Calvin and Hobbes is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995.  Commonly described as "the last great newspaper comic", Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic and philosophical interest.  Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of the title characters:  Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy; and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger.  Set in the suburban United States of the 1980s and 1990s, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and friendship with Hobbes.  It also examines Calvin's relationships with his long-suffering parents and with his classmates, especially his neighbor Susie Derkins.  Hobbes's dual nature is a defining motif for the strip:  to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger, while all the other characters seem to see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy—though Watterson has not clarified exactly how Hobbes is perceived by others.  Though the series does not frequently mention specific political figures or ongoing events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, and philosophical quandaries.  At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide.   In 2010, reruns of the strip appeared in more than 50 countries, and nearly 45 million copies of the Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold worldwide.  "I thought it was perhaps too 'adult,' too literate.  When my then-8-year-old son remarked, 'This is the Doonesbury for kids!'  I suspected we had something unusual on our hands."  —Lee Salem, Watterson's editor at Universal, recalling his reaction after seeing Watterson's first submission.  Calvin and Hobbes was conceived when Bill Watterson, while working in an advertising job he detested, began devoting his spare time to developing a newspaper comic for potential syndication.  He explored various strip ideas but all were rejected by the syndicates.  United Feature Syndicate finally responded positively to one strip called The Doghouse, which featured a side character (the main character's little brother) who had a stuffed tiger.  United identified these characters as the strongest and encouraged Watterson to develop them as the center of their own strip. Though United Feature ultimately rejected the new strip as lacking in marketing potential, Universal Press Syndicate took it up.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes   

January 31, 2024  Jeffrey Brown:  Author Rebecca Yarros had been writing and publishing for 10 years, but had no idea what would ensue when she turned to a story that mixes dragons and magic with romance.  Now she and her books are everywhere, alongside authors like Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer Armentrout and others who create romance dramas in the midst of epic, fantastical worlds, romance and fantasy, now a full-blown subgenre with its own name, romantasy.  Rebecca Yarros:  It's basically fantasy with—written in a romance vein, right?  I just think it speaks in whole to women, and then it also brings men in, because men love dragons, I'm finding out.  Read more of the interview at https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/popular-new-literary-genre-mixes-romance-and-fantasy  

Historic Building in New York’s Upper West Side to Become New Permanent Home for Aperture   Opening summer 2024, the new space will become a hub for public engagement and collaboration with flexible spaces for programming and re-imagined office and production areas. Two floors, encompassing 10,000 square feet of the 1886 building, will be repurposed as a hub for collaboration and convening, and a site for public engagement with Aperture’s quarterly magazine, books, and prints.  Marking its 70^th anniversary this year, Aperture has been located for nearly two decades in a fourth-floor space in Chelsea, where the organization has mounted exhibitions and public programs; published Aperture magazine and countless acclaimed photobooks; and hosted its bookstore and limited-edition print program.  See picture at https://aperture.org/editorial/historic-building-in-new-yorks-upper-west-side-to-become-new-permanent-home-for-aperture/   

The redcurrant or red currant (Ribes rubrum) is a member of the genus Ribes in the gooseberry family.  It is native to western Europe.  The species is widely cultivated and has escaped into the wild in many regions.  Ribes rubrum is a deciduous shrub normally growing to 1–1.5 metres (3+¹⁄₂–5 feet) tall, occasionally 2 m (7 ft), with five-lobed leaves arranged spirally on the stems.  In France, the highly rarefied and hand-made Bar-le-duc or "Lorraine jelly" is a spreadable preparation traditionally made from white currants or alternatively redcurrants.  In Scandinavia and Schleswig-Holstein, it is often used in fruit soups and summer puddings.  In Germany it is also used in combination with custard or meringue as a filling for tarts.  In Linz, Austria, it is the most commonly used filling for the Linzer torte.  It can be enjoyed in its fresh state without the addition of sugar.  In German-speaking areas, syrup or nectar derived from the redcurrant is added to soda water and enjoyed as a refreshing drink named Johannisbeerschorle. It is so named because the redcurrants (Johannisbeeren, "John's berry" in German) are said to ripen first on St. John's Day, also known as Midsummer Day, June 24.  In Russia, redcurrants are ubiquitous and used in jams, preserves, compotes and desserts.  It is also used to make kissel, a sweet healthy drink made from fresh berries or fruits (such as red currants, cherries, cranberries).  The leaves have many uses in traditional medicine, such as making an infusion with black tea.  Also the plants were cultivated in Russian monastery gardens in the 11th century.  See pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redcurrant    

Activism is the rent I pay for living on the planet. - Alice Walker, author (b. 9 Feb 1944)  

featherless biped (plural featherless bipeds)  noun  (idiomatic, chiefly humorous)  A human being. Synonym:  (chiefly humorous)  naked ape  Used throughout the history of western philosophy as an example of an unsatisfactory definition of the term human being.  From featherless +‎ biped, from the dialogue The Statesman by Plato (427–347 B.C.E.):  [I say, then, that we ought at that time to have divided walking animals immediately into biped and quadruped, then seeing that the human race falls into the same division with the feathered creatures and no others, we must again divide the biped class into featherless and feathered.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/featherless_biped#English  The English biologist, geologist, and naturalist Charles Darwin, best known for his contributions towards the science of evolution, was born on February 12, 215 years ago in 1809. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2782  February 12, 2024 

The Dolomites, also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range in northeastern Italy.  They form part of the Southern Limestone Alps and extend from the River Adige in the west to the Piave Valley (Pieve di Cadore) in the east.  The northern and southern borders are defined by the Puster Valley and the Sugana Valley.  The Dolomites are in the regions of Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli Venezia Giulia, covering an area shared between the provinces of Belluno, Vicenza, Verona, Trentino, South Tyrol, Udine and Pordenone.  Other mountain groups of similar geological structure are spread along the River Piave to the east—Dolomiti d'Oltrepiave; and far away over the Adige River to the west—Dolomiti di Brenta (Western Dolomites).  A smaller group is called Piccole Dolomiti (Little Dolomites), between the provinces of Trentino, Verona and Vicenza.  The Dolomiti Bellunesi National Park and many other regional parks are in the Dolomites.  In August 2009, the Dolomites were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The Adamello-Brenta UNESCO Global Geopark is also in the Dolomites.  The Dolomites, also known as the "Pale Mountains", take their name from the carbonate rock dolomite.  This was named after the 18th-century French mineralogist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750–1801), who was the first to describe the mineral.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomites 

February 1, 2024  Over the past three decades, Thomson Reuters has relied on artificial intelligence (AI) to help its clients—and its own employees—sift through troves of digital documents to discover those most relevant to the issue at hand.  But when generative AI (genAI) burst onto the scene in late 2022, the company was forced to rethink its AI strategy to stay ahead of competitors and address an insatiable client demand for industry-specific information.  Thomson Reuters in November 2023 unveiled its genAI strategy and product rollout after its integration with Microsoft Copilot, along with a $650 million acqusition of genAI tech provider Casetext and a pledge to invest $100 million annually in new genAI tools for internal and client use.  Lucas Mearian   Thank you, Muse reader!  https://www.computerworld.com/article/3712565/qa-how-thomson-reuters-used-genai-to-enable-a-citizen-developer-workforce.html    

September 20, 2023  The Golden Hind was the name of Sir Francis Drake’s galleon when he circumnavigated the world between 1577 and 1580—the first English ship to do so.  At the corner of Locust and Summit streets in Toledo, Ohio large hand-painted murals will be a hallmark of a new development, which has about 70,000 square feet of building.  Developers named Ostrich Towne in tribute to the alley, known as Ostrich Lane, a key element to the project.  Kimberly Wynn  https://www.newsbreak.com/toledo-oh/3164004341685-ostrich-towne-to-open-in-toledo-s-vistula-neighborhood   

Naples yellow, also called antimony yellow or lead antimonate yellow, is an inorganic pigment that largely replaced lead-tin-yellow and has been used in European paintings since the seventeenth century.  While the mineral orpiment is considered to be the oldest yellow pigment, Naples yellow, like Egyptian blue, is one of the oldest known synthetic pigments.  Naples yellow was used in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, finding widespread application during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.  Prior to its earliest occurrences in European paintings, the pigment was commonly employed in pottery, glazes, enamels, and glass.  The pigment ranged in hue from a muted, earthy, reddish yellow to a bright light yellow.  A Latin treatise from the late 17th-century by Andrea Pozzo referred to the pigment as luteolum napolitanum, which is the first recorded use of the term "Naples yellow"; its English name first appeared in print in 1738.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples_yellow

Eloise Harriet Stannard was one of the fourteen children of landscape painter and drawing teacher Alfred Stannard and Martha Stannard.  Her uncle was the painter Joseph Stannard; both her father and her uncle were members of the Norwich School of painters, Britain's first provincial art movement. Eloise and her aunt Emily Coppin Stannard (Joseph's wife) would become the only two notable women artists associated with the Norwich School.  See https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/eg4xt65n/eloise-harriet-stannard-british-1829-1915-still-life-with-holly-and-mistletoe/

Feb. 9, 2024  World-renowned conductor Seiji Ozawa has died of heart failure at his home in Tokyo.  He was 88.  The acclaimed Japanese maestro led the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002, longer than any other conductor in the orchestra’s 128-year history.  From 2002 to 2010, he was music director of the Vienna State Opera.  https://turnto10.com/news/local/seiji-ozawa-world-renowned-former-boston-symphony-orchestra-conductor-has-died-feb-9-2024   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2781  February 9, 2024 

Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, and the famous character of Frankenstein's monster, have influenced popular culture for at least a century.  The work has inspired numerous films, television programs, video games and derivative works.  The character of the Monster remains one of the most recognized icons in horror fiction.  The first film adaptation of the tale, Frankenstein, was made by Edison Studios in 1910, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley, with Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Mary Fuerte as Elizabeth, and Charles Ogle as the Monster.  The brief (16 min.) story has Frankenstein chemically create the Creature in a vat.  The Creature has encounters with the scientist until Frankenstein's wedding night, when true love causes the Creature to vanish.  For many years, this film was believed lost.  A collector announced in 1980 that he had acquired a print in the 1950s and had been unaware of its rarity.  The Edison version was followed soon after by another adaptation entitled Life Without Soul (1915), directed by Joseph W. Smiley, starring William A. Cohill as Dr. William Frawley, a modern-day Frankenstein who creates a soulless man, played to much critical praise by Percy Standing, who wore little make-up in the role.  The film was shot at various locations around the United States, and reputedly featured much spectacle.  In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley's novel.  This film is now considered a lost film.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evil_of_Frankenstein  

See also a body of films that feature some version and/or interpretation of the character Frankenstein's monster  at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_Frankenstein%27s_monster 

Ikat fabric is a dyeing technique used to create a distinct style of textile patterns. Ikat is done by resist dyeing sections of the yarns prior to weaving the fabric.  In ikat the resist is formed by binding individual yarns or bundles of yarns with a tight wrapping applied in the desired pattern.  The yarns are then dyed.  The bindings may then be altered to create a new pattern and the yarns dyed again with another colour.  This process may be repeated multiple times to produce elaborate, multicolored patterns.  When the dyeing is finished all the bindings are removed and the yarns are woven into cloth.  In other resist-dyeing techniques such as tie-dye and batik the resist is applied to the woven cloth, whereas in ikat the resist is applied to the yarns before they are woven into cloth.  Because the surface design is created in the yarns rather than on the finished cloth, in ikat both fabric faces are patterned.  https://craftatlas.co/crafts/ikat 

recked; recking; recks  intransitive verb WORRY, CARE archaic : to be of account or interest  

MATTER  transitive verb  1.     archaic : to care for : REGARD   2.      archaic : to matter to : CONCERN  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reck 

reckful  adjective  (comparative more reckful, superlative most reckful)  (uncommon)  Full of careful heed or attention; careful; cautious. synonyms ▲quotations ▼  Synonyms: attentive, audient, heedful  Antonyms  reckless Derived terms  reckfulness   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/reckful  

International Women's Day (IWD) is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement.  IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women.  Spurred on by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.  The earliest version reported was a "Women's Day" organized by the Socialist Party of America in New York City on February 28, 1909.  This inspired German delegates at the 1910 International Socialist Women's Conference to propose "a special Women's Day" be organized annually, albeit with no set date; the following year saw the first demonstrations and commemorations of International Women's Day across Europe.  After women gained suffrage during the Russian Provisional Government in 1917, IWD was made a national holiday on March 8; it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and communist countries.  The holiday was associated with far-left movements and governments until its adoption by the global feminist movement in the late 1960s.  IWD became a mainstream global holiday following its adoption by the United Nations in 1977.   International Women's Day is a public holiday in several countries promoting the achievements of women.  Thank you, Muse reader.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day  

You have to be odd to be number one.  https://www.gocomics.com/mother-goose-and-grimm  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2780  February 7, 2024 

Emily Mason (1932–2019) was an American abstract painter and printmaker. Mason developed her individual approach to the Abstract Expressionist and color field painting traditions with her veils of color and spontaneous gestural mark.  Mason was born and raised in New York City, where she lived and worked until her death.  Emily Mason was born in Greenwich Village to Alice Trumbull Mason and Warwood Edwin Mason.  Her mother was a founder of the American Abstract Artists.  Her father was sea captain for American Export Lines.  She attended the High School of Music & Art from 1946 to 1950, then she attended Bennington College from 1950 to 1952.  In 1952, Mason transferred from Bennington College to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where she was graduated in 1955.  In 1956, Mason was awarded a Fulbright grant to study in Italy.  Before moving there, she met fellow painter Wolf Kahn, who later joined her in Venice.  They married on March 2, 1957, at the municipal building near the Rialto Bridge, witnessed by strangers and friends including filmmaker Tinto Brass.  Her work earned her a second year of the Fulbright grant, which they spent between Venice and Rome, visiting other artists including Gretna Campbell, Louis Finkelstein, and Lee Bontecou.  In late 1958, the couple returned to New York, where Mason gave birth to their first daughter Cecily in 1959.  In 1963, the family returned to Italy.  Their daughter Melany was born in Rome in 1964.  In 1968, the couple bought a farm in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Mason would spend her summers painting. In an interview with magazine Western Art & Architecture, Mason explained:  "It is important to balance city life with experiencing nature.  Winter in the city is the time for the fermentation of ideas.  Summer is my time to carry them out."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Mason   

In early March, 1936, Dorothea Lange (1895–1965) drove past a sign reading, “PEA-PICKERS CAMP,” in Nipomo, California.  At the time, she was working as a photographer for the Resettlement Administration (RA), a Depression-era government agency formed to raise public awareness of and provide aid to struggling farmers.  Twenty miles down the road, Lange reconsidered and turned back to the camp, where she encountered a mother and her children.  “I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet,” she later recalled.  “She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding field and birds that the children killed.”   Lange took seven exposures of the woman, 32-year-old Florence Owens Thompson, with various combinations of her seven children.  One of these exposures, with its tight focus on Thompson’s face, transformed her into a Madonna-like figure and became an icon of the Great Depression and one of the most famous photographs in history.  This image was first exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art in 1940, under the title Pea Picker Family, California; by 1966, when the Museum held a retrospective of Lange’s work, it had acquired its current title, Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California.  https://www.moma.org/artists/3373  

The exhibit, “Dorothea Lange:  Seeing People,” will run from now through March 31, 2024.  The National Gallery of Art, including the “Dorothea Lange:  Seeing People” exhibit is free to visit and does not require passes. For those who cannot attend in person, selected works are also available to view on the museum’s exhibit page, and there is an exhibition publication. And for those who might only be familiar with her more famous photographs, this will provide a far more holistic view of Lange’s work.  “Seeing People” is divided into six thematic parts and spans her decades-long portfolio.  Lisa Marie Segarra  https://petapixel.com/2023/12/08/depression-era-photographer-dorothea-langes-work-showcased-in-d-c-exhibit/  Find location and hours for the National Gallery of Art at https://www.nga.gov/visit/getting-here.html  

Fans will gather around TVs on Feb. 11, 2024 to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl, and to see Usher headline the halftime show.  But hours before that, Puppy Bowl XX is airing, with two teams of cute, adoptable dogs on the green turf.  The Puppy Bowl action happens at 2 p.m. ET (11 a.m. PT) on Sunday, Feb. 11, with a pregame show that starts at 1 p.m ET (10 a.m. PT).  Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the event will feature more than 125 dogs, a halftime kitty show, and a new puppy assistant coach.  During the show, viewers will meet pets from all over the country and learn how to potentially adopt a furry new family member. Among the stars are a group of special needs pups, a tiny dog named Sweetpea who weighs in at 1.7 pounds, and the latest inductees to the Puppy Bowl Hall of Fame.  https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/how-to-watch-the-2024-puppy-bowl-from-anywhere/ 

Super Bowl 58  Date:  Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024 ; Time: 6:30 p.m. ET  TV channel: CBS  https://sports.yahoo.com › how-to-watch-super-bowl  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2779  February 5, 2024 

 

Edward Oxford (1822–1900) was an English man who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria in 1840.  He was the first of seven unconnected people who tried to kill her between 1840 and 1882.  Born and raised in Birmingham, he showed erratic behaviour which was sometimes threatening or violent.  He had a series of jobs in pubs, all of which he lost because of his conduct.  In 1840, shortly after being dismissed from yet another pub, he purchased two pistols and fired twice at Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert.  No-one was hurt.  Oxford was arrested and charged with high treason.  A jury found that he was not guilty by reason of insanity and he was detained indefinitely at Her Majesty's pleasure at the two State Criminal Lunatic Asylums:  first at Bethlem Royal Hospital and then, after 1864, Broadmoor Hospital.  Visitors and staff did not consider him insane.  In 1867 Oxford was given the offer of release if he relocated to a British colony; he accepted and settled in Melbourne, Australia, under the new name "John Freeman".  He worked as a decorator, married and became a respected figure at his local church.  He began writing stories on the seedier aspects of Melbourne life for The Argus, which were published under the pseudonym "Liber".  He later published a book, Lights and Shadows of Melbourne Life, which looks at both the wealthy and seamy parts of Melbourne.  Oxford's trial, and the later M'Naghten case led to an overhaul of the law on criminal insanity in England.  In January 1843 Daniel M'Naghten murdered Edward Drummond—the private secretary to the Prime Minister—mistaking him for the Prime Minister, Robert Peel.  Like Oxford, M'Naghten was also found not guilty on the grounds of insanity.  The cases of Oxford and M'Naghten prompted the judiciary to frame the M'Naghten rules on instructions to be given to a jury for a defence of insanity.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Oxford    

The crunchiness of Anzac Biscuits goes back to the roots of when they were invented--by soldiers’ wives who needed a biscuit recipe that would stay fresh for the months that it would take to reach soldiers overseas back in the early 1900’s.  The warm sweetness from the golden syrup combined with the wholesome goodness of oats and coconut is a flavour that is unique to this crunchy Australian biscuit.  This is a biscuit that Aussies make to commemorate ANZAC Day.  “ANZAC” stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  And ANZAC Day–25 April 1915–is Australia’s most important national occasion each year, marking the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War during which there were heavy casualties.  It is said that the wives of soldiers came up with the original Anzac Biscuits using ingredients such that the biscuits stayed fresh for the weeks it took to reach the soldiers overseas.  I’m told that the original Anzac biscuits were as hard as a rock, so hard in fact that some soldiers would grind them up and use them as porridge.  Find recipe at https://www.recipetineats.com/anzac-biscuits-golden-oatmeal-cookies/   

Deriving from Greek, kudos entered English as slang popular at British universities in the 19th century.  In its earliest use, the word referred to the prestige or renown that one gained by having accomplished something noteworthy.  The sense meaning "praise given for achievement" came about in the 1920s.  As this later sense became the predominant one, some English speakers, unaware of the word's Greek origin, began to treat the word as a plural count noun, inevitably coming up with the back-formation kudo to refer to a single instance of praise.  For the same reason, when kudos is used as a subject you may see it with either a singular or plural verb.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kudos   

Carter Godwin Woodson (1875–1950) was an American historian, author, journalist, and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).  He was one of the first scholars to study the history of the African diaspora, including African-American history.  A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1916, Woodson has been called the "father of black history."  In February 1926, he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week," the precursor of Black History Month.  Woodson was an important figure to the movement of Afrocentrism due to his perspective of placing people of African descent at the center of the study of history and the human experience.  Born in Virginia, the son of former slaves, Woodson had to put off schooling while he worked in the coal mines of West Virginia.  He graduated from Berea College, and became a teacher and school administrator.  Earning graduate degrees at the University of Chicago, Woodson then became the second African American, after W. E. B. Du Bois, to obtain a PhD degree from Harvard University. Woodson is the only person whose parents were enslaved in the United States to obtain a PhD in history.  Largely excluded from the uniformly-white academic history profession, Woodson realized the need to make the structures which support scholarship in black history, and black historians.  He taught at historically black colleges, Howard University and West Virginia State University, but spent most of his career in Washington, D.C., managing the ASALH, public speaking, writing, and publishing.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson   

In the 18th Century, over the space of several decades, a group of around 81,000 people moved to America from the conflict-ravaged German region of the Palatinate (Pfalz in German).  Among them were a few hundred followers of Jakob Ammann, a Swiss religious leader.  They had left Switzerland and settled in Alsace and Palatinate, but were now on the move again–to Pennsylvania, a religiously tolerant colony, where they would become known as the Amish.  In their new environment, the settlers adapted this nature-watching, weather-forecasting ritual to a creature that didn't exist back home: the North American groundhog.  Since they had no word for it, they called it "Die Grundsau", a translation of the English "Groundhog".  Another word is "Grunddachs", meaning "ground-badger".  Sophie Hardach  https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240131-how-the-pennsylvania-dutch-created-groundhog-day 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2778  February 2, 2024