisoner downstairs', said Tom condescendingly." Tom Swift's fictional inventions have directly inspired several actual inventions, among them Lee Felsenstein's "Tom Swift Terminal", which "drove the creation of an early personal computer known as the Sol", and the taser. The name "taser" was originally "TSER", for "Tom Swift Electric Rifle". The invention was named after the central device in Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911); according to inventor Jack Cover, "an 'A' was added because we got tired of answering the phone 'TSER.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift
Maltese is a Central Semitic language spoken by about 350,000 people on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. The Maltese language developed from the Siculo-Arabic or Sicilian Arabic, a form of Arabic that developed in Sicily and Malta between the 9th and 14th centuries. Siculo-Arabic was extinct in Sicily by about 1300, but continued to be spoken in Malta and evolved into Maltese. The first reference to Malta having a distinct language dates from 1364, and the language is first referred to as lingua maltensi in the will of a certain Pawlu Peregrino from 1436. There is also a theory that Maltese developed from Carthaginian or Punic, the language of Carthage, which was a form of Phoenician. As Carthaginian and Arabic are both Semitic languages that developed from the same roots, it is difficult to be sure whether Maltese words arrived via Carthaginian or Arabic. The first known literary text in Maltese, II Cantilena, appeared during the 15th century, the first Maltese dictionary was published in 1649. As well as the Arabs who began taking over Malta in 870 AD, Malta was occupied by Norman-speaking Normans from 1090, and between 1530 and 1798 by the Knights Hospitaller of St John who spoke French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Latin and German. In 1800 Malta became a British colony and the British tried to replace Italian with English as the local language. As a result, about half of the vocabulary of Maltese comes from Sicilian and Italian, and a fifth comes from English. Maltese also contains quite a bit of vocabulary from Norman and French. After Malta become independent in 1964 both English and Maltese were given official status and Maltese became the national language of Malta. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/maltese.htm
Galicia is an autonomous community in northwest Spain, with the official status of a nationality of Spain. Its component provinces are A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. It is bordered by Portugal to the south, the Spanish autonomous communities of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the north. Besides its continental territory, Galicia includes Arousa Island, and the archipelagos of Cíes, Ons, Sálvora Island, Cortegada Island, Malveiras Islands, Sisargas Islands, and other minor isles and islets. Galicia has roughly 2.79 million inhabitants as of 2011. Two languages are official and widely used in Galicia, Galician, a Romance language which, along with Portuguese, descends from medieval Galician-Portuguese, and Castilian. Like most of Western Europe, Galicia's history has been defined by mass emigration. There was significant Galician emigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the industrialized Spanish cities of Barcelona, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Madrid and to Latin America - Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba in particular. The two cities with the greatest number of people of Galician descent outside of Galicia itself are Buenos Aires, Argentina, and nearby Montevideo, Uruguay, where immigration from Galicia was so significant that Argentines and Uruguayans now commonly refer to all Spaniards as gallegos (Galicians). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Spain)
Most American food history sources confirm "chop suey" is an American dish. Notes here: Chop suey was invented, fact or fiction?, Library of Congress. "The second famous "Chinese-American" dish to come out of the mining frontier is chop suey, the subject of some historical controversy. It has been common wisdom to say that chop suey...did not exist in old China. The stir-fried hash was invented, according to tradition, in a San Francisco restaurant during the wee hours one morning when a rowdy group of holidaying diners would not hear of the Chinese cook's plea that he had no food. Rather than risk a drubbing, the cook concocted chop suey of the day's scraps. Perhaps. At least one Chinese authority...insists that chop suey was intimately familiar to emigrants from Toisan, the region south of Canton that is the ancestral home of more than half the American Chinse. It does seem hard to believe that a people wracked by poverty had not thought to put together "miscellaneous stuff" before they arrived at the "Golden Mountain."
---Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier, Joseph R. Conlin [University of Nevada Press: Reno] 1986 (p. 192-3)
Mr. Conlin's alternate theory is confirmed here: "Last of all, chop suey is not--as many would-be connoisseurs belive--an American invention. As Li Shu-fan points out in his delightful autobiography, Hong Kong Surgeon (1964), it is a local Toisanese dish. Toisan is an rural district south of Canton, the home for most of the early immigrants from Kwangtung to California. The name is Cantonese tsap seui (Mandarin tsa sui), "Miscellaneous scraps." Basically , it is leftover of odd-lot vegetables stir-fried together. Noodles are often included. Bean sprouts are almost invariably present, but the rest of the dish varies according to whatever is around. The origin myth of chop suey is that it was invented in San Francisco, when someone demanded food late at night at a small Chinese restaurant. Out of food, the restaurant cooked up the day's slops, and chop suey was born. (The "someone" can be a Chinese dignitary, a band of drunken miners, a San Francisco political boss, and so on.)" ---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p. 212-3)
"Edamame...In summer, pods of young soybeans (daizu) on the stalk are boiled and the beans eaten as a side dish with beer. Also called sayamame." ---A Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients & Culture, Richard Hosking [Chartles E. Tuttle Company:Rutland VT] 1996 (p. 39)
Food historians genereally agree the classic "fortune cookie" served in Chinese-American restaurants is a Japanese-American culinary contribution. The cookie's actual "invention" is a classic example of food lore. Many claimants covet this particular title. None of the stories can be verified. There is agreement on these points: (1) The first fortune cookies surfaced in California in the early 20th century; (2) The first commercial fortune cookies were manufactured by Japanese companies; (3) Fortune cookies became ubiquitous by the 1960s.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodasian.html#chopsuey
Ohio Art Co., maker of the classic baby boomer toy, is sending a big box of Etch A Sketches to the presidential campaigns to say thanks for the publicity and a boost in sales. It all started when Mitt Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom was asked March 21 about the candidate's politics now versus next fall, and he likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again." Its stock, which trades over the counter, almost tripled March 22, closing at $9.65, and major stores reported a jump in sales, chairman Bill Killgallon said. "We're proud that one of our products is shaking up the debate," he said. Ohio Art has sold more than 100 million Etch A Sketches worldwide since its introduction in 1960. The toy, with its familiar gray screen and bright-red frame, allows youngsters to draw things by twisting two white knobs. A quick shake erases the image and lets you start over. http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/20120323/NEWS01/203230307/Politics-puts-Etch-Sketch-back-picture
A. You must close your lips to pronounce them.
Marostica is a town in the province of Vicenza, in the Veneto region in northern Italy. It is mostly famous for its living chess event held every two years in September where people take on the roles of the various chess pieces (king, knight, bishop, etc.). This is typically done on an outdoor field, with the squares of the board marked out on the grass. Many Human Combat Chess Matches are choreographed stage shows performed by actors trained in stage combat. The story of the Chess Game dates back to 1454 when Marostica belonged to the Venetian Republic. http://italianmedia.com.au/w4/index.php/english-magazine/english-features/tourism-in-italy/5768-marostica-a-living-chess-game-with-real-people-on-the-board
Tom Swift (in the 2nd series Tom Swift, Jr.) is the name of the central character in five series of books, first appearing in 1910, totaling over 100 volumes, of American juvenile science fiction and adventure novels that emphasize science, invention and technology. The character was created by Edward Stratemeyer, the founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, a book-packaging firm. His adventures have been written by a number of different ghostwriters over the years. Most of the books are published under the collective pseudonym Victor Appleton. Translated into a number of languages, the books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Tom Swift has also been the subject of a board game and a television show. A number of prominent figures, including Steve Wozniak and Isaac Asimov, have cited "Tom Swift" as an inspiration. The series' writing style, which was sometimes adverb-heavy, suggested a name for a type of adverbial pun promulgated in the 1960s, the "Tom Swifties". Some examples are: "'I lost my crutches,' said Tom lamely"; and "'I'll take the prisoner downstairs', said Tom condescendingly." Tom Swift's fictional inventions have directly inspired several actual inventions, among them Lee Felsenstein's "Tom Swift Terminal", which "drove the creation of an early personal computer known as the Sol", and the taser. The name "taser" was originally "TSER", for "Tom Swift Electric Rifle". The invention was named after the central device in Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911); according to inventor Jack Cover, "an 'A' was added because we got tired of answering the phone 'TSER.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swift
Maltese is a Central Semitic language spoken by about 350,000 people on the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. The Maltese language developed from the Siculo-Arabic or Sicilian Arabic, a form of Arabic that developed in Sicily and Malta between the 9th and 14th centuries. Siculo-Arabic was extinct in Sicily by about 1300, but continued to be spoken in Malta and evolved into Maltese. The first reference to Malta having a distinct language dates from 1364, and the language is first referred to as lingua maltensi in the will of a certain Pawlu Peregrino from 1436. There is also a theory that Maltese developed from Carthaginian or Punic, the language of Carthage, which was a form of Phoenician. As Carthaginian and Arabic are both Semitic languages that developed from the same roots, it is difficult to be sure whether Maltese words arrived via Carthaginian or Arabic. The first known literary text in Maltese, II Cantilena, appeared during the 15th century, the first Maltese dictionary was published in 1649. As well as the Arabs who began taking over Malta in 870 AD, Malta was occupied by Norman-speaking Normans from 1090, and between 1530 and 1798 by the Knights Hospitaller of St John who spoke French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Latin and German. In 1800 Malta became a British colony and the British tried to replace Italian with English as the local language. As a result, about half of the vocabulary of Maltese comes from Sicilian and Italian, and a fifth comes from English. Maltese also contains quite a bit of vocabulary from Norman and French. After Malta become independent in 1964 both English and Maltese were given official status and Maltese became the national language of Malta. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/maltese.htm
Galicia is an autonomous community in northwest Spain, with the official status of a nationality of Spain. Its component provinces are A Coruña, Lugo, Ourense and Pontevedra. It is bordered by Portugal to the south, the Spanish autonomous communities of Castile and León and Asturias to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Bay of Biscay to the north. Besides its continental territory, Galicia includes Arousa Island, and the archipelagos of Cíes, Ons, Sálvora Island, Cortegada Island, Malveiras Islands, Sisargas Islands, and other minor isles and islets. Galicia has roughly 2.79 million inhabitants as of 2011. Two languages are official and widely used in Galicia, Galician, a Romance language which, along with Portuguese, descends from medieval Galician-Portuguese, and Castilian. Like most of Western Europe, Galicia's history has been defined by mass emigration. There was significant Galician emigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the industrialized Spanish cities of Barcelona, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Madrid and to Latin America - Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba in particular. The two cities with the greatest number of people of Galician descent outside of Galicia itself are Buenos Aires, Argentina, and nearby Montevideo, Uruguay, where immigration from Galicia was so significant that Argentines and Uruguayans now commonly refer to all Spaniards as gallegos (Galicians). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Spain)
Most American food history sources confirm "chop suey" is an American dish. Notes here: Chop suey was invented, fact or fiction?, Library of Congress. "The second famous "Chinese-American" dish to come out of the mining frontier is chop suey, the subject of some historical controversy. It has been common wisdom to say that chop suey...did not exist in old China. The stir-fried hash was invented, according to tradition, in a San Francisco restaurant during the wee hours one morning when a rowdy group of holidaying diners would not hear of the Chinese cook's plea that he had no food. Rather than risk a drubbing, the cook concocted chop suey of the day's scraps. Perhaps. At least one Chinese authority...insists that chop suey was intimately familiar to emigrants from Toisan, the region south of Canton that is the ancestral home of more than half the American Chinse. It does seem hard to believe that a people wracked by poverty had not thought to put together "miscellaneous stuff" before they arrived at the "Golden Mountain."
---Bacon, Beans and Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier, Joseph R. Conlin [University of Nevada Press: Reno] 1986 (p. 192-3)
Mr. Conlin's alternate theory is confirmed here: "Last of all, chop suey is not--as many would-be connoisseurs belive--an American invention. As Li Shu-fan points out in his delightful autobiography, Hong Kong Surgeon (1964), it is a local Toisanese dish. Toisan is an rural district south of Canton, the home for most of the early immigrants from Kwangtung to California. The name is Cantonese tsap seui (Mandarin tsa sui), "Miscellaneous scraps." Basically , it is leftover of odd-lot vegetables stir-fried together. Noodles are often included. Bean sprouts are almost invariably present, but the rest of the dish varies according to whatever is around. The origin myth of chop suey is that it was invented in San Francisco, when someone demanded food late at night at a small Chinese restaurant. Out of food, the restaurant cooked up the day's slops, and chop suey was born. (The "someone" can be a Chinese dignitary, a band of drunken miners, a San Francisco political boss, and so on.)" ---Food of China, E. N. Anderson [Yale University Press:New Haven] 1988 (p. 212-3)
"Edamame...In summer, pods of young soybeans (daizu) on the stalk are boiled and the beans eaten as a side dish with beer. Also called sayamame." ---A Dictionary of Japanese Food: Ingredients & Culture, Richard Hosking [Chartles E. Tuttle Company:Rutland VT] 1996 (p. 39)
Food historians genereally agree the classic "fortune cookie" served in Chinese-American restaurants is a Japanese-American culinary contribution. The cookie's actual "invention" is a classic example of food lore. Many claimants covet this particular title. None of the stories can be verified. There is agreement on these points: (1) The first fortune cookies surfaced in California in the early 20th century; (2) The first commercial fortune cookies were manufactured by Japanese companies; (3) Fortune cookies became ubiquitous by the 1960s.
http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodasian.html#chopsuey
Ohio Art Co., maker of the classic baby boomer toy, is sending a big box of Etch A Sketches to the presidential campaigns to say thanks for the publicity and a boost in sales. It all started when Mitt Romney strategist Eric Fehrnstrom was asked March 21 about the candidate's politics now versus next fall, and he likened the campaign to an Etch A Sketch: "You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again." Its stock, which trades over the counter, almost tripled March 22, closing at $9.65, and major stores reported a jump in sales, chairman Bill Killgallon said. "We're proud that one of our products is shaking up the debate," he said. Ohio Art has sold more than 100 million Etch A Sketches worldwide since its introduction in 1960. The toy, with its familiar gray screen and bright-red frame, allows youngsters to draw things by twisting two white knobs. A quick shake erases the image and lets you start over. http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/article/20120323/NEWS01/203230307/Politics-puts-Etch-Sketch-back-picture
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Frederick Ogden Nash (1902-1971) was born in Rye, New York, to Edmund Strudwick Nash and Mattie Chenault. His father was in the import-export business, but the Nash family's ancestry in North Carolina stretched back to the American Revolutionary era; the city of Nashville, Tennessee, was named in honor of an ancestor. Nash grew up in various East Coast communities and also lived in Savannah, Georgia, during his youth. He was accepted to Harvard but dropped out in 1921 after a year. Nash held a variety of jobs but none for very long. He worked on Wall Street as a bond salesperson, but sold only one bond—to his godmother—and instead spent his afternoons in movie theaters. He was a schoolteacher for a year at St. George's School, and from there he was hired as an advertising copywriter for streetcar signs. In 1925 he was hired in the marketing department of the Doubleday publishing house and did well enough that he moved on to its editorial department as a manuscript reader. Nash said that it was the poor quality of the manuscripts he read that led him to try to write. He attempted to produce serious verse in the style of the eighteenth-century Romantic poets but soon gave it up. He preferred to scribble comic verse on pages that he crumpled and tossed across the office to the desks of coworkers. This led Nash and a friend named Joseph Alger to work together to produce a 1925 children's book, The Cricket of Carador. A few years later, Nash teamed with two Doubleday coworkers to produce Born in a Beer Garden; or, She Troupes to Conquer, which made fun of classic literature. In 1930 Nash wrote a poem called "Spring Comes to Murray Hill" and submitted it to the New Yorker. The New Yorker published the poem and invited Nash to submit more; his regular appearances in the magazine led to a contract for his first work, Hard Lines, published in 1931. It was a tremendous success, going into seven printings in its first year alone. Nash soon quit his Doubleday job. He referred to himself simply as a "worsifier" instead of a "versifier." http://www.notablebiographies.com/Mo-Ni/Nash-Ogden.html
Ogden Nash wrote the lyrics for One Touch of Venus with Kurt Weill. He wrote the verses to accompany Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals at the urging of Andre Kostelanetz who also had Nash write verses for Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Peter and the Wolf. http://classicalmusicmayhem.freeforums.org/today-in-classical-music-history-august-t1327-45.html Seven of the Carnival of Animals verses appear on p. 26 of The New Yorker, January 7, 1950. According to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, the verses for Peter and the Wolf were written by the composer, Sergei Prokofiev, not Ogden Nash.
In 1885 Saint-Saëns wrote a witty, uncomplicated piece called Wedding Cake (1885), which to his chagrin became so popular that he gained a temporary reputation as a "light" composer. Because he wanted to be considered a composer of serious, substantial music, he suppressed Carnival of the Animals shortly after its premiere in the following year. However, this "zoological fantasy," one of the most successful examples of humourously themed music in the repertory, has become one of the composer's most popular works. Carnival of the Animals, cast as a suite of 14 short pieces, is scored for an ensemble comprising two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, clarinet, and glockenspiel. http://www.answers.com/topic/the-carnival-of-the-animals
European Union countries and candidates
http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm
In the United States presidential election of 1844, Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed. Democratic nominee James K. Polk ran on a platform that embraced American territorial expansionism, an idea soon to be referred to as Manifest Destiny. At their convention, the Democrats called for the annexation of Texas and asserted that the United States had a “clear and unquestionable” claim to “the whole” of Oregon. By informally tying the Oregon boundary dispute to the more controversial Texas debate, the Democrats appealed to both Northern expansionists (who were more adamant about the Oregon boundary) and Southern expansionists (who were more focused on annexing Texas as a slave state). (The slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!” is often incorrectly regarded as being part of this president's election campaign rhetoric; it became a popular slogan in the months after the election, used by those proposing the most extreme solution to the Oregon boundary dispute). This was the last presidential election to be held on different days in different states. Starting with the presidential election of 1848, all states held the election on the same date in November. Joseph Smith, Jr., mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, ran as an independent. He proposed the redemption of slaves by selling public lands and decreasing the size and salary of the United States Congress; the closure of prisons; the annexation of Texas, Oregon, and parts of Canada; the securing of international rights on high seas; free trade; and the re-establishment of a national bank. The campaign ended when he was assassinated while in prison on June 27, 1844. James Birney ran as the anti-slavery Liberty Party candidate, garnering 2.3% of the popular vote, and over 8% of the vote in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The votes he won were more than the difference in votes between Henry Clay and James K. Polk; some scholars have argued that Birney's support among anti-slavery Whigs in New York swung that decisive state in favor of Polk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1844
Windsor Castle is an official residence of the Queen of England and the largest occupied castle in the world. The castle was the inspiration for the Royal family's surname. William the Conqueror built the castle in 1080 and it has remained a royal palace and fortress for over 900 years. Windsor is the oldest royal home in Britain and, covering 13 acres, it's the largest castle in the world that is still lived in. Find descriptions and pictures of many British castles at: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/castles.htm
One of the most interesting features in Chester, England is the city wall. It is one of the most complete – maybe the most complete – city walls in the UK and runs for more than 2 km around a central area of the city. In parts of the wall you can see original Roman wall foundations and stones. The Rows – two city blocks of shops that are on two levels. There are the street level shops, and then above them a level of shops that are accessed by a balcony or sort of boardwalk that run along the outside. Sort of like a modern shopping mall. http://bookwormamanda.wordpress.com/
St John the Baptist's Church, Chester is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It lies outside the city walls on a cliff above the north bank of the River Dee. The church was reputedly founded by King Aethelred in 689. After the Dissolution, much of the east end of the church was demolished and some of it remains as ruins to the east of the present church. In 1468 the central tower collapsed. In 1572 the northwest tower partially collapsed and in 1574 there was a greater collapse of this tower which destroyed the western bays of the nave. While the northwest tower was being repaired in 1881 it collapsed again, this time destroying the north porch. The church is built in sandstone. At the west end is the ruined first stage of the northwest tower. The organ had been built as a temporary organ for the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 by William Hill and Company of London. It was then rebuilt for St John's, transported to Chester by barge and installed in the west gallery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_the_Baptist's_Church,_Chester
A New York judge on March 21 threw out one of the first of more than a dozen lawsuits around the country that accuse law schools of advertising misleading post-graduate employment statistics. http://www.scribd.com/doc/86242133/schweitzer#fullscreen. The plaintiffs, a group of nine New York Law School graduates, claimed they overpaid for their degrees, because they were led to believe, as a reasonable consumer would be, that between 90% and 92% of the school’s graduates secured full-time jobs as lawyers. But that percentage also included students in part-time jobs, as well as jobs that don’t require a law degree. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/21/judge-tosses-lawsuit-against-law-school-over-employment-stats/
More than 130 years ago, a pair of farmers outside of Warwick, N.Y., gave up some of their property to help establish a reservoir and pipeline for the village’s water supply. In exchange, the current owner says, the water department agreed provide water to the property in perpetuity and free of charge. Now, a federal appeals court has ruled that a lower court should examine whether the village violated the current landowner’s constitutional rights by shutting off the property’s water after a dispute. Read the story and see the summary order at: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/20/a-130-year-old-contract-that-may-hold-water/
Ogden Nash wrote the lyrics for One Touch of Venus with Kurt Weill. He wrote the verses to accompany Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals at the urging of Andre Kostelanetz who also had Nash write verses for Ravel's Mother Goose Suite and Peter and the Wolf. http://classicalmusicmayhem.freeforums.org/today-in-classical-music-history-august-t1327-45.html Seven of the Carnival of Animals verses appear on p. 26 of The New Yorker, January 7, 1950. According to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, the verses for Peter and the Wolf were written by the composer, Sergei Prokofiev, not Ogden Nash.
In 1885 Saint-Saëns wrote a witty, uncomplicated piece called Wedding Cake (1885), which to his chagrin became so popular that he gained a temporary reputation as a "light" composer. Because he wanted to be considered a composer of serious, substantial music, he suppressed Carnival of the Animals shortly after its premiere in the following year. However, this "zoological fantasy," one of the most successful examples of humourously themed music in the repertory, has become one of the composer's most popular works. Carnival of the Animals, cast as a suite of 14 short pieces, is scored for an ensemble comprising two pianos, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, flute, clarinet, and glockenspiel. http://www.answers.com/topic/the-carnival-of-the-animals
European Union countries and candidates
http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm
In the United States presidential election of 1844, Democrat James K. Polk defeated Whig Henry Clay in a close contest that turned on foreign policy, with Polk favoring the annexation of Texas and Clay opposed. Democratic nominee James K. Polk ran on a platform that embraced American territorial expansionism, an idea soon to be referred to as Manifest Destiny. At their convention, the Democrats called for the annexation of Texas and asserted that the United States had a “clear and unquestionable” claim to “the whole” of Oregon. By informally tying the Oregon boundary dispute to the more controversial Texas debate, the Democrats appealed to both Northern expansionists (who were more adamant about the Oregon boundary) and Southern expansionists (who were more focused on annexing Texas as a slave state). (The slogan "Fifty-four Forty or Fight!” is often incorrectly regarded as being part of this president's election campaign rhetoric; it became a popular slogan in the months after the election, used by those proposing the most extreme solution to the Oregon boundary dispute). This was the last presidential election to be held on different days in different states. Starting with the presidential election of 1848, all states held the election on the same date in November. Joseph Smith, Jr., mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois and founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, ran as an independent. He proposed the redemption of slaves by selling public lands and decreasing the size and salary of the United States Congress; the closure of prisons; the annexation of Texas, Oregon, and parts of Canada; the securing of international rights on high seas; free trade; and the re-establishment of a national bank. The campaign ended when he was assassinated while in prison on June 27, 1844. James Birney ran as the anti-slavery Liberty Party candidate, garnering 2.3% of the popular vote, and over 8% of the vote in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The votes he won were more than the difference in votes between Henry Clay and James K. Polk; some scholars have argued that Birney's support among anti-slavery Whigs in New York swung that decisive state in favor of Polk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1844
Windsor Castle is an official residence of the Queen of England and the largest occupied castle in the world. The castle was the inspiration for the Royal family's surname. William the Conqueror built the castle in 1080 and it has remained a royal palace and fortress for over 900 years. Windsor is the oldest royal home in Britain and, covering 13 acres, it's the largest castle in the world that is still lived in. Find descriptions and pictures of many British castles at: http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/castles.htm
One of the most interesting features in Chester, England is the city wall. It is one of the most complete – maybe the most complete – city walls in the UK and runs for more than 2 km around a central area of the city. In parts of the wall you can see original Roman wall foundations and stones. The Rows – two city blocks of shops that are on two levels. There are the street level shops, and then above them a level of shops that are accessed by a balcony or sort of boardwalk that run along the outside. Sort of like a modern shopping mall. http://bookwormamanda.wordpress.com/
St John the Baptist's Church, Chester is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It lies outside the city walls on a cliff above the north bank of the River Dee. The church was reputedly founded by King Aethelred in 689. After the Dissolution, much of the east end of the church was demolished and some of it remains as ruins to the east of the present church. In 1468 the central tower collapsed. In 1572 the northwest tower partially collapsed and in 1574 there was a greater collapse of this tower which destroyed the western bays of the nave. While the northwest tower was being repaired in 1881 it collapsed again, this time destroying the north porch. The church is built in sandstone. At the west end is the ruined first stage of the northwest tower. The organ had been built as a temporary organ for the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838 by William Hill and Company of London. It was then rebuilt for St John's, transported to Chester by barge and installed in the west gallery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_the_Baptist's_Church,_Chester
A New York judge on March 21 threw out one of the first of more than a dozen lawsuits around the country that accuse law schools of advertising misleading post-graduate employment statistics. http://www.scribd.com/doc/86242133/schweitzer#fullscreen. The plaintiffs, a group of nine New York Law School graduates, claimed they overpaid for their degrees, because they were led to believe, as a reasonable consumer would be, that between 90% and 92% of the school’s graduates secured full-time jobs as lawyers. But that percentage also included students in part-time jobs, as well as jobs that don’t require a law degree. http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/21/judge-tosses-lawsuit-against-law-school-over-employment-stats/
More than 130 years ago, a pair of farmers outside of Warwick, N.Y., gave up some of their property to help establish a reservoir and pipeline for the village’s water supply. In exchange, the current owner says, the water department agreed provide water to the property in perpetuity and free of charge. Now, a federal appeals court has ruled that a lower court should examine whether the village violated the current landowner’s constitutional rights by shutting off the property’s water after a dispute. Read the story and see the summary order at: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2012/03/20/a-130-year-old-contract-that-may-hold-water/
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