Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems.  Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it.  PDF has its roots in "The Camelot Project" initiated by Adobe co-founder John Warnock in 1991.  PDF was standardized as ISO 32000 in 2008. The last edition as ISO 32000-2:2020 was published in December 2020.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF  

According to a 2013 study published in BMC Journal, sodium and preservatives in processed deli meat can increase the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.  There are also hidden sugars in many condiments from ketchup, with an average of 4 grams of sugar per tablespoon, to barbecue sauce, which has 6 grams per tablespoon.  Sodium and saturated fats can also be a problem.  According to data gathered by the Journal, sandwiches are the number one source of sodium and saturated fat in Americans' diet, making up one-fifth of our daily sodium intake and 19% of our daily saturated fat calories.  ABC news medical contributor and emergency room doctor Darien Sutton said that "we have to make better choices, learning more and getting more understanding of the value of our diet in relation to our physical health."  Sutton suggested swapping out white bread for something with a whole grain.  "Whole grain is a great source of fiber.  It has antioxidants in it.  Also, it's associated with lowering that [low-density lipoprotein], or that bad cholesterol," he explained.  Sutton also said to swap out processed deli meat, which can be high in nitrates, and substitute it with something like chicken.  "Instead of American cheese, we can switch it out for mozzarella or Swiss cheese.  Finally, he tackled condiments, saying that eliminating mayonnaise alone can cut a lot of calories.  "Instead of mayonnaise--there's no real substitute for it--but if you want the texture, I love hummus," he said.  Kelly McCarthy  https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Food/deli-sandwiches-destroyed-american-diet-healthier-alternatives-swaps/story?id=97932987  

True bagels are boiled briefly before being baked.  (Turn one over:  If it has a grid pattern on the bottom, it was first steamed rather than boiled, and is not a true bagel.)  Chewy, glutinous, and highly caloric, one’s a meal and a very satisfying one, especially when schmeared with cream cheese and layered with lox or another form of cured fish.  Robert Sietsema and Eater Staff  https://ny.eater.com/maps/best-bagels-nyctps://ny.eater.com/maps/best-bagels-nyc

February 13, 2014  Situated on the bleak Adrar Plateau, the city of Chinguetti contains some of the world’s most important Quranic texts amid its simple earthen libraries.  Established around 777 AD, Chinguetti became an important trading outpost on the Timbuktu caravan route to the Mediterranean.  At the same time it became a gathering place for Islamic pilgrims on their way to Mecca.  With the steady traffic of holy people through the city, a large, stone mosque was built and small libraries were founded to contain the growing number of religious texts left behind.  Preserving the tradition of trading and passing down such holy writings, most of the original Chinguetti libraries exist in largely the same state as when they were deposited.  Today there are five such libraries left in Chinguetti containing some 1,300 Quranic manuscripts, as well as civil records including contracts, bills of sale, and legal judgments.  The dry desert air and dedication of generations of custodians have helped preserve the fragile parchments, often rolled inside bamboo tubes.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-libraries-of-chinguetti-chinguetti-mauritania 

The Adrar (Arabic: هضبة آدرار, Berber for "mountain") is a highland natural and historical region of the Sahara Desert in northern Mauritania.  The Adrar Region, an administrative division of Mauritania, is named after the traditional region.  It is sometimes called Adrar Tamar to distinguish it from other areas called Adrar in the Sahara.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrar_Plateau   

Humans use about 1.2 million plastic bottles per minute in total.  Approximately 91% of plastic is not recycled.  Roughly half of our global annual plastic production is destined for a single-use product.  Five trillion plastic bags are produced worldwide annually.  It can take up to 1,000 years for a bag to disintegrate completely.  Americans throw away 100 billion bags annually– that’s the equivalent to dumping nearly 12 million barrels of crude oil!  By switching to reusable shopping bags, we can eliminate that waste– which amounts to about 307 bags per person.  Americans alone use half a billion drinking straws every day.  https://www.earthday.org/fact-sheet-single-use-plastics/  Single-use plastic bags are banned in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New York and Vermont. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2658  April 17, 2023

Spring has now unwrapped the flowers, day is fast reviving,

life in all her growing powers towards the light is striving. 

Gone the iron touch of cold, winter time and frost time,
seedlings working through the mold now make up for lost time. 

Flower Carol  The Oxford Book of Carols, # 99

The season of fresh fava/broad beans is short, you can only find them in the early spring.  Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions and garlic over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the onions become translucent.  Add the shelled fava beans and cook them for about 5 minutes.  Add in the salt, sugar, and water, and continue cooking the beans for about 20 minutes.  Cool and garnish the beans.  Remove the cooked fava beans from the heat and allow them to cool slightly.  Add some freshly chopped dill and stir it in well.  Serve with red pepper flakes, fresh dill, and some refreshing lemon slices.  Zerrin & Yusuf  Find tips and specific measurements at https://www.giverecipe.com/shelled-fresh-fava-beans/ 

Yoshitomo Nara graduated from Aichi University of the Arts with a master’s degree in 1987, completing further studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, from 1988 to 1993, before settling in Cologne in 1994.   This period of time was a pivotal influence on Nara, during which he began synthesizing Japanese and Western popular culture, as seen in Nachtwandern (1994), and when he arrived at his mature style, as seen in Pony Tail (1995) and Haze Days (1998).  See many pictures at https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/yoshitomo-nara/  

Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian.  In cuisine, alla cacciatora refers to a meal prepared "hunter-style" with onions, herbs, usually tomatoes, often bell peppers, and sometimes wine.  Cacciatore is popularly made with braised chicken (pollo alla cacciatora) or rabbit (coniglio alla cacciatora).  The salamino cacciatore is a small salami that is seasoned with only garlic and pepper.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacciatore  Thank you, Muse reader!  

Philip Guston (1913-1980) was born in Montreal, Quebec, the seventh child of Ukrainian immigrants.  Raised in Los Angeles and largely self-taught, he found inspiration for his early murals in the masters of the Italian Renaissance. Early acclaim as a figurative painter and years spent teaching in the mid-West were followed by a Prix de Rome in 1948-49, after which he moved permanently to New York and turned to abstraction, joining contemporaries Pollock, De Kooning, Kline and Rothko.  In the mid-1960's, Guston withdrew from the New York art scene to Woodstock, where he worked on the late figurative paintings for which he is now best known.  Link to pictures of selected works at https://www.philipguston.org/home  

April 7, 2023 The Mysterious Underground City Found in a Man’s Basement by Frank Jacobs  A renovation project in Turkey led to the discovery of a lifetime—a lost city that once housed 20,000 people.  But in 1963, that barrier was breached for real.  Taking a sledgehammer to a wall in his basement, a man in the Turkish town of Derinkuyu got more home improvement than he bargained for.  Behind the wall, he found a tunnel.  And that led to more tunnels, eventually connecting a multitude of halls and chambers.  It was a huge underground complex, abandoned by its inhabitants and undiscovered until that fateful swing of the hammer.  The anonymous Turk—no report mentions his name—had found a vast subterranean city, up to 18 stories and 280 feet (76 meters) deep and large enough to house 20,000 people.  Read much more and see pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/derinkuyu-turkey-underground-city-strange-maps  Thank you, Muse reader! 

seventh art (uncountable)  (film) Chiefly preceded by the: the art of making motion pictures; filmmaking. [from 1920s] noun Wiktionary  

April 14 is the eve of World Art Day, which was established by the International Association of Art to celebrate the fine arts.  The Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452.  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2657  April 14, 2023 

Panettone Bread Pudding with Amaretto Sauce  total time 1 hr 30 min  8-10 servings  https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/panettone-bread-pudding-with-amaretto-sauce-recipe-1943204  Thank you, Muse reader!  

Peppers are one of the vegetables you can quickly freeze raw without blanching first.  Thawed peppers retain some crispness and can be used in cooked dishes such as casseroles or eaten raw.  https://food.unl.edu/article/freezing-peppers#:~:text=Peppers%20are%20one%20of%20the,as%20casseroles%20or%20eaten%20raw.  

Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School, also known as Murrell Dobbins Vocational High School, is a historic vocational school building located in the West Lehigh neighborhood of North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is part of the School District of Philadelphia.  The building was designed by Irwin T. Catharine and built in 1936–1937.  It is a six- to seven-story, 14-bay, brick building in the Moderne-style.  It has a one-story, stone front building.  It features brick piers with terracotta tops and the building has terra cotta trim.  Murrell Dobbins offers 12 CTE programs:  Barbering, Biotechnology, Building & Property Maintenance, Business Administration, Commercial & Advertising Arts, Computer Networking, Cosmetology, Culinary Arts, Digital Media, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Music Production.  Dobbins athletics consist of Football, Cross-Country, Volleyball, Soccer, Basketball, Indoor Track, Bowling, Cheerleading, Badminton, Baseball, Softball and Outdoor Track.  The Dobbins building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.  The namesake, Murrell H. Dobbins (1843-1917), was a New Jersey-born man who became a member of the Philadelphia school board.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murrell_Dobbins_Career_and_Technical_Education_High_School#  

The citron (Citrus medica), historically cedrate, is a large fragrant citrus fruit with a thick rind.  It is said to resemble a 'huge, rough lemon'.  It is one of the original citrus fruits from which all other citrus types developed through natural hybrid speciation or artificial hybridization.  Though citron cultivars take on a wide variety of physical forms, they are all closely related genetically.  It is used in Asian cuisine, traditional medicines, perfume, and religious rituals and offerings.  Hybrids of citrons with other citrus are commercially more prominent, notably lemons and many limes.  Thank you, Muse reader!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citron  

Rigatoni with Sausage and Fennel recipe courtesy of Ina Garten from Food Network Magazine total time:  50 min  6 servings  To make ahead, spoon the pasta into gratin dishes, sprinkle with Parmesan and refrigerate for up to a day.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees F.  recipe at https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/rigatoni-with-sausage-and-fennel-1-4622116 

The name “Argentina” comes from Italian roots meaning ‘silver-colored’ or ‘of silver’.  The name was given by early Venetian and Genoese explorers as the area was associated with the legend of the Silver Mountain.  During the Spanish colonial period and after its independence, the country was called the ‘United Provinces of Rio de la Plata (the Silver River)’.  ‘Plata’ is the Spanish word for silver.  Still, the name ‘The Argentine’ was commonly used for the country. The constitution of 1853 formalized the name “Argentine Confederation”.  https://thediplomaticinsight.com/argentina-the-land-of-silver/#:~:text=During%20the%20Spanish%20colonial%20period,commonly%20used%20for%20the%20country. 

Who are we but the stories we tell ourselves, about ourselves, and believe? - Scott Turow, author and lawyer (b. 12 Apr 1949)

Celebrate National Library Week, April 23-29 

The first human space flight by the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin took place on April 12, 1961.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2656   April 12, 2023  

The earliest mention of hot cross buns, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, dates to 1733.  Poor Robin’s Almanac contains the rhyme:  Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs with one or two a penny hot cross buns.  However, there are many signs that the Easter cake existed long before then.  There were simply very few written records to offer concrete evidence.  One story claims that the buns were first made in the 12th century, by a monk who decided to mark them with a cross in honour of the Easter season.  As they grew in popularity, they became an annual tradition.  But there are other claims that the buns have a much earlier origin story.  Some historians say that they are a part of the pre-Christian celebrations of Ostara, celebrating rebirth and the arrival of spring after the long winter.  The cross divides the cake into four quarters, representing the four seasons and the compass points.  See pictures and recipe at https://britishfoodandtravel.com/2018/03/27/hot-cross-buns-for-easter/   

Hot Cross Buns Recipe by Nagi  Fluffy, fragrant, homemade Hot Cross Buns recipe!  With a short recipe video and some cheeky but effective tips, I think you’ll be amazed how easy it is to make hot cross buns.  https://www.recipetineats.com/hot-cross-buns-recipe/  See also https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a11482/hot-cross-buns/

Banbury is a market town in on the edge of the northern Oxfordshire Cotswolds.  A nursery rhyme, 'Ride a Cock Horse', has made Banbury one of the best-known towns in England.  It has been suggested that the 'Fine Lady' of the nursery rhyme may have been Lady Godiva or Elizabeth I.  More likely it was a local girl who rode in a May Day procession.  The original cross was pulled down at the end of the 16th century.  

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross
To see a fine lady ride on a white horse
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes
She shall have music wherever she goes.

The written history of this 'nursery rhyme' goes back to 1784 but it was not written for children and like many other so called nursery rhymes this rhyme may well carry its own delightfully history.  The catchy little rhyme has made Banbury famous throughout the English speaking world and Banbury Cross a tourist attraction.  But the Cross that stands in the centre of Banbury has nothing to do with the rhyme.  The cross now standing was erected in 1859 to commemorate the marriage of Queen Victoria's eldest daughter. 

Banbury had at least three other crosses:  the High Cross, the Bread Cross, and the white Cross.  The Puritans destroyed the crosses.  It is possible that Banbury Cross refers not so much to a monument as to the location of crossroads.  Banbury was built at the junction of two ancient roads the Salt Way, still used as a bridle path and Banbury Lane, part of the Jurassic Way which ran from the Humber to the Avon.  The real story behind the nursery rhyme is lost in history.  https://www.cotswolds.info/strange-things/banbury-cross.shtml   

It was called Rejuvenique:  a facial mask endorsed by actress Linda Evans, of "Dynasty" fame, in 1999.  It was not only creepy looking, but had electrodes that shocked a person's face.  "It was never really approved by any authority, but the reviews said it feels like there were a thousand ants biting your face," said Samuel West, the founder and curator of the Museum of Failure.  The mask is one of more than 130 items from around the world that didn't quite do the trick—and are now on display in the traveling exhibition at Industry City in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.  A number of the epic fails are from well-known brands like Coca-Cola, Ford, Colgate, Nintendo and Pepsi.  West founded the museum in Sweden in 2017.  Food items like Crystal Pepsi and flavored waters for pets are featured, as well as the famous story of New Coke from Coca-Cola in the mid-1980s.  "Coke decided to change their original classic formula, created chaos, and consumers were super annoyed and worried that they wouldn't have their original Coke," said West, who noted that somehow this worked in Coke's favor, as people went out of their way to stock up on original Coke.  The original Coke was brought back as "Coca-Cola Classic" three months later.  Other failures include the tragic story of the Titanic, the "unsinkable" luxury liner that sadly did sink after hitting an iceberg in the north Atlantic on its maiden voyage in 1912, with more than 1,500 passengers and crew perishing.  There was also the Mercedes-Benz A-class compact car, which rolled over during a safety test. 

On the tech side, the Nintendo Power Glove was a huge failure when it was released in 1989.  "High expectations; this was like the future of gaming.  However, it was really difficult, almost impossible, to make it work," said West, who noted that failure would lead to more success for Nintendo with their Wii gaming system.  That's a big focus of the museum:  that sometimes failure has to happen before things get figured out.  "Here we are looking at some of the failures that didn't make it, but we often forget that the successes are built upon sort of multiple, hundreds of failures before it," West said.  All of this failure will be on display at Industry City through May 14, 2023.  Roger Clark https://www.ny1.com/nyc/brooklyn/news/2023/03/20/museum-of-failure-spotlights-massive-flops-through-history   

Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE (born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist.  She is considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, after 60 years studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees.  She is the founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots & Shoots programme, and she has worked extensively on conservation and animal welfare issues.  As of 2022, she is on the board of the Nonhuman Rights Project.  In April 2002, she was named a UN Messenger of Peace.  Goodall is an   honorary member of the World Future Council.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall   

“Every individual matters.  Every individual has a role to play.  Every individual makes a difference.”  https://quotefancy.com/jane-goodall-quotes   

On April 10th, 1925, Charles Scribner’s Sons published The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third novel, which Fitz had begun drafting almost three years before.  “The whole idea of Gatsby,” Fitzgerald once wrote, “is the unfairness of a poor young man not being able to marry a girl with money.  This theme comes up again and again because I lived it.”  (That would be in regards to his failed love affair with Ginevra King, who inspired Daisy Buchanan.  Bet Zelda loved that.)  Famously, the book was almost called something else—a number of something elses, in fact.  “Before reluctantly deciding on The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald hemmed and hawed over more than half a dozen names,” writes Dustin Illingworth. “Gatsby; Among Ash-Heaps and Millionaires; Trimalchio; Trimalchio in West Egg; On the Road to West Egg; Under the Red, White, and Blue; Gold-Hatted Gatsby; and The High-Bouncing Lover.  As late as one month before publication, he was still trying to change the title.  His final opinion of the name of his masterpiece was not exactly a ringing endorsement:  ‘The title is only fair, rather bad than good,’ he said.”  Though The Great Gatsby was received warmly by Fitzgerald’s peers and enjoyed (mostly) positive reviews from critics, it did not sell well, particularly as compared to Fitzgerald’s previous two novels, This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and the Damned (1922).  But books can have long lives.  During WWII, The Great Gatsby was selected by the Council on Books in Wartime to be one of the titles sent to American soldiers stationed overseas—and its popularity soon soared.  Literary Hub  April 9, 2023   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2655  April 10, 2023 

Adam Lindemann is an American investor, writer, art collector, and art dealer.  In 2012, he founded the gallery Venus Over Manhattan in New York City.  His personal collection has included pieces by blue chip artists including Richard Prince, Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, and Urs Fischer.  He famously sold a 1982 canvas by Basquiat at Christie’s for $57.3 million in 2016, a high for the artist at auction at that time (Lindemann had bought the painting for $4.5 million in 2004).  In 2007, he sold Koons’s “Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)” at Sotheby’s for $23.5 million (he had bought it for about $1.2 million in 2003).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Lindemann   

Toledo was the first city in Ohio to adopt a One Percent for Art program.  The 1977 ordinance served as a model for Ohio's Percent for Art program, administered by the Ohio Arts Council, which began in 1990.  Founded in 1959 as the City Culture Commission, The Arts Commission compiled the city’s first comprehensive local arts calendar beginning in 1960.  By the end of the decade, the organization was brought under the City’s Division of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry to aid in public art investments at Crosby Gardens (now Toledo Botanical Garden).  Toledo’s One Percent for Art program was the first in Ohio, among the first in the nation, and has since served as the adopted model for other regional agencies.  See pictures at https://theartscommission.org/public-art/about-public-art   

Mayhaws (Crataegus aestivalis, C. rufula, or C. opaca) grow under hardwood timber in the wet floodplain soils along creeks and rivers.  These small trees are of the hawthorne family.  The fruit is small and apple-like and ripens during the late April and early May in East Texas.  They have beautiful white blossoms in the spring and are desirable as ornamentals as well as for wildlife cover and forage.  They ripen over a 10 to 30 day harvest period, but some varieties may have 80% of the fruit ripe at one time.  Marty Baker and George Ray McEachern  https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/fruit-nut/fact-sheets/mayhaw/  See also https://ediblelandscaping.com/careguide/Mayhaw/  

Crataegus commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, Mayflower, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America.  The name "hawthorn" was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn C. monogyna, and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland.  The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian genus Rhaphiolepis.  The generic epithet, Crataegus, is derived from the Greek kratos "strength" because of the great strength of the wood and akis "sharp", referring to the thorns of some species.  The name haw, originally an Old English term for hedge (from the Anglo-Saxon term haguthorn, "a fence with thorns"), also applies to the fruit.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crataegus 

The Delaware Tercentenary half dollar (also known as the Swedish Delaware half dollar) is a commemorative fifty-cent piece struck by the United States Bureau of the Mint to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the first successful European settlement in Delaware.  The reverse features the Swedish ship Kalmar Nyckel, which brought early settlers to Delaware, and the obverse depicts Old Swedes Church, which has been described as being the oldest Protestant church in the United States still used as a place of worship.  While the coins are dated "1936" on the obverse and the reverse also has the dual date of "1638" and "1938", the coins were actually struck in 1937.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Tercentenary_half_dollar   

The barcode is turning 50, but who gets the credit for it is up for debate by Dayun Park  Since its invention, the Universal Product Code has become the most prevalent tracking tool for products around the world.  Bernard Silver and Norman Joseph Woodland, two graduate students at Drexel University in Philadelphia, received a patent for an early barcode system in 1952; Woodland later said that the pattern was inspired by the Morse code he learned in the Boy Scouts.  The birthday of the barcode is celebrated April 3, 1973 because that’s the day the IBM version, created by senior engineer George Laurer, was approved as the industry standard.  In Laurer’s New York Times obituary of 2019, he is credited as the designer and developer of the barcode, although it notes Laurer received no royalties.  https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/04/business/barcode-history-50-anniversary/index.html?  Thank you, Muse reader!   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2653  April 5, 2023 

Perhaps the single most beautiful image Milton Glaser ever contrived was the poster for The New Yorker magazine’s launch.  It showed the head and shoulders of the Empire State Building—then not always taken as a masterpiece of design—in various heightened states, cloud-covered or snow-covered.  The concept of a single icon in many conditions was one that he had played with elsewhere, as in the four pianos he drew for the cover of a compilation of jazz pianists, each piano colored to mark the sound of one of the players.  But rendering the Empire State as a pliable model was inspired.  There’s no more delightful affirmation of the perpetual New York dialogue between the substantial and the ephemeral, the skyscraper and the snow.  Published in the print edition of the March 27, 2023 The New Yorker with the headline “Drawing Board.  Adam Gopnik  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/27/how-the-graphic-designer-milton-glaser-made-america-cool-again   

Mar. 20, 2023  Dubbed We ♥ NYC, a new logo was created by designer and art director Graham Clifford.  “We wanted to reference the original mark but push it in a different direction,” the artist said, also revealing that the new font is inspired by the ones used within our underground transportation system.  “The subway system is the veins or the beating heart of the city.  You can have Wall Street types sitting next to construction workers.  It’s a place where you can bring everybody together, and we’re cognizant of that.”  The older iteration of the logo was created by the famous Milton Glaser on the back of an envelope while in a taxi using a crayon back in the 1970s.  New Yorkers have taken to social media to react to the new design.  Anna Rahmanan  https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/new-yorkers-hilariously-react-to-the-new-nyc-brand-campaign-logo-032023   

Window blinds first appeared in 1769.  The Englishman Edward Bevan patented the first-ever Venetian Blinds.  Venetian blinds were invented when he discovered that he could let light into rooms.  And he manipulates them to be any size desired by placing wooden slats on an aluminum frame.  John Hampson from New Orleans made adjustments to this invention in 1841.  Venetians discovered the window coverings through their trade interactions in the East.  Then, they brought this window treatment back to Venice.  The true inventor of these now-popular items is unknown.  Thus, these designs used a more primitive form of slats or shutters than fabric panels.  The invention of window blinds is a mystery from the past.  While it’s unclear where it came from, Venetian traders discovered them at some point.  Then, brought them back to Europe which changed how we looked outside our homes forever.  The ancient Egyptians are credited with developing the first window blinds.  Extreme heat and frequent violent sand storms are associated with living in a desert.  These conditions drove the Egyptians to find a way to keep their dwellings cool and to keep avalanches of sand outside.  During this same period, the Chinese began to cover their windows using bamboo stalks.  These bamboo stalks were tied together to form a finished piece that was long enough to provide:  privacy, protection from the elements, and light control.  With Grecians, they used marble with fixed slats to cover their windows.  As the Roman Empire developed, its citizens also needed ways to cover their windows.  The Romans developed a window blind from fabric slats that overlapped each other.  https://windowsandbeyond.com/the-history-of-window-blinds/    

2023 Poetry Month Marathon on WORLD Channel  This National Poetry Month, watch Poetry in America on your local PBS WORLD Channel on Monday April 10th through Thursday, April 13th, between 2pm and 5pm ET (11am and 2pm PT).  Check local TV listings for more airings near you.  Or, stream all episodes for free throughout the month of April, at www.poetryinamerica.org/tv-series.  Gideon Leek  https://www.poetryinamerica.org/poetry-month-marathon-on-world-channel/   

Spam (stylized as SPAM) is a brand of salty processed canned pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation.  It was introduced by Hormel in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II.  By 2003, Spam was sold in 41 countries (and trademarked in over 100) on six continents.  In the U.S., Hawaii is the state with the highest per capita consumption of Spam, which has become an ingredient in Hawaiian cuisine (like sushi).  The generic form of Spam may be sold in cans as "pork luncheon meat".  Since its invention, it is now available in different flavours and using different meats.  Like most hotdogs, Spam is precooked, making it safe and edible to eat straight from the can, but it is often cooked further to improve some characteristics of its palatability.  Spam's basic ingredients are primarily pork shoulder and ham, with salt, water, modified potato starch (as a binder), sugar, and sodium nitrite (as a preservative).  Natural gelatin is formed during cooking in its tins on the production line.  Spam was featured in an iconic 1970 Monty Python sketch called "Spam."  Set in a café that mostly served dishes containing Spam, including "egg and Spam, egg bacon and Spam, Spam egg sausage and Spam, Spam egg Spam Spam bacon and Spam, " the piece also featured a companion song.  Because of its use in a line of a song in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the title of the musical version of the film became Spamalot.  The 1971 Baby Huey song "Hard Times" includes the lyrics "So many hard times . . . Eatin' Spam and Oreos and drinkin' Thunderbird baby," in which Spam and the other products are cited as examples of the speaker's destitute existence.  By the 1990s, Spam's reputation as a low-quality food led to its name being adopted for unsolicited electronic messages, especially spam email.  Spam is the subject of the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Spam," which is a parody of the R.E.M. song "Stand."  Other offshoots of Spam in popular culture include a book of haikus about Spam titled Spam-Ku: Tranquil Reflections on Luncheon Loaf.  There is also a mock Church of Spam and a Spam Cam, which is a webcam trained on a can of decaying Spam.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_(food)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2652  April 3, 2023