For over a century, the du Pont family operated a black powder mill in Wilmington, Delaware, where more than 300 workers combined saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur to create the explosive powder used in mining and construction—and munitions during wartime.  It was dangerous work, and during the years the mills operated, from 1802 to 1921, there were 288 accidental blasts, which killed 228 people, mainly workers.  The most powerful came on a foggy afternoon in October 1890, when over 100,000 pounds of black powder detonated, collapsing seven buildings.  The shocks were felt as far away as Philadelphia.  Twelve people died.  The du Pont family also lived right on the site, practically on top of the refinery, in a house called Eleutherian Mills.  Louise du Pont, 13 years old in 1890, lived at another family home, Winterthur, two miles away.  The 1890 blast damaged Eleutherian Mills so severely that the du Pont family moved out.  After another explosion further wrecked the site in 1920, the company moved its powder operations, establishing sites in New Jersey and elsewhere.  Louise’s father purchased the home and mill property from the company and gave it to her, and she took possession of the estate in 1923.  Here, Louise and her husband, Francis B. “Frank” Crowninshield, built the only garden in the world that includes fanciful Italianate structures amid industrial refinery ruins, all in a place where so many people died.  As the Crowninshields built their garden, the mill’s tunnels morphed into lush hidden grottoes, foundations became pools, and arches rose from the powder yard’s wreckage.  Margo Rabb  See graphics at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/abandoned-industrial-ruin-garden-wilmington-dupont-crowninshield-180981544/   

Oaxaca is a state of roughly 4 million people.  And while its central city of colorful colonial-style buildings and mountainous terrain is the most well-known, more than half of the population lives in one of the state’s 10,523 rural villages along its green valleys, arid deserts, foggy mountains, and tropical coasts.  The wild herbs and naturally organic fruits and vegetables found in the state’s many microclimates are everyday staples of the country’s thriving Indigenous populations that continue to shape the state’s diverse cuisine and culture today.  In fact, 16 of Mexico’s total 68 recognized Indigenous groups are based in Oaxaca.  Some groups, like Los Mixes, who are proudly known in Oaxaca as Los Jamas Conquistados, were never conquered by Spain, and their food ways remain untouched by the European ingredients that weave through so much of Mexican cooking.  Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral   Read much more and see pictures at https://www.eater.com/22929351/what-is-oaxacan-food-cuisine-mexican   

cloudberry, (Rubus chamaemorus), also called salmonberry, yellowberry, bakeapple, bakeberry, malka, or baked apple berry, creeping herbaceous plant in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible raspberry-like fruit.  Eskimos and Sami collect the sweet juicy fruits in autumn to freeze for winter food.  In markets of northern Scandinavia, cloudberries are sold for use in preserves, tarts, and other confections.  They are also made into a liqueur.  https://www.britannica.com/plant/cloudberry    

Wellingtonia; Giant/Sierra/California Redwood   Tall growing evergreen conifer, with dark green foliage on down swept branches.  The bark is red in colour, having a unique spongy characteristic.  Cones are small and hard, to 4cm long.  The Wellingtonia trees at Compton Verney were mostly planted in the second half of the 19^th century.  This tree species originates from a relatively small area in California, and although John Matthew brought the first seed back to Scotland, its introduction is largely credited to Cornish plant hunter William Lobb who brought seed back to England on behalf of Veitch Nurseries in 1853.  The trees were initially given the name Wellingtonia gigantea, which was in reference to the Duke of Wellington who passed away in 1852, although this name was botanically incorrect and was corrected to Sequoiadendron giganteum some years later following much debate and re-classification.  However, that first name has held, and in the U.K. least it continues to be commonly called Wellingtonia.  See pictures at https://www.comptonverney.org.uk/tree-facts-wellingtonia-at-compton-verney/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2646  March 20, 2023 

Mochi (餅) is Japanese sticky rice cake used both in savory and sweet dishes.  Mochi is usually made from “sweet rice” (also called Mochi rice and it’s not actually sweet by itself) cooked and pounded until it becomes a paste that is very sticky and smooth, then formed into cakes or blocks.  It is often eaten in New Year’s Ozoni soup or baked with soy sauce.  posted by Noriko and Yuko  https://www.japanesecooking101.com/sweet-mochi-recipe/   

Mochi Brownies  Chocolatey, fudgy, chewy--a perfect blend of chocolate brownies and butter mochi cake.  They look just like traditional brownies, but they have a chewy texture when you bite in.  posted by Kirbie  https://kirbiecravings.com/mochi-brownies/    

In 1918, the federal organization in charge of railroad regulation—the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)—was given the power to address coordination concerns.  That year, five time zones were officially adopted as the US entered World War I:  the Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific, and Alaska zones, all of which are still in use today.  However, the need for coordination among all transportation modes became increasingly important after World War II.  When the Department of Transportation was created by Congress in 1966, it was assigned “the responsibility of regulating, fostering, and promoting widespread and uniform adoption and observance of standardized time within each time zone.  Daylight Saving Time (DST) was enacted as a legal requirement by the Uniform Time Act of 1966.  Motivated by transportation improvements, this act mandated standard time within the existing time zones and established a permanent system of uniform DST, including the dates and times for twice yearly transitions.  While State governments cannot independently change time zones or the length of DST, they can exempt themselves from DST, independent of DOT authority or permission.  Nonetheless, DST is observed uniformly across the nation except in American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and most of Arizona.  https://www.bts.gov/explore-topics-and-geography/geography/geospatial-portal/history-time-zones-and-daylight-saving# 

The State Department is officially retiring the old workhorse Times New Roman font from official communications.  It will be succeeded by Calibri, a font best known now for being publicly retired in 2021.  The Washington Post learned of the change from a leaked cable sent by Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.  The reason for the change is accessibility and readability:  a sans serif font (i.e., without the little bits on the ends of letters) is considered by many to be easier to read at smaller sizes on digital devices, especially for those with vision impairments.  (The upgrade to 14 point type will probably make it even better.)  Devin Coldewey  https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/18/font-furore-as-state-dept-retires-times-new-roman-for-retiring-calibri/ 

Font Comparison:

St. Patrick’s Day (Calibri)  St. Patrick’s Day (Times New Roman)

Illinois (Calibri)  Illinois (Times New Roman)

Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (c. 385 – c. 461), the foremost patron saint of Ireland.  Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Christian feast day in the early 17th century and is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion (especially the Church of Ireland), the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Lutheran Church.  The day commemorates Saint Patrick and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland, and celebrates the heritage and culture of the Irish in general.  Celebrations generally involve public parades and festivals, céilithe, and the wearing of green attire or shamrocks.  Christians who belong to liturgical denominations also attend church services and historically the Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol were lifted for the day, which has encouraged and propagated the holiday's tradition of alcohol consumption.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick%27s_Day   

Gaelic football (uncountable)  noun  An Irish form of football played by two teams of 15 players each, who score by kicking or punching a ball into the opposing team's goal or over a crossbar and between two upright posts above the goal. quotations ▼ Hypernym:  Gaelic games  Wiktionary   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2645  March 17, 2023

Finding Pétrus 1982 on a wine list is like discovering a diamond lying on the ground.  The vineyard only covers 28 acres and produces about twenty-five thousand bottles annually.  Bordeaux, a novel by Paul Torday   

Paul Torday (1946–2013) was a British writer and the author of the comic novel Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.  The book was the winner of the 2007 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic writing  and was serialised on BBC Radio 4.  It won the Waverton Good Read Award in 2008.  It was made into a popular movie in 2011, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.  Born in 1946 in Croxdale, County Durham, and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle and Pembroke College, Oxford, Torday turned to fiction writing only later in life, and his first novel was published at the age of 59.  Prior to that he was a successful businessman living in Northumberland.  The inspiration for the novel stemmed from Torday's interest in both fly fishing and the Middle East.  From these two strands, he weaves a political satire that centres on the world of political spin management.  His second novel is entitled The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce (titled Bordeaux in the United States) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Torday   

Cinnamon is a tropical plant, so if you garden in a warm climate, USDA hardiness zones 10 through 12, you can grow cinnamon plants outdoors.  Most gardeners start with young nursery plants rather than seeds.  There are many species of cinnamon including these varieties: 

Cinnamomum verum is often referred to as true cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon, and it's known for its superior flavor.

Cinnamomum cassia is commonly known as Chinese cassia, and it's the most common type of cinnamon sold in North America.

Cinnamomum loureirii is known as Saigon cinnamon or Vietnamese cinnamon. This species has a strong flavor and aroma and comes at a premium price.  Jamie McIntosh  https://www.thespruce.com/cinnamon-plant-care-and-growing-guide-4690725

The Ghibli Museum is a museum showcasing the work of the Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli.  It is located in Inokashira Park in Mitaka, a western city of Tokyo, Japan.  The museum combines features of a children's museum, technology museum, and a fine arts museum, and is dedicated to the art and technique of animation.  Features include a replica of the Catbus from My Neighbor Totoro (1988), a café, bookstore, rooftop garden, and a theater for exclusive short films by Studio Ghibli.  Planning for the museum began in 1998. Construction started in March 2000.  Upon completion, the museum opened on 1 October 2001.  Studio Ghibli director Hayao Miyazaki designed the museum himself, using storyboards similar to the ones he creates for his films.  The design was influenced by European architecture such as the hilltop village of Calcata in Italy.  The museum features internal and external spiral staircases built from iron, interior bridges, and balconies stretching throughout the building's height.  These stairways lead to exhibits, dead ends, and across bridges.  These characteristics are meant to reflect Miyazaki's building designs displayed in his film work.  Miyazaki's aim was to make the building itself part of the exhibit, and for the museum to be an uplifting and relaxing experience "that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered".   Photography and video recording is prohibited inside the museum, because the museum is described as a "portal to a storybook world."  Hayao Miyazaki's goal was also for people to experience the museum with their own eyes and ears.  "Let's get lost together" is the museum's slogan, derived from Hayao Miyazaki's vision for visitors to immerse themselves in his imagination and film work.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghibli_Museum   

Deaths on March 15:

1937 – H. P. Lovecraft, American short story writer, editor, and novelist (b. 1890)

1959 – Lester Young, American saxophonist and clarinet player (b. 1909)

1983 – Rebecca West, English author and critic (b. 1892)

1998 – Benjamin Spock, American pediatrician and author (b. 1903)

2022 – Barbara Maier Gustern, American vocal coach and singer (b. 1935)

Observances on March 15: 

Ides of March

Constitution Day (Belarus)

National Day, celebrating the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 (Hungary)

World Consumer Rights Day (International)

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ides_of_March   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2644 March 15, 2023 

The Bee’s Knees is a classic Prohibition-era cocktail made with gin, lemon and honey.  Honey doesn’t mix into cold liquids well.  It tends to clump and cause problems.  To remedy that, we make honey simple syrup from equal parts honey and water.  The syrup mixes easily into cold cocktails.  To make honey simple syrup, simply warm the two together in the microwave or on the stovetop until you can easily whisk them together.  That’s it!  Leftover honey syrup will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to two weeks.  You can use classic dry gin for this cocktail (such as Beefeater’s).  For a more mellow, less juniper-y drink, try Hendrick’s, which has notes of cucumber and rose.  Kathryne Taylor  https://cookieandkate.com/bees-knees-cocktail-recipe/    

Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino, (1926–2005) was an American author and screenwriter best known for his 87th Precinct novels, written under his Ed McBain pen name, and the novel upon which the film Blackboard Jungle was based.  Hunter, who legally adopted that name in 1952, also used the pen names John Abbott, Curt Cannon, Hunt Collins, Ezra Hannon, and Richard Marsten, among others.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Hunter   

The Birds film was partly inspired by the true events of a mass bird attack on the seaside town of Capitola in California on August 18, 1961, when "Capitola residents awoke to a scene that seemed straight out of a horror movie.  Hordes of seabirds were dive-bombing their homes, crashing into cars and spewing half-digested anchovies onto lawns".  Alfred Hitchcock heard of this event and used it as research material for this film which was then in progress.  The real cause of the birds' behavior was toxic algae, but that was not known back in the 1960s.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birds_(film)   

Evan Hunter talking about the famous scene of the birds gathering on the jungle gym outside the school in The Birds:  The crows are gathering behind her on the jungle gym.  And I have the kids singing a song.  And I asked my kids . . . "What's a song that you sing in school?" and they gave me "Rissle-dy Rossle-dy."  And I looked it up and it was public domain.  You know, it's an old folk tune that goes back forever.  And I used it.  And I gave them four or five stanzas, whatever, of the song, the actual song.  And I got a call, I think it was from Peggy Robertson, Hitch's assistant, and she said, "We need more lyrics for the song."  I said, "Why?" She said, "It won't cover the scene on the jungle gym."  So I wrote I don't know how many more stanzas— enough to cover the whole bird kingdom arriving on that jungle gym.  https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Evan_Hunter_-_quotes 

Bembo is a serif typeface created by the British branch of the Monotype Corporation in 1928–1929 and most commonly used for body text.  It is a member of the "old-style" of serif fonts, with its regular or roman style based on a design cut around 1495 by Francesco Griffo for Venetian printer Aldus Manutius, sometimes generically called the "Aldine roman".  Bembo is named for Manutius's first publication with it, a small 1496 book by the poet and cleric Pietro Bembo. The italic is based on work by Giovanni Antonio Tagliente, a calligrapher who worked as a printer in the 1520s, after the time of Manutius and Griffo.  Since its creation, Bembo has enjoyed continuing popularity as an attractive, legible book typeface.  Prominent users of Bembo have included Penguin Books, the Everyman's Library series, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, the National Gallery, Yale University Press and Edward Tufte.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bembo  

The atomic number of copper is 29.  Planet Saturn takes about 29 years to orbit the Sun.  The month of Feb in a leap year has 29 days.  The period between new moons is about 29 days. The  human head has 29 bones.  A.Word.A.Day   

Don't ask me who's influenced me.  A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. - Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (13 Mar 1900-1971)   

March 13 events: 

1781 – William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus from the garden of his house in Bath, England, initially considering it to be a comet. 

1845 – German composer Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was performed for the first time.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2643  March 13, 2023 

Believe Me is partly based on a true story, the murder of Rachel Nickell on Wimbledon Common in 1992, and the subsequent undercover operation to try to lure the main suspect, Colin Stagg, into a confession.  The decoy in that operation was a policewoman, but I started to wonder:  what if she’d been a professional actress?  And what if she’d realized, even while she was doing her job, that the man she was being paid to entrap was actually innocent?  I ended up moving my location to New York, and the story I eventually wrote has very little resemblance to the Nickell case.  https://christina-mcdonald.com/jp-delaney/   See also https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/j-p-delaney/  J.P. Delaney is the pseudonym of Ugandan born British author, Tony Strong, who has also written novels under the pseudonym Anthony Capella.   

"An ounce of behavior is worth a pound of words” is an acting adage that has been printed on many images.  The saying is credited to acting teacher Sanford Meisner (1905-1997).  “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” is the famous saying that this is based on.  https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/an_ounce_of_behavior_is_worth/  The quote is used in the novel Believe Me by J.P. Delaney. 

CHORBA was imported to Algeria by Turkish invaders in the sixteenth century.  In the Ottoman army, soup was particularly important in the Janissary Corps where the çorbaci (literally “soup man”) was a military rank equivalent to colonel.  Chorba is traditionally prepared with mutton or lamb which can also be substituted with beef or poultry depending on the recipes and regions.  In the capital, Algiers, people talk more about chorba hamra fdaouech (red chorba with vermicelli), which, by itself, has several variants:  with squash, eggplant, fresh beans, potatoes, peas or a mix of vegetables.  Recipe serves 4  Vera Abitbol   https://www.196flavors.com/algeria-chorba-frik/   

HEAD SOUTH FOR 80 miles from Lisbon to the village of Melides, on the Alentejo coast, take the dirt road that borders the lagoon and leads to the Atlantic and, after a few minutes of bumpy driving, a 28-foot-tall tower emerges from a thicket of parasol pines.  At first glance, it resembles a spaceship:  a wide concrete cylinder with a round hole in its roof.  But to its owner, the structure represents something much more whimsical.  “I call it La Folie,” says the 58-year-old French shoe designer Christian Louboutin, “because it’s just for fun.”  The single-room La Folie, which was completed in 2021, after seven years of design and construction, is a natural gathering point.  The 1,400-square-foot round building was inspired by the Jantar Mantar observatory in Jaipur, India—a collection of large-scale stone and marble structures built in the 18th century as astronomical instruments—as well as by Rajasthani stepwells, ancient subterranean cisterns known for their sharply angular staircases.  Made of reinforced concrete, it has eight-inch-thick walls pierced by keyhole windows and coated in lime wash.  Ellie Pithers  photographs by Clément Vayssieres  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/t-magazine/louboutin-portugal-vacation-home.html 

The phrase 'the bee's knees' was originally an 18th century fanciful phrase which referred to something that didn't exist.  It was used as the kind of spoof item apprentices would be sent to the stores to fetch--like tartan paint or a left-handed hammer.  This meaning is no longer used.  In the Roaring Twenties in America, bright young things invented nonsense language to refer to things that were 'the tops'--like 'the cat's pajamas', 'the snake's hips' and so on.  They utilized the existing 'bee's knees' phrase to add to that list.  The expression has since spread and is now used worldwide to mean 'excellent/the very best'.  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/the-bees-knees.html    

Bees communicate flower location using special dances inside the hive.  One bee dances, while other bees watch to learn the directions to a specific flower patch. The dancing bee smells like the flower patch, and also gives the watching bees a taste of the nectar she gathered.  Smell and taste helps other bees find the correct flower patch.  Read about the waggle dance and the circle dance at https://askabiologist.asu.edu/bee-dance-game/introduction.html   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2642  March 10, 2023 

 A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

lipography  (li-POG-ruh-fee, ly-)  noun The omission of a letter or syllable in writing  From Greek lipo- (lacking) + -graphy (writing).  Earliest documented use:  1888.  Imagine you’ve just started your great epic novel and one of the keys on your keyboard is broken.  It would be trivial to manage without a Q, X, or Z, but writing without a single E--that’d be some challenge.  If it sounds undoable, consider that whole books have been written without an E, the most used letter in the English language. Without an E, one has to give up some of the most common pronouns such as he, she, we, me, and so on. What’s more, even the article “the” is barred. 

From:  Vincent Andrunas  Subject:  lipography  You wrote that “whole books have been written without an E, the most used letter in the English language,” including Georges Perec’s novel, La Disparition, and Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby.  Of course, that would mean that neither author signed his work.  

From:  Stéphane Vuilleumier   Subject:  lipography  I wish to confirm that La Disparition is a great read on top of being the achievement that it is.  Weird-sounding sometimes but never really artificial.  In terms of absurdly impossible achievements, one could also mention that Perec owns the record for the longest palindrome in French (1247 words). 

From:  Haluk Şardağ  Subject:  lipography  La Disparition was translated to Turkish as well, also without e.  

From:  Karen Mueller-Harder   Subject:  Ella Minnow Pea  For a highly delightful read, I recommend Ella Minnow Pea: a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable by Mark Dunn, in which the writings and utterances of a small island community are increasingly proscribed by the ruling council, limiting their ability to use certain letters of the alphabet, with banishment the punishment for disobeying.  AWADmail Issue 1076   

March 8, 2023  International Women’s Day  259 million fewer women have access to the Internet than men, even though they account for nearly half the world's population.  37% of women do not use the internet.  If women are unable to access the Internet and do not feel safe online, they are unable to develop the necessary digital skills to engage in digital spaces, which diminishes their opportunities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related fields.  By 2050, 75% of jobs will be related to STEM areas.  Yet today, women hold just 22% of positions in artificial intelligence, to name just one.  The United Nations Observance of IWD, under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, recognizes and celebrates the women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformative technology and digital education.  The observance will explore the impact of the digital gender gap on widening economic and social inequalities, and it will also spotlight the importance of protecting the rights of women and girls in digital spaces and addressing online and ICT-facilitated gender-based violence.  https://www.un.org/en/observances/womens-day  

Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy originates as a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (March 8, 1978)  

foundress (plural foundresses)  noun  (dated) A female founder (“one who founds or establishes”). quotations ▼ (zoology, specifically) A female animal which establishes a colony. quotations ▼  Alternative form founderess  From founder (“one who founds or casts metals”) +‎ -ess (suffix forming female forms of words).  Founder is derived from Middle French fondeur (“owner of a foundry; ironworker in charge of smelting, founder”) (modern French fondeur), from Latin fundātor (“founder”) (rare)  foundress (plural foundresses) (metallurgy, obsolete, rare)  A female founder (“one who founds or casts metals”). quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/foundress#English  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2641  March 8, 2023

 

Ernest Vincent Wright’s 1939 novel Gadsby is written without the second vowel. One of the best known E-less works is Georges Perec’s lipogrammatic French novel, La Disparition (The Disappearance).  Its plot is full of wordplay, puzzles, and other word fun.  Though it may be hard to believe considering the restriction under which it is written, the novel is said to be quite engrossing.  Apparently, many reviewers were not even aware that a special constraint was used in writing it.  After writing the novel, Perec faced a protest from the A, I, O, and U keys on his keyboard that they had to do all the work and E was leading an e’sy life.  Perec had no choice but to write a short work called Les Revenentes, where he put to work all those idle Es:  the only vowel used was E.  If that doesn’t sound incredible enough, here is more.  La Disparition has been translated into English as A Void by Gilbert Adair.  Of course, the translation also doesn’t have any E in it.  And A Void’s protagonist is named Anton Vowl.  Here’s a way to try lipography:  write numbers from zero, one, two . . .  onwards.  You wouldn’t need the letter A until reaching thousand.    

Bearded Man with a Beret is a 1630 painting by Dutch artist Jan Lievens.  The painting of an old man is considered to be a stock character or a tronie.  It is housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.  See picture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearded_Man_with_a_Beret   

The New Yorker  Feb. 3, 2023  I expected to hate but in fact loved the movie “The Menu,” which uses food in almost every scene.  I went in knowing very little and was delightfully surprised by all the twists, so I don’t want to give too much away.  But here’s a funny example that won’t spoil anything:  the restaurant dinner that the plot centers on includes a course of tortillas that are laser-engraved with images personalized to each guest, sort of like latte art.  Later, s’mores are also played to excellent effect—and that’s all I’ll say about that.  Best recent meal that I didn’t eat in a restaurant:  I worry that I’ll sound too self-congratulatory when I say that I made it myself, for a very small dinner party one recent Saturday—however, I can’t really take credit for it.  I followed, to the letter, a Nigella Lawson recipe that I’ve found to be foolproof.  It involves searing a whole chicken and then boiling it (plus carrots, leeks, and aromatics) in water in the oven.  After an hour and fifteen minutes, you add orzo to the liquid, and pop it back in for another fifteen.  When it’s done, you remove all the bones, which slip out easily from the meat (I use tongs for this), stir it all up, and sprinkle fresh parsley on top.  It makes for the most glorious one-pot meal.  Hannah Goldfield    The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World by Laura Schmitt and Chris Vanjonack   https://electricliterature.com/libraries-from-around-the-world-that-must-be-seen-to-be-believed

The New Republic publishes Robert Frost’s iconic poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (March 7, 1923)   

Beauty is the purgation of superfluities. - Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (6 Mar 1475-1564)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2640  March 6, 2023