When news broke in 2019 that Jody Williams and Rita Sodi’s next project, the Commerce Inn, would be located in the old Grange Hall space where Commerce Street curves into Barrow, it didn’t come as a surprise.  The address falls squarely in the chef couple’s picturesque West Village wheelhouse.  What raised eyebrows was the fact that their new spot would be not only American—a first for the owners of Via Carota, I Sodi, and Buvette—but philosophically Shaker, a cuisine category heretofore unsearchable in the databases of Yelp, Zagat, or Michelin.  Despite a reputation for austerity, the Shakers, a.k.a. the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, really knew how to eat.  They were agricultural whizzes.  They grew tons of herbs that they cooked with and also dried and sold along with seeds they packaged, an innovation at the time.  They were ingredient connoisseurs, die-hard locavores, seasonality freaks, picklers and preservers, and always open to new ideas and techniques.  The front tavern room opened quietly in November 2021 with a limited menu of simple-sounding foods like bone marrow, rarebit, and meat pie.  But simplicity is deceiving:  Sodi and Williams are pickling their own oysters, smoking their own cod, and making their own ham as well as baking bread and curing bacon.  The cooks also began trying out dishes intended for the dining-room menu, like rabbit stew and greens with buttermilk dressing.  The plan is to be open all day—a neighborhood tavern serving the community duck-scrapple breakfasts and salt-beef sandwiches, humble seeming but chef engineered.   https://www.grubstreet.com/2021/12/the-commerce-inn-nyc.html 

On September 5th, 1901, the sitting president of the United States, William McKinley visited the World’s Fair in Buffalo.  He gave an open air speech in front of 50,000 people.  He stayed through to the next day, and the next day for President McKinley, the itinerary that day wasn’t another big speech at a podium in front of a big crowd.  His second day of the World's Fair involved him making an appearance at something called the Temple of Music, which was set up as part of the World’s Fair that year.  And at that public reception, President McKinley was assassinated.  McKinley actually survived the initial aftermath of the shooting, but he was dead by the end of the week.  There is now a monument to President McKinley in Buffalo, New York.  It sits right outside of Buffalo City Hall.  It’s a big obelisk, like a mini Washington Monument.  The United States of America had had three presidents assassinated in 36 years.  Congress soon ordered the Secret Service, primarily combating check forgers and counterfeiters, to secure the president’s safety.  https://www.msnbc.com/transcripts/transcript-rachel-maddow-show-5-17-21-n1267741   Zero Fail, the Rise and Fall of the Secret Service by Carol Leonnig  

In trick-taking card games such as bridge, the beer card is a name informally given to the seven of diamonds (7♦).  Players may agree that if a player wins the last trick of a hand with the 7♦, their partner must buy them a beer.  This is not considered as part of the rules of these games, but is an optional and informal side-bet between players.  This practice likely originates from Danish Tarok or Skat in the middle of the 20th century.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_card 

Bridge has many colorful expressions. Here are a few:  a moose--a huge hand, typically with lots of high cards in all the suits  *  walk the dog--purposely underbid an excellent hand (usually with one very long suit) in the hopes of being doubled when you "take the push" (bid one more) later in the auction  *  swan--hand with 7-4-1-1 distribution  Ely Culbertson, the popularizer of contract bridge, said that swans should declare with the seven-card suit as trump even if you have a 4-4 fit in your second suit  *  tap--when on defense, to lead a suit that declarer is void in so as to reduce declarer's trumps.  If you continually "tap" declarer every time you are on lead you are employing a "forcing defense."  *  flat--a hand with no particular important distributional feature is "flat," typically a hand with 4-3-3-3 or 5-3-3-2 distribution  *  quacks--a hand which has lots of queens and jacks, or "quacks," is really not as good as its point count would indicate.  *  duck-- refuse to play one's only high card in the opponent's long suit for a round or two, with the purpose of cutting communications between the defenders, or in some other situations, improving declarer's own communications.  http://www.mapiano.com/slang.htm  See also http://www.mapiano.com/bridge.htm 

COMPARATIVE SIZE 

AREA                  Russia 17,098,250 km²    U.S.  9,831,510 km²

POPULATION    Russia  144,104,000       U.S.  329,484,000

https://www.worlddata.info/country-comparison.php?country1=RU 

COMPARATIVE SIZE OF NEW YORK to the rest of the continental U.S. according to comedian Trevor Noah on March 14, 2022—See 7:39 at https://www.cc.com/episodes/4xpypj/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-march-14-2022-evan-rachel-wood-season-27-ep-70

Prof. Emeritus Eugene N. Parker, a pioneering astrophysicist whose contributions to solar physics were so enormous that NASA named its Parker Solar Probe mission after him, died March 15, 2022.  He was 94.  Parker was internationally known for proposing the concept of the solar wind—an idea that was first met with skepticism to outright ridicule.  The theory was later proven to be correct, reshaping our picture of space and the solar system.  Parker went on to revolutionize the field of astrophysics, unraveling the complex physics behind magnetic fields in space and the dynamics of plasma.  https://news.uchicago.edu/story/eugene-parker-legendary-figure-solar-science-and-namesake-parker-solar-probe-1927-2022 

The full moon of March will reach its peak Friday (March 18), just two days before the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is, therefore, no surprise that many of the traditional names associated with the March moon have to do with springtime and the infamous storms of March.  The most famous one is the Worm Moon, but Almanac.com lists a plethora of other possible monikers in the United States, among them the Storm or Hunger Moon.  The moon will reach its peak at 3:18 a.m. EDT (0718 GMT), but if you aren't able to get out so early in the morning, it will still look approximately full from about Wednesday night to Saturday morning, NASA wrote in its own guide.  Elizabeth Howell   https://www.space.com/worm-full-moon-march-2022-rises-tonight 

We take our bearings, daily, from others.  To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable. - John Updike, writer (18 Mar 1932-2009) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2509  March 18, 2022 

The original form of the proverb many a mickle makes a muckle (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) was many a little (or pickle) makes a mickle, mickle meaning “a great amount”.  However, it became corrupted to many a mickle makes a muckle, leading to mickle being thought to mean “a small quantity” and muckle to mean “a large quantity”, even though muckle is a variant of mickle and both mean “a large quantity”.  A lot of small amounts, put together, become a large amount. [from 1793] quotations ▼  Synonyms:  every little helps, little and often fills the purse, many a little makes a mickle, many a pickle makes a mickle, take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/many_a_mickle_makes_a_muckle#English 

February 17, 2022  While traveling through parts of North Africa and the Middle East 20-plus years ago, I experienced a moment of dread well known to travelers through the ages:  Just a few weeks into the trip, which would last nearly seven months, I finished the two books I had brought with me.  At the time, I was taking Arabic classes and renting a room from a man in Giza, Egypt.  Perusing his sparsely stocked bookshelf, I noticed an old hard-bound edition of T.E. Lawrence’s “Seven Pillars of Wisdom.”  “Take it, take it,” he insisted.  A foreign friend had left it behind, he said, and it was of no use to him; although he spoke English fluently, he couldn’t read it at all.  Among the many things that struck me about this remarkable work were Lawrence’s descriptions of Wadi Rum, in Jordan.  He wrote of a wall of rock “sheering in like a thousand-foot wave towards the middle of the valley,” of sharp hills forming a “massive rampart of redness,” of sandstone domes and crags and “parallel parapets” that “ran forward in an avenue for miles.”  It was, he declared, an “irresistible place,” a “processional way greater than imagination . . .  Our little caravan grew self-conscious, and fell dead quiet, afraid and ashamed to flaunt its smallness in the presence of the stupendous hills.  Landscapes, in childhood’s dream, were so vast and silent.”  Though I had no plans to visit Jordan, mostly because I had very few plans at all, I knew I needed to see this place for myself.  After traveling through most of Egypt, I crossed the Sinai Peninsula by public minivan, then the Red Sea by ferry.  Once in Wadi Rum, a 4x4 driver dropped me in the middle of the desert that Lawrence had, if anything, undersold.  Armed with a map, some local advice and my background as a wilderness guide, I spent a week trekking alone over salmon-hued dunes and among monumental massifs, from one hidden watering hole to the next, until I made it back to the main village.  Immersing myself in this fantastical landscape and sharing tea and food with the Bedouin I met there were among the most meaningful and formative of my early traveling experiences, fueling a desire and laying the mental infrastructure for future expeditions on foot—and by camel—in remote places.  And I only found my way there because I had run out of reading material.  Michael Benanav  Read more and see many pictures at https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/02/17/physical-books-travel/ 

Nothing bonds friends more than partaking in a common dish.  *  . . . two intimate friends might suffer bouts of discord in counterbalance to the good cheer they normally enjoy.  *  The crowd was murmuring now, a few ayes and that’s sos, humming like stirred bees.  *  In League With Sherlock Holmes—Stories Inspired by the Sherlock Holmes Canon 

“Every hut in our beloved country is on the edge.” Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry by Boris Khersonsky

What can I say today for my native Ukraine?
What can I say today for myself?
Soul, you are like instant decaf,
that leaves no coffee grounds, dissolved in an abyss.
And the abyss says, I won’t forgive you
not for your jokes, your grief, your indignation.
Because I look at you, but I can’t see you,
and your life is like an electric current.  translated from the Ukrainian by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk  Literary Hub  March 11, 2022 

A St. Patrick's Day favorite, colcannon is an Irish potato recipe, a mixture of creamy mashed potatoes and usually kale or cabbage.  Not surprisingly the Irish have all sorts of ways of cooking potatoes, with festive names like champ, bruisy, pandy, and boxty.  For a variation, sub out half of the potatoes with parsnips.  You can add chives, leeks, or bacon too.  Elise Bauer  Find recipe plus link to other Irish recipes including Chocolate Guinness Brownies at https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/colcannon/ 

The Statue of Freedom  The crowning feature of the Dome of the U.S. Capitol stands 19 feet 6 inches tall and weighs approximately 15,000 pounds.  A monumental statue for the top of the national Capitol was part of Architect Thomas U. Walter's original design for a new cast-iron dome, which was authorized by Congress in 1855.  Crawford executed the full-size clay model in his studio in Rome.  It was then cast in plaster in five major sections.  He died suddenly in 1857 before the model left his studio, and his widow shipped the model, packed into six crates, in a small sailing vessel in the spring of 1858.  During the voyage the ship began to leak and stopped in Gibraltar for repairs.  After leaving Gibraltar, the ship began leaking again to the point that it could go no farther than Bermuda, where the crates were left in storage until other transportation could be arranged.  Half of the crates arrived in New York in December, but all sections were not in Washington until late March 1859.  Beginning in 1860, the statue was cast in five main sections by Clark Mills, whose bronze foundry was located on the outskirts of Washington.  Work was halted in 1861 because of the Civil War, but by the end of 1862, with the help of the slave Philip Reid, the statue was finished and temporarily displayed on the Capitol Grounds.  The cost of the statue, exclusive of installation, was $23,796.82.  Late in 1863, construction of the dome was sufficiently advanced for the installation of the statue, which was hoisted in sections and assembled atop the cast-iron pedestal.  The final section, the figure's head and shoulders, was raised on December 2, 1863, to a salute of 35 guns answered by the guns of the 12 forts around Washington.  See graphics at https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/statue-freedom 

The Senate passed a bill March 15, 2022 that would make daylight saving time permanent across the U.S. beginning in 2023.  The so-called Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 was approved by unanimous consent, but would still require House approval and President Biden's signature to become law.  Joe Hernandez  https://www.npr.org/2022/03/15/1086773840/daylight-saving-time-permanent-senate 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2508  March 16, 2022 

The history of American literature is the history of the nation’s libraries.  These have changed over time, from mere depositories of books meant for circulation where patrons, driven by taste and curiosity, replenish their intellectual needs, to sites where an assortment of community services are offered, especially for the disenfranchised.  They offer internet services, English-language classes for immigrants, children’s activities, job-hunting tools, and even yoga.  In that sense, the American library is an essential ingredient in the nation’s ongoing democratic conversation.  It is known that after the first volume of Don Quixote was published, in 1605, the way people accessed it—at least people not part of the nobility—was through public readings in town plazas and other open spaces.  In contrast, books reach Americans in multiple ways.  They might arrive as e-books, audio books, in serialized form through online services, and so on.  Likewise, book clubs have remained and even increased their popularity.  Yet no matter how we see it, the act of reading is in decline.  Amy Tan in her memoir Where the Past Begins (2017):  My first library gave me the freedom to exist in private, to choose and even be greedy.  I took ten books the first time—illustrated books, fables, fairy tales and happy stories of white children and their kind parents.  A week later, now initiated, I was allowed to walk to the library by myself, carrying the ten books I had finished reading, knowing I could choose many more to furnish my vast secret room, my imagination, all mine.  Barbara Kingsolver in her novel Unsheltered (2018):  Those of us launched from bare-bones schools in uncelebrated places will always find particular grace in a library, where the temple doors are thrown wide to all believers, regardless of pedigree.  Ilan Stavans  https://lithub.com/american-literature-is-a-history-of-the-nations-libraries/ 

The gestation period of a rabbit is 28-31 days.  A group of wild rabbits is called a fluffle or a colony.  A group of rabbits lives in a warren.  Rabbits are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dusk and dawn.  Rabbits have a blind spot right in front of their nose.  https://rabbit.org/basic-rabbit-facts/ 

Deus ex machina ("god out of the machine") is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.  Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending, or act as a comedic device.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina  Deus ex machina sounds like day·uhs eks maa·kuh·nuh

 In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation.  When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components, so as to create a new lexeme in the target language.  For instance, the English word "skyscraper" led to calques in dozens of other languages.  Another notable example is the Latin weekday names, which came to be associated by ancient Germanic speakers with their own gods following a practice known as interpretatio germanica:  the Latin "Day of Mercury", Mercurii dies (later "mercredi" in modern French), was borrowed into Late Proto-Germanic as the "Day of Wōđanaz" (*Wodanesdag), which became Wōdnesdæg in Old English, then "Wednesday" in Modern English.  The term calque itself is a loanword from the French noun calque ("tracing, imitation, close copy"), while the word loanword is a calque of the German noun Lehnwort.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calque 

"'Kolty' (singular 'kolt') are pendants that attached to a woman's headdress at the temples.  The hollow space within the two concave gold disks that compose a 'kolt' contained perfumes or scented oils.  The pendants were usually decorated on both sides, since they could rotate as the woman walked.  See image at https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/j7fg8wap/temple-pendant-kolt-with-two-birds-12th-century-middle-ages-ukraine/ 

The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members.  The Hugo is widely considered the premier award in science fiction.  The award is administered by the World Science Fiction Society.  Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, and have been awarded every year since 1955.  The awards were originally given in seven categories.  These categories have changed over the years, and the award is currently conferred in seventeen categories of written and dramatic works.  The winners receive a trophy consisting of a stylized rocket ship on a base; the design of the trophy changes each year, though the rocket itself has been standardized since 1984.  The World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) gives out the Hugo Awards each year for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, who founded the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories and who is considered one of the "fathers" of the science fiction genre.  Works are eligible for an award if they were published in the prior calendar year, or translated into English in the prior calendar year.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award 

Sharing my grandma’s Borscht Recipe I grew up eating in Ukraine:    this iconic beet soup is made with beef (optional), cabbage, potatoes, carrots, garlic and dill, and then served with a dollop of sour cream and rye bread.  Looking for more Ukrainian recipes?  Try grandma’s unstuffed cabbage rolls and chicken noodle soup.  OLENA OSIPOV   https://ifoodreal.com/ukrainian-borscht/ 

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. - Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955) 

March 14 is Pi Day, officially a celebration of the mathematical constant.  “14 Delicious Pies for Pi Day” by Food & Wine includes recipes for  sweet and savory pies.  https://www.foodandwine.com/desserts/pies/delicious-pies-pi-day 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2507  March 14, 2022

Science fiction (sometimes shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.  It has been called the "literature of ideas", and it often explores the potential consequences of scientific, social, and technological innovations.   Science fiction can trace its roots back to ancient mythology, and is related to fantasy, horror, and superhero fiction, and contains many subgenres.  Its exact definition has long been disputed among authors, critics, scholars, and readers.  American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction."  According to Isaac Asimov, "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology."  Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read:  realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."   Forrest J Ackerman is credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy "hi-fi") in about 1954.  As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies," and with low-quality pulp science fiction.  Many critics consider H. G. Wells one of science fiction's most important authors, or even "the Shakespeare of science fiction."  His notable science-fiction works include The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).  His science fiction imagined alien invasion, biological engineering, invisibility, and time travel.  In his non-fiction futurologist works he predicted the advent of airplanes, military tanks, nuclear weapons, satellite television, space travel, and something resembling the World Wide Web.  Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars, published in 1912, was the first of his three-decade-long planetary romance series of Barsoom novels which were set on Mars and featured John Carter as the hero.  In 1926, Hugo Gernsback published the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories.  In its first issue he wrote:  By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision . . . Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive.  They supply knowledge . . . in a very palatable form . . . New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow . . . Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written . . . Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well.  Some scholars assert that science fiction had its beginnings in ancient times, when the line between myth and fact was blurred.  Written in the 2nd century CE by the satirist Lucian, A True Story contains many themes and tropes characteristic of modern science fiction, including travel to other worlds, extraterrestrial lifeforms, interplanetary warfare, and artificial life.  Some consider it the first science-fiction novel.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction 

Somnium (Latin for "The Dream") is a novel written in Latin in 1608 by Johannes Kepler, and first published in 1634 by Kepler's son, Ludwig Kepler.  In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania (our Moon) from a daemon.  Somnium presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy.  Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the earliest works of science fiction.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somnium_(novel) 

From:  Sylvia Reid  Subject:  taw  When I went square dancing in college, the caller would sometimes refer to a man’s partner as his taw.  I never saw this in print, just heard it called:  Turn to the right and swing Sally Goodin!  Swing your taw!  Turn to the left and swing that gal from Arkansas!  Now cross the hall and swing Grandma!  She ain’t been swong since late last fall!   AWADmail Issue 1023 

My book was banned.  Here's how we fought back--opinion by Brad Meltzer   Someone told me "I am Rosa Parks" and "I am Martin Luther King, Jr." had been banned.  Can't be, I thought.  But it was true.  In Pennsylvania, after the Central York School District's diversity education committee recommended 200-plus books as anti-racist resources, the school board vetoed the entire list in November 2020.  The list included books by Malala Yousafzai, an adaptation of "Hidden Figures," a Sesame Street book about racism, and yes, books written by me and illustrated by Chris Eliopoulos on Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King.  Central York School Board members called the reading list "divisive" and "bad ideas."  The community immediately mobilized.  I teamed up with local activists and incredible students, all of us speaking at a local school board meeting.  Thankfully, the so-called "freeze" on these books was withdrawn in September 2021.  "Victory!" we declared, though we all knew this was one battle in a larger war.  https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/07/opinions/books-ban-in-the-us-meltzer/index.html 

 Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road and No Country for Old Men, who's widely considered one of the greatest American writers alive, is publishing two new novels this fall, The New York Times reports.  The novels, The Passenger and Stella Maris, will be connected and published only one month apart.  McCarthy has not published a new novel in the more than 15 years since 2006's The Road, the acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel that won him a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Brendan Morrow   https://theweek.com/news/1011075/cormac-mccarthy-set-to-publish-his-1st-novels-in-over-15-years 

Congress weighs permanent daylight saving time in a debate as regular as clockwork.  Health groups including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine have called for an end to the shifting, which was first adopted in the United States a century ago.  Daylight saving time has since been revised repeatedly by lawmakers trying to strike the right balance, including a short-lived effort to make it year-round in response to the 1970s energy crisis.  Nearly two-thirds of Americans want to stop the twice-per-year clock change, according to an Economist/YouGov poll in November 2021.  “We heard today … that changing our clocks twice a year severely impacts our health,” said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who chairs the committee.  “And over the years, the science continues to get clearer that sleep is vital for our health and well-being … I haven’t decided yet if I want daylight or standard, but I don’t think we should go back and forth.”  Pallone after the hearing sent a request to the Transportation Department, which enforces the federal Uniform Time Act first enacted in 1966, asking for an analysis of the effects of changing the clocks.  That analysis was promised in 2018 but never delivered to Congress, according to a letter Pallone’s office provided to The Washington Post.  While states can choose to adopt permanent standard time—as Arizona and Hawaii have done—it would take an act of Congress to allow states to adopt permanent daylight saving time, a fact that has repeatedly astounded lawmakers over the years.  Dan Diamond   https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/09/congress-hearing-daylight-saving/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2506  March 11, 2022