Coulee (or coulée) is applied rather loosely to different landforms, all of which refer to a kind of valley or drainage zone.  The word coulee comes from the Canadian French coulée, from French word couler meaning "to flow".  The term is often used interchangeably in the Great Plains for any number of water features, from ponds to creeks.  In southern Louisiana the word coulée (also spelled coolie) originally meant a gully or ravine usually dry or intermittent but becoming sizable during rainy weather.  As stream channels were dredged or canalized, the term was increasingly applied to perennial streams, generally smaller than bayous.  The term is also used for small ditches or canals in the swamp.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coulee

Trivia

·         The term "passenger pigeon" in English derives from the French word "passager" meaning to pass by.

·         Since Oreo cookies debuted in 1912, over 362 billion have been sold, making them the best-selling cookie in the United States.

·         Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand, is considered the world's steepest residential street.

·         Ebenezer Place, in Wick, Caithness, Scotland, is credited by the Guinness Book of Records as being the world's shortest street at 2.06 m (6 ft 9 in).  The street originated in 1883, when 1 Ebenezer Place was constructed; the owner of the building, a hotel at the time, was instructed to paint a name on the shortest side of the hotel.  It was officially declared a street in 1887. 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

caboodle  (kuh-BOOD-uhl) noun  The lot, collection, or crowd.   The word is mostly seen in the expression "kit and caboodle" meaning "the whole lot".  Perhaps from boodle (money, goods, people), from Dutch boedel (property).  Earliest documented use:  1848.

petard  (pe-TAHRD, pi-)  noun

1.  A small bomb used to blast down a gate or wall.
2.  A loud firecracker.  From French péter (to break wind), from Latin peditum (a breaking wind), from pedere (to break wind).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root pezd- (to break wind) which also gave us feisty, fart, and French pet (fart).  Earliest documented use:  1566.

A petard was a bell-shaped bomb used to breach a door or a wall.  Now that we have advanced to ICBMs, this low-tech word survives in the phrase "to hoist by one's own petard" meaning "to have one's scheme backfire".  The idiom was popularized by Shakespeare in his play Hamlet. Hamlet, having turned the tables on those tasked with killing him, says:  For 'tis the sport to have the engineer Hoist with his own petard.

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day

From:  Fred Kepler  Subject:  caboodle  There's a wonderful, locally-owned cooking and housewares store in Portland, Oregon, called Kitchen Kaboodle.

From:  Stan Sapire  Subject:  petard  From Johannesburg South Africa comes this true account.

Years ago the Johannesburg advocates comprising the local bar moved to new premises in a then recently constructed multi-storied building.  Shortly after moving a number of persons entered the lift (elevator) which served tenants who had their offices on the floors above ground level.  Among their number was an advocate known for his subtle wit.  Another was a well-known solicitor who was a part-owner of the building whose firm occupied premises in the building apart from those of the bar.  Soon after the lift commenced on its upward journey it came to an abrupt halt trapping those inside between floors where they had to remain, delayed from their business, pending rescue.  The atmosphere was lightened by the wit, observing to the solicitor, "Phillip, I see you are petard by your own hoist." 

Kohlrabi is a part of the cabbage family.  It was first grown in Europe around 1500 and was imported into America 300 years later.  It has a turnip like appearance, with leaves standing out like spokes from the edible portion, which is a rounded, enlarged stem section growing just above the soil line.  Kohlrabi is sometimes misclassified as a root vegetable.  http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/kohlrabi.cfm 

Kohlrabi is delicious raw.  Cut into wedges and crunch them for snacks, use with creamy dips, or give them a simple drip or two of soy sauce.  Kohlrabi also adds bite and crunch to salads and slaws—slice thinly or shred.  Kohlrabi can be chopped and added to soups or stews, or boiled and added to mashed potatoes or other mashed root vegetables.  Kohlrabi can also be roasted: cut them into wedges or chunks, toss with a bit of oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in a hot oven until brown and tender. 

Link to recipes at:  http://localfoods.about.com/od/kohlrabi/a/All-About-Kohlrabi.htm 

Current-day newspapers aren’t the only ones going online.  Now you can read news of 1832 to 1879 online in one of Ohio’s leading newspapers of the era, the Ohio State Journal — a 19th-century predecessor of the 20th-century Columbus Citizen-Journal.  A $53,825 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the State Library of Ohio has enabled the Ohio Historical Society to microfilm and digitize the Ohio State Journal from 1832–1879 and make it available free online.  The Library Services and Technology Act program is funded through the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and administered through the State Library of Ohio. 

http://www.ohiohistory.org/publications/ohio-histore-news/2013/september-27-2013/ohio-history-journal 

Heliograph

1.  Noun  An apparatus for signalling by means of a moveable mirror which reflects flashes of sunlight.

2.  Noun  A heliogram.

3.  Noun  An instrument for measuring the intensity of sunlight.

4.  Noun  A device for photographing the sun.
5.  Noun  (obsolete)  A photograph.
6.  Verb  (transitive)  To send a message by heliograph.
7.  Verb  (intransitive)  To send a heliograph.  Source: wiktionary.com  Find lexicographical neighbors of heliograph at:  http://www.lexic.us/definition-of/heliograph

"Lexicus is an online web dictionary and thesaurus.  We're different from other online dictionaries because we offer only pithy, precise definitions and sample word usage."  http://www.lexic.us/  

It's is a contraction for it is or it has.  Its is like hers, his, ours, theirs, and yours.  These are all possessive pronouns, and do not have apostrophes.  Flags is the plural of flag.  It does not need an apostrophe.  Find helpful information at  http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp

To me, it looks like Amazon is trying to monopolize the e-book market," said author Scott Turow, a practicing attorney, choosing his words carefully.  "They used what I thought of as unfair tactics."  It takes a bestselling author like Turow, whose "Presumed Innocent" sold millions of copies. to risk offending Amazon, which has more than a quarter of the entire e-book market.  "I'm not talking about me," Turow said Oct. 16, 2013.  "Bestselling authors are going to do fine.  I'm talking about shrinking the market so you have fewer writers and fewer voices."   As the president of the Authors Guild, Turow has been intimately acquainted with many of the business issues surrounding e-books.  The Writers Guild has filed suit against Google regarding its massive book-scanning project and joined in the legal maneuvering around the Department of Justice e-book case against publishers and Apple Inc.  But when it comes to Amazon, the guild has taken no official legal action.  However, Turow is a high-profile voice advocating for caution toward Amazon.  "If you price e-books well below the cost, which is what they did for years, that both destroys physical bookstores and drives the reading public into the e-book, which of course Amazon dominates," Turow said.  Carolyn Kellogg  http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-scott-turow-thriller-identical-amazon-evil-video-20131017,0,373935.story  

What Is the World Heritage List?  Administered by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization, or UNESCO, the World Heritage List is an official roster of properties associated with the world’s cultural and natural heritage that the World Heritage Committee regards as having outstanding universal value.  Currently there are 981 properties worldwide on the list, among them the Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, Acropolis, Chartres Cathedral and Stonehenge.  The World Heritage List currently includes 21 sites in the United States, among them Independence Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site and Everglades, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks.  The Ohio Historical Society is collaborating with the National Park Service’s Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Ohio State University’s Newark Earthworks Center and the University of Cincinnati’s Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historic and Archaeological Sites to have a number of sites in Licking, Ross and Warren counties collectively known as the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks added to the World Heritage List. http://www.ohiohistory.org/publications/ohio-histore-news/2013/september-27-2013/world-heritage

Vegetable Heaven, written and illustrated by Mollie Katzen should be available at your public library--if not, the library will probably get it for you on interlibrary loan.  This book is chock-full of recipes for roasted vegetables, pickled vegetables, simple pastas and grains, salads, soups  and more.  From the book:

·         A good soup attracts chairs--African proverb

·         The word basmati means queen of fragrance.

·         Hominy is the name given to dried whole corn kernels that have been boiled with lye or lime to remove the outer skin.  Grits traditionally were made from ground hominy, but nowadays, the word grits usually refers to coarse white cornmeal. 

·         A native American vegetable, the sunchoke (also called Jerusalem artichoke) is the tuber of a pretty yellow sunflower. 

chock-full adjective (never before noun)  informal

very full, especially with things that are pleasant or enjoyable  Example:  a book that's chock-full of delicious recipes  http://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/chock-full 

The High Line is a 1-mile (1.6 km)  New York City linear park built on a 1.45-mile (2.33 km) section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan; it has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway.  A similar project in Paris (the nearly 3 mile Promenade plantée, completed in 1993) was the inspiration for this project.  The High Line currently runs from Gansevoort Street, three blocks below West 14th Street, in the Meatpacking District, up to 30th Street, through the neighborhood of Chelsea to the West Side Yard, near the Javits Convention Center.  Read of its its use in popular culture at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Line_(New_York_City)  Find hours, access and more at:  http://www.thehighline.org/about/park-information 

DO NOT use an apostrophe to pluralize a proper name or other capitalized noun:
Many Pakistanis have immigrated to the U.S. (not Pakistani’s); I’ll be occupied for the next three Thursdays. (not Thursday’s); The Jeffersons live here. (not the Jefferson’s)

NOTE:  The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS) suggests that if you want to pluralize an awkward name like Waters or Rogers, you may want to reword the sentence to avoid writing the Waterses or Rogerses.

DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of capital letters used as words, abbreviations that contain no interior periods, and numerals used as nouns:
the three Rs; the 1990s; lengthy URLs

DO use the apostrophe to form the plural of an abbreviation that combines upper and lowercase letters or has interior periods:
The department graduated five M.A.’s and two Ph.D.’s this year.

NOTE:  If you leave out the periods, you can write MAs but you’d still have to write PhD’s.

DO use the apostrophe to form the plural of lowercase letters:  Mind your p’s and q’s.

DO NOT use an apostrophe to form the plural of a number:
The 1920s were noted for excess; I bowled two 300s and two 238s.; Source:  Chicago Manual of Style, paragraphs 7.9, 7.12, 7,14, 7.15, 7.16, 7.65, 9.59.  Read much more at:  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/when-to-form-a-plural-with-an-apostrophe/ 

The 5 most surprising provisions in the debt deal by Steve Almasy

Read the article and link to the text of the appropriations bill passed by the Senate at http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/17/politics/new-debt-deal-pork/ 

Oct. 17, 2013  Running on a mere 2½ hours of sleep and exactly 12 hours after winning the Man Booker Prize for her novel “The Luminaries,” Eleanor Catton sat down for an interview with the Guardian's Charlotte Higgins.  The 28-year-old novelist from New Zealand, the youngest ever to win the prize, addressed the critics who have approached her complex novel with trite assumptions about gender.  Catton said the "people whose negative reaction [to 'The Luminaries'] has been most vehement have all been men over about 45."  She went on to say that there seems to be a misconception by some men of a certain generation that her gender and relative youth have bearing on the book -- more than 800 pages long -- itself.  There is, she said, "a sense of irritation from some critics -- that I have been so audacious to have taken up people's time by writing a long book.  There's a sense in there of:  'Who do you think you are?  You can't do that.' ”  Other young women whose literary achievements have catapulted them into the spotlight have faced similar biases.  In 2000, Zadie Smith, whose first book, “White Teeth”, was published when she was 25, was dubbed an international “Girl Wonder.”  "I have observed that male writers tend to get asked what they think and women what they feel," Catton says.  "In my experience, and that of a lot of other women writers, all of the questions coming at them from interviewers tend to be about how lucky they are to be where they are -- about luck and identity and how the idea struck them.  The interviews much more seldom engage with the woman as a serious thinker, a philosopher, as a person with preoccupations that are going to sustain them for their lifetime."  Her comments echo the minor storm that followed a Publisher's Weekly interview with Claire Messud earlier this year in which the author was asked about the likability of the protagonist of "The Woman Upstairs." Messud's startled reply, which included a list of indelible, unlikable male literary characters (Humbert Humbert, Hamlet and Oscar Wao), sparked a discussion of the different expectations put on male and female writers and the characters they create.  “The Luminaries” is the longest book to win the Man Booker; Catton, the prize's youngest winner, has created a work of complexity her critics didn't expect.  She told the Guardian, "There's a feeling of: 'All right, we can tolerate [this] from a man over 50, but we are not going to be spoken to like that by you.' "  Emily Keeler   http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-man-booker-prize-winner-eleanor-catton-sexism-20131017,0,7685465.story 

October 18 events

1356 – Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroys the town of Basel, Switzerland.

1386 – Opening of the University of Heidelberg.
1648 – Boston Shoemakers form first U.S. labor organization.
1851 – Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.
1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.
1898 – United States takes possession of Puerto Rico.
1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first Transistor radio.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_18

An apple a day keeps the doctor away  There's a fair chance that this little maxim originated in Wales as the earliest known example of its use in print makes that claim. The February 1866 edition of Notes and Queries magazine includes this:  "A Pembrokeshire proverb.  Eat an apple on going to bed, And you'll keep the doctor from earning his bread."  A number of variants of the rhyme were in circulation around the turn of the 20th century.  In 1913, Elizabeth Wright recorded a Devonian dialect version and also the first known mention of the version we use now, in Rustic Speech and Folk-lore:  "Ait a happle avore gwain to bed, An' you'll make the doctor beg his bread; or as the more popular version runs:  An apple a day Keeps the doctor away."  Apples have a good claim to promote health.  They contain Vitamin C, which aids the immune system, and phenols, which reduce cholesterol.  They also reduce tooth decay by cleaning one's teeth and killing off bacteria.  It has also been suggested by Cornell University researchers that the quercetin found in apples protects brain cells against neuro-degenerative disorders like Alzheimer's Disease.  Apples may be good for us but it wasn't their precise medicinal properties that were being exalted when this phrase was coined.  In Old English the word apple was used to describe any round fruit that grew on a tree.  Adam and Eve's forbidden fruit, which they ate in the Garden of Eden, is often described as an apple but, in the 1611 King James Version of the Bible, it is just called 'a fruit'.  http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/an-apple-a-day.html 

In one area of downtown Philadelphia, you visit the United States Postal Service Museum, The Franklin Print Shop, and the Franklin Museum.  Benjamin Franklin moved from Boston to Philadelphia at the age of 17.  He was a printer, diplomat, inventor, publisher, author, statesman, Postmaster, and more.  He founded the Library Company, Pennsylvania Hospital, American Philosophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania.

FRANKLIN COURT  In the court itself once stood his house.  What is known of the house is that it was 3 stories high, covered 33 feet square, and included 10 rooms.  The house was razed in 1812. Because no historical records of the look of the exterior exist, the space once occupied by the house is marked by a wonderful, oversized "Ghost Structure" designed by world-famous architect Robert Venturi and built in 1976 for the bicentennial.  You can look through portals to see into Franklin's privy pits, wells, and foundation.  An extremely rare Bristol punchbowl and other ceramic artifacts were found in the privy pit.

UNDERGROUND MUSEUM  Below the court is a museum filled with paintings, objects, and inventions associated with Benjamin Franklin.  You will see a pretty reproduction of Franklin's Armonica, also called a glass harmonica, which consists of a set of graduated glass bowls on a rotating shaft that produce tones when a finger is pressed to the moistened rims.  Mozart wrote a piece just for Franklin's new instrument.  Other Franklin inventions you can see here include a Franklin stove and the swim fin (Franklin was, after all, a champion swimmer in his day).

UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE MUSEUM (314 Market Street)
Exhibits include Pony Express pouches and originals of Franklin's Pennyslvania Gazette.

POST OFFICE (316 Market Street)
This is the only active post office in the United States that does not fly a United States flag (because there wasn't yet one in 1775).  The postmark "B. Free Franklin" is still used to cancel stamps.

318 MARKET STREET
Here you will see an architectural exhibit about Franklin's interest in fire-resistant buildings.  Walls are fully exposed to reveal wooden joists separated by masonry and plaster.  In the cellar are collections of pottery and glassware, collected from his privy pits.

PRINTING OFFICE AND BINDERY (320 Market Street)
Demonstrations of 18th century printing and binding equipment are on display.  Printing demonstrations are given by Park Services rangers.

GENERAL ADVERTISER (322 Market Street)
This is the restored office of The Aurora and general Advertiser, the newspaper published by Franklin's grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache.

James Wilson, an editor of The Aurora, lived at 322 Market Street.  His grandson, Woodrow, became the 28th President of the United States.
Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey's Lady's Book and author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," worked at 322 Market Street from 1837-1877.  http://www.ushistory.org/tour/franklin-court.htm 

State of the Fairs:  World's Fair Structures Around the U.S.

People across the country are helping make a fresh start for World's Fair structures that have been left behind.  by Gwendolyn Purdom | From Preservation | Oct. 1, 2013   http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2013/fall/state-of-the-fairs-worlds-fair.html 

syn, sym, syl & sys  These ROOT-WORDS are the prefixes SYS, SYL, SYM & SYN all meaning WITH, TOGETHER & ALONG WITH.  SYL is used before the letter l.  SYM is used before the letter m.  SYN is used before the letter n.  It’s the old story of assimilation and labials causing the changes for the sake of euphony.
1.  Syllable:  SYL lable (sil’ a b’l) n.  One or more letters which together form one sound
2.  Monosyllable:  mono SYL lable (mon’ o syl a b’l) n.  A word of one syllable; as “no”
3.  Syllogism:  SYL logism (sil’ o jiz um) n.  A formal argument with a major and minor premise and a conclusion
4.  Syllogist:  SYL logist (sil’ o jist) n.  One skilled in syllogistic reasoning
5.  System:  SYS tem (sys’ tem) n.  A planned arrangement of procedures; method
6.  Systematic:  SYS thematic (sys tem at’ ik) adj.  Arranged methodically according to a system
Find more examples at:  http://www.english-for-students.com/syn.html 

Euphony  noun  (plural) -nies  the alteration of speech sounds, esp by assimilation, so as to make them easier to pronounce  a pleasing sound, esp in speech  from Late Latin euphōnia, from Greek, from eu- + phōnē voice  Synonyms= melodiousness, music, harmony, melody, unison, musicality, consonance, mellowness, tunefulness, mellifluousness  http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/euphony 

Anne Longfellow Dickinson, 94, passed away Monday, September 30, 2013 in Northbrook, IL.  She was born in Cambridge, MA at a house in Longfellow Park where she spent her early childhood.  She was a great granddaughter of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  She was educated at St. Timothy's School in Stevenson, MD and studied music at Radcliffe College for three years before leaving to take a job at a Polaroid factory making gun sights in 1943.  After her marriage in 1945, she moved to the Chicago area with her husband where she lived in Lake Forest for over 60 years.  She played the double bass in the Evanston Symphony and the Lake Forest Symphony, served on a number of Women's Boards including the Field Museum and Passavant Hospital and plied her literary and musical skills writing papers for The Coterie and arranging music for a number of groups including The Clumsy Mumsies of Lake Forest.   http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailyherald/obituary.aspx?n=anne-longfellow-dickinson&pid=167467326&fhid=16207 

International Monetary Fund Press Release No. 13/405  The Oct. 14, 2013 release of the G20 Consumer Price Index (CPI) marks the second release of a G20 aggregate statistic following the first publication of aggregate quarterly G20 GDP estimates on 14 March 2012.  The releases on G20 aggregates contribute to the implementation of the G20 Data Gaps Initiative - a set of 20 recommendations on the further enhancement of statistics as agreed by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.  The process is coordinated by the Inter-Agency Group on Economic and Financial Statistics:  Bank for International Settlements, European Central Bank, Eurostat, International Monetary Fund (chair), OECD, United Nations and the World Bank.  The G20 CPI provides a timely measure of inflation for the G20. In the future, the G20 CPI will become part of the regular OECD monthly News Release on CPI at around one month after the reference period.  Annual inflation in the G20 area was 3.0% in the year to August 2013, down from 3.2% in the year to July 2013.  https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2013/pr13405.htm

Roosevelt's Retreat at Elkhorn Ranch in North Dakota  An oil boom and its associated development threaten the Elkhorn Ranch, where Theodore Roosevelt developed his conservation ethic by Reed Karaim | From Preservation | Oct. 1, 2013 http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2013/fall/roosevelts-retreat-at-elkhorn-ranch.html 

Founder's Farm  James Monroe's Historic Oak Hill Estate by Marion Laffey Fox Preservation | Oct. 1, 2013  The gardens surrounding Oak Hill include mature trees planted by President Monroe as well as landscaping added by successive owners. The most recent iteration brought modern touches and less regimented structure.  Credit: Photo by Gordon Beall  When President James Monroe built Oak Hill in the early 1800s, it was a full day’s carriage ride from Washington, D.C., a distance now made metaphorically longer by the vast difference between northern Virginia’s scenic countryside and D.C.’s limestone-and­ marble pomp.  Here in Aldie, Va., roughly 40 miles from the nation’s capital, the scenic countryside of northern Virginia’s Piedmont region continues to draw Washington powerbrokers, who choose it as a favored weekend retreat of mountain vistas, historic towns, vineyards, and family farms.  Stretching out across 1,200 fertile acres, Oak Hill today is one of the only privately owned early presidential residences in the country.  http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2013/fall/founders-farm-james.html

History of sandwiches 

1st Century B.C. -The first recorded sandwich was by the famous rabbi, Hillel the Elder, who lived during the 1^st century B.C.  He started the Passover custom of sandwiching a mixture of chopped nuts, apples, spices, and wine between two matzohs to eat with bitter herbs.
6th to 16th Century - During the Middle Ages, thick blocks of coarse stale bread called trenchers were used in place of plates.  Meats and other foods were piled on top of the bread to be eaten with their fingers and sometimes with the aid of knives.
16th and 17 Century - In Mark Morton's well researched 2004 article Bread and Meat for God's Sake, he wrote:  "What, then, were sandwiches called before they were sandwiches?  After combing through hundreds of texts, mostly plays, that were written long before the Earl of Sandwich was even born, a possible (through somewhat prosaic) answer emerges. The sandwich appears to have been simply known as "bread and meat" or "bread and cheese."
1762 - The first written record of the word "sandwich" appeared in Edward Gibbons (1737-1794), English author, scholar, and historian, journal on November 24, 1762.  Gibbon recorded his surprise at seeing a score or two of the noblest and wealthiest in the land, seated in a noisy coffee-room, at little tables covered by small napkins, supping off cold meat or sandwiches, and finishing with strong punch and confused politics.
1762 - It is also said that the cooks at London’s Beef Steak Club, a gentlemen's gaming club held at the Shakespeare Tavern, invented the first sandwich.  Each member could also invite a friend. 
John Montague (1718-1792), the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, was a hardened gambler and usually gambled for hours at a time at this restaurant, sometimes refusing to get up even for meals.  It is said that ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread.  Because Montague also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order "the same as Sandwich!"  The original sandwich was, in fact, a piece of salt beef between two slices of toasted bread.
1840 - The sandwich was introduced to America by Englishwoman Elizabeth Leslie (1787-1858).  Link to histories of sandwiches such as Beef on Weck, Cuban and Dagwood at:  http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/SandwichHistory.htm 

Alice Munro has been awarded the Nobel prize in literature, thus becoming its 13th female recipient.  It's a thrilling honour for a major writer:  Munro has long been recognised in North America and the UK, but the Nobel will draw international attention, not only to women's writing and Canadian writing, but to the short story, Munro's chosen métier and one often overlooked.  Canadians are discouraged from bragging – see the Munro story, Who Do You Think You Are? – so will probably spend much of her time hiding in the figurative tool shed.  We're all slightly furtive, we writers; especially we Canadian writers, and even more especially we Canadian female writers of an earlier generation.  "Art is what you can get away with," said Canadian Marshall McLuhan, and I invite the reader to count how many of the murderers in Munro's stories are ever caught.  (Answer: none.)  Munro understands the undercover heist that is fiction writing, as well as its pleasures and fears:  how delicious to have done it, but what if you get found out?  Back in the 1950s and 60s, when Munro began, there was a feeling that not only female writers but Canadians were thought to be both trespassing and transgressing.  Munro found herself referred to as "some housewife", and was told that her subject matter, being too "domestic", was boring.  A male writer told her she wrote good stories, but he wouldn't want to sleep with her.  "Nobody invited him," said Munro tartly.  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/10/alice-munro-nobel-literature-prize-margaret-atwood 

October 14 is the 287th day of the year (288th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.  There are 78 days remaining until the end of the year. 

1656 – Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive. 

1884 – The American inventor, George Eastman, receives a U.S. Government patent on his new paper-strip photographic film.

1888 – Louis Le Prince films first motion picture: Roundhay Garden Scene.

1926 – The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, is first published.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_14 

It is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, always celebrated on the second Monday in October. 

THIS AND THAT

Thousands of bees were removed from a house in Cocoa Beach, FL on Oct. 12, 2013.  The bees, which are important to nature, will be moved to a safer location.

Madonna is reported to have texted nonstop during the New York Film Festival screening of 12 Years A Slave.  'It’s for business…enslaver!,' replied Madonna to requests to cease texting.  Tim League, the founder of the Alamo Drafthouse, took note of Madonna's breach in etiquette and took to Twitter to make the announcement:  'Until she apologizes to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies @drafthouse.'

The Hollywood Sign (formerly known as the Hollywoodland Sign) is located in Los Angeles, California.  It is situated on Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains.  The sign overlooks the Hollywood district of Los Angeles.  "HOLLYWOOD" is spelled out in 45-foot-tall (14 m) and 350-foot-long (110 m) white capital letters.  It was originally created as an advertisement for local real estate development in 1923, but it garnered increasing recognition after the sign was left up.  From the ground, the contours of the hills give the sign its "wavy" appearance.  When observed at a comparable altitude,  the letters appear nearly level.  See images at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_Sign 

Hollywoodland Timeline by Steve Grant and Jay Teitzell  (extract)

1888 - A bucolic hillside area populated by citrus farmers is given the name "Hollywood" by Harvey Henderson Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, as part of a residential development.  It is Daeida who selects the name after she meets a lady on a train whose summer home is called Hollywood.  1903 - At an election held November 14, the residents of Hollywood vote to incorporate as an independent city.  1910 - Independence is short-lived. The community votes to annex to the growing city of Los Angeles in order to assure a reliable water supply. (To this day, Hollywood is a community within the City of Los Angeles.)  1911 - Albert Beach paves the way to the Hollywood Hills and names "Beachwood Drive" after himself.  1924 - The "Hollywoodland" sign is constructed at a cost of $21,000 atop Mt. Lee. Thirteen 50-foot letters and four thousand 20 watt light bulbs pronouncing, in classic advertising phonics, "Holly"... "wood"... "land"... Hollywoodland."  1949 - The Hollywoodland Sign, originally built to last only 18 months, is in total disrepair (and all the light bulbs have long-since been stolen).  The City begins removing it but is halted by a public outcry.  Instead, the sign is refurbished and shortened to "Hollywood."  See picture at:   http://www.beachwoodcanyon.org/HISTORY.htm 

Those who live in the upscale hillside homes of Beachwood Canyon and Hollywoodland have long grumbled about tourists making the pilgrimage up the hill, hoping for that perfect shot.  But in recent years, they say, the flow of visitors has grown intolerable.  The once-sleepy Hollywood tour bus business has become increasingly competitive.  Just a few years ago there were only a few operators offering Hollywood sign viewing tours.  Now, there are more than 40 tour companies running buses and vans in and out of the canyon.  Then, there are the technological advances.  Many tourists now use GPS devices on their cars and phones to map out the best views.  And the directions send them not just down the main roads but into narrow residential canyons.  Residents say they are bothered by the traffic but are most concerned about safety issues because the curving hillside roads were not designed for so many cars and pedestrians.  "We live in the middle of an area that is very attractive to people all over the globe," said Fran Reichenbach, president of the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Assn.  "We knew that when we moved here, but in the last few years it's really gotten out of hand."  Residents are demanding that the city keep roads clear for emergency vehicles and that park rangers beef up patrols along the hiking trails leading up to the sign.  Another suggestion involves new permit parking restrictions to prevent tourists from stopping on residential streets.  Residents say many of the canyon roads dead-end, and there have been accidents as tourists try to turn around.  "It's hard for us to manage our daily lives now," Reichenbach said.  Beachwood Canyon and Hollywoodland residents have been at odds in the past over how best to deal with the increased traffic ills "a waste of somebody's time. They're making fun of a serious issue."  Alex Chavez, president of the Hollywoodland Homeowners Assn., said:  "We don't condemn tourism.  We appreciate the tourism industry.  We enjoy this beautiful part of the city and feel that everybody should," he said.  "But it's a safety issue that we're trying to solve."  Bob Pool  http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-hollywood-sign-wars-20131009,0,3519441.story

What the Government Does with Americans' Data by Rachel Levinson-Waldman  Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School  Oct, 8, 2013  Data Retention By the Numbers: 

5 years:  How long the National Security Agency keeps “metadata” about all Americans’ domestic and international phone calls without suspicion of wrongdoing 
5 years:  How long the National Counterterrorism Center can keep and search databases of non-terrorism information about Americans 
5 to 20 years:  Retention periods for databases that store at least some information from border searches of Americans’ laptops, phones, hard drives, and more
6 years:  Time period, beginning with the start of surveillance, that the NSA can keep Americans’ incidentally gathered communications 
20 to 30 years:  Amount of time the FBI keeps information collected via assessments and National Security Letters, even when it is irrelevant to a current investigation 
30 years:  Time period that Suspicious Activity Reports with no nexus to terrorism are kept by the FBI 
1 Billion and growing:  Records in the FBI’s Investigative Data Warehouse
1,000,000 sq. ft.:  Size of National Security Agency’s data center (opening in 2014)
41 billion:  Communications records stored by NSA’s XKEYSCORE system every 30 days
Link to the entire report at:  http://www.brennancenter.org/publication/what-government-does-americans-data

Find 2013 Nobel prizes at:  http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/year/?year=2013

“Pompion” is the common 16th and 17th century English word for what we now call squash and pumpkins.  Squash, the shortened, English version of the Narragansett Indian word asquutasquash, first appeared in print in 1643.  In New England, stewed pumpkin  was common, everyday fare – a “standing dish”-- particularly in the fall and winter.  The lyrics to a song traditionally attributed to 1630, reveals the colonists’ dependence on pumpkins:

For pottage, and puddings, and custards, and pies,
Our pumpkins, and parsnips are common supplies;
We have pumpkin at morning and pumpkin at noon,
If it was not for pumpkin we should be undone.

Find old and modern versions of New England standing dish at:  http://www.organic.org/articles/showarticle/article-148 

Not only is the mighty pumpkin delicious, but it is also quite the multi-tasker.  “Pumpkins are incredibly versatile.  They can be used in virtually any application,” says Chef Joseph Brown, culinary chair at The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Raleigh – Durham, a campus of South University.  From sweet to savory, desserts to dinners, Chef Brown and Chef Arthur Inzinga, culinary instructor at The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, offer tips and ideas for making the most of your pumpkins.  Pumpkin can be added to a variety of dishes to provide textural elements as well as flavor.  “When pumpkin is cooked down it is very similar to mashed potatoes, but more sweet and flavorful,” says Chef Brown.  “It brings a sweetness to the table, which is its most unique aspect.”  He adds that anywhere a potato is being cut up and cooked, pumpkin would be a good addition and/or substitution.   Pureed pumpkin can be added to a variety of sauces and soups and, according to Chef Inzinga, “pumpkin is used a lot in conjunction with pasta.”  Adding the bold flavor of pumpkin to a variety of dishes can be achieved with some simple substitutions.  Pumpkin chili can be created by augmenting some of the stock and tomato with pureed pumpkin.  “This brings richness to the chili.  The pumpkin is going to be as much a textural component as it is a flavorful item,” says Chef Brown.  He adds that pumpkin and tomato go together beautifully.  Pumpkin also can take center stage in dishes such as pumpkin-based bread puddings, ice creams, and pumpkin butter. He also recommends pumpkin/apple smoothies made with pureed pumpkin, apple juice, and a bit of yogurt.  Enjoy the full flavor of the pumpkin by dicing and roasting with other root vegetables, sautéing to bring out its natural flavors, or even putting it on the grill.  Chef Brown says the slow heat of the grill brings out natural sugars, removes moisture, and condenses the flavor.  Don’t forget that the flesh isn’t the only part of the pumpkin that can be used. The seeds can be roasted and used as a garnish on breads, muffins, or on pumpkin soup.  They also can be added to homemade granola or pureed into sauces and pesto.  According to Chef Inzinga, the flower blossoms can be battered and fried or stuffed and baked.  Both chefs even recommend using hollowed-out pumpkins as bowls and tureens for chili or soup.  “It’s important for people to realize that when you go pumpkin picking, those pumpkins are grown for their size and shape, not necessarily flavor,” says Chef Brown.  The large pumpkins are less sweet.  He says there are hundreds of varieties of pumpkins,  and you can get more sweetness and flavor if you are more selective.  He recommends http://www.allaboutpumpkins.com/ as a reference for the characteristics of different types of pumpkins.  To roast a pumpkin, Chef Brown recommends roasting it at 350-375° for a medium length roasting time.  The flesh will brown a bit.  For a more concentrated flavor, roast at 300° for a longer period of time and bump the temperature up to 425° for the last 15-20 minutes.  Pumpkins are a lot like potatoes – you can tell if they are done by touch.  http://www.artinstitutes.edu/raleigh-durham/news-and-events/from-patch-to-table-the-many-uses-of-a-pumpkin-10972810.aspx 

The Vatican has been forced to withdraw commemorative medals commissioned to celebrate Pope Francis’ first year after misspelling Jesus.  The coins were created by the Italian State Mint.  See picture and short article at:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/vatican-misspells-jesus-on-pope-francis-commemorative-coins-8873629.html