Ben Montgomery grew up in Oklahoma and wanted to be a farmer before he got into journalism at Arkansas Tech University, where he played defensive back for the football team, the Wonder Boys.  He worked for the Courier in Russellville, Ark., the Standard-Times in San Angelo, Texas, the Times Herald-Record in New York's Hudson River Valley and the Tampa Tribune before joining the Tampa Bay Times in 2006.  In 2010, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting and won the Dart Award and Casey Medal for a series called "For Their Own Good," about abuse at Florida's oldest reform school.  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7279925.Ben_Montgomery   

Snippets from the novel Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery

Her little sack weighed seventeen pounds.   In 1948, Earl V. Shaffer became the first person to hike the A.T. in a single trip.   Emma walked for 146 days, averaged 17 miles a day, and lost 24 pounds of weight.    The Ohio Senate passed a resolution in her memory noting that Emma Gatewood was a founder of the Buckeye Trail.   

Water is wet   Fire is hot   I’m me   And you’re not.  Joseph Rosen    

If you lived in Birmingham back in 1901, the chances are life would have been pretty good.  It was the fourth largest city in the U.K. at the time (behind London, Manchester and Liverpool) and a magnet for people looking for economic opportunity.  The ‘City of a Thousand Trades’ was a workshop full of small, highly skilled firms producing a huge range of products.  As a result, levels of enterprise were high and unemployment was low.  https://www.centreforcities.org/blog/what-happened-to-the-city-of-a-thousand-trades-birmingham-from-1901-to-today/   

Chess is at the core of the new Toledo Museum of Art exhibit Strategic Interplay:  African Art and Imagery in Black and White, now running through Feb. 23, 2025.  Featuring 63 historical artifacts, the exhibit explores how African art is connected to the game of chess by using symbolism and patterning to express “leadership, authority, and cultural identity.  The exhibit is separated into three sections, all of which explore a different facet of African art and chess.   

What:  Strategic Interplay: African Art and Imagery in Black and White

When:  through Feb. 23

Where: Toledo Museum of Art, 2445 Monroe St., Toledo

Cost:  Free

Information: toledomuseum.org    

Visitors to the free exhibit are first greeted by the “Openings and Interplays” section, which includes several historical artifacts including carved wooden sculptures and ornate masks set up adjacent to chess sets (including a chess set that museum visitors can learn to play the game on).  The second part of the exhibit, “Modernist Gambits,” highlights the European avant-garde movement and how artists like Constantin Brancusi, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp drew inspiration from African artwork and chess iconography in their artworks.  Pieces in this section of the exhibit include Man Ray’s The Knight’s Tour and Brancusi’s Bronze Head of Black Woman.  A recently added piece from the museum’s permanent collection is part of the “Modernist Gambits” section, A Baga Nimba shoulder mask from Guinea said senior manager of interpretation and African art curator Lanisa Kitchiner.  Kitchiner explained that Pablo Picasso was inspired by such masks in making his distinctive figure paintings and drawings.  https://www.toledoblade.com/a-e/art/2024/11/09/checkmate-chess-is-at-core-of-new-tma-african-art-exhibit/stories/20241109015   Thank you, Muse reader!    

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705–April 17, 1790) was an American polymath:  a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and political philosopher.  Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a drafter and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and the first postmaster general. Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing The Pennsylvania Gazette at age 23.   He became wealthy publishing this and Poor Richard's Almanack, which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders"  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com   Issue 2897  January 17, 2025

 

Verb 

turn (the) tables (third-person singular simple present turns the tables, present participle turning the tables, simple past and past participle turned the tables)

(idiomatic) To reverse a situation, so that the advantage has shifted to the party which was previously disadvantaged.  quotations ▼  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/turn_the_tables   

Burl Ives - The Doughnut Song

Well, I walked round the corner
and I walked round the block,
and I walked right into a bakery shop.

I picked up a doughnut
and I wiped off the grease,
and I handed the lady a five cent piece.

Well, she looked at the nickel
and she looked at me,
and she said "Hey mister, you can plainly see.

There's a hole in the nickel,
there's a hole right through."
Said I, "There's a hole in the doughnut too!
Thanks for the doughnut, good-bye!"  https://www.streetdirectory.com/lyricadvisor/song/ulwwp/the_doughnut_song/

A child need not be very clever to learn that ‘Later, dear” means “Never”.  Ogden Nash

The aerie in the sky with extra-large windows is on the 94th floor of the iconic supertall on Park Avenue that was designed by architect Rafael Viñoly and completed in 2015.  Located on Park Avenue between East 57th and 56th streets, 432 Park Avenue is a 96-six story luxury condo tower that is one of the tallest residential buildings in the Western Hemisphere.  “In the beginning in this building, the high floors above 90 or 91 were full-floor apartments,” said listing agent Carrie Chiang, of Corcoran.  “The developer decided that half-floor units were easier to sell, so they took five or six of the full-floor units off the market and reconfigured the square footage to make it 4,000 each, which is the same as downstairs.”  https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/condo-on-the-96th-floor-of-iconic-supertall-432-park-avenue-catches-views-across-new-york-city-d4d5dc6e?mod=hp_minor_pos28 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2896  January 13, 2025

 

 

When you see me sitting quietly, Like a sack left on the shelf,
Don’t think I need your chattering.  I’m listening to myself . . .
When my bones are stiff and aching, And my feet won’t climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:  Don’t bring me no rocking chair.
When you see me walking, stumbling, Don’t study and get it wrong.
‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy  And every goodbye ain’t gone.
I’m the same person I was back then,  A little less hair, a little less chin,
A lot less lungs and much less wind.  But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.      

Maya Angelou (born April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson)   

Holger Henrik Herholdt Drachmann (9 October 1846–14 January 1908) was a Danish poet, dramatist and painter.  He was a member of the Skagen artistic colony and became a figure of the Scandinavian Modern Breakthrough Movement.  Owing to the early death of his mother, he was left much to his own devices and developed a fondness for semi-poetical performances, organising his companions in heroic games, in which he himself took such roles as those of Royal Danish Naval heroes Peder Tordenskjold and Niels Juel.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holger_Drachmann   

The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a 22-story, 285-foot-tall (86.9 m) steel-framed triangular building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City.  Designed by Daniel Burnham and Frederick P. Dinkelberg, and sometimes called, in its early days, "Burnham's Folly", it was opened in 1902.  The building sits on a triangular block formed by Fifth Avenue, Broadway, and East 22nd Street—where the building's 87-foot (27 m) back end is located—with East 23rd Street grazing the triangle's northern (uptown) peak.  The name "Flatiron" derives from its triangular shape, which recalls that of a cast-iron clothes iron.  The Flatiron Building was developed as the headquarters of construction firm Fuller Company, which acquired the site from the Newhouse family in May 1901.  Construction proceeded rapidly, and the building opened on October 1, 1902.  Originally 20 floors, a "cowcatcher" retail space (a low attached building so called for its resemblance to the device on rail locomotives) and penthouse were added shortly after the building's opening.  The Fuller Company sold the building in 1925 to an investment syndicate.  The Equitable Life Assurance Society took over the building after a foreclosure auction in 1933 and sold it to another syndicate in 1945.  Helmsley-Spear managed the building for much of the late 20th century, renovating it several times.  The Newmark Group started managing the building in 1997.  Ownership was divided among several companies, which started renovating the building again in 2019.  Jacob Garlick agreed to acquire the Flatiron Building at an auction in early 2023, but failed to pay the required deposit, and three of the four existing ownership groups took over the building.  In October 2023, the building's owners announced that it would be converted to residential condominiums; the project is planned to be complete by 2026.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatiron_Building 

Abraham Cowley (born 1618, London—died 1667, Chertsey, Eng.) was a poet and essayist who wrote poetry of a fanciful, decorous nature.  He also adapted the Pindaric ode to English verse.  https://www.britannica.com/art/Metaphysical-poets 

Cowley quote:  Build yourself a book-nest to forget the world without.    

Concrete poetry is an arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance.  It is sometimes referred to as visual poetry, a term that has now developed a distinct meaning of its own.  Concrete poetry relates more to the visual than to the verbal arts although there is a considerable overlap in the kind of product to which it refers.  Historically, however, concrete poetry has developed from a long tradition of shaped or patterned poems in which the words are arranged in such a way as to depict their subject.  Though the term 'concrete poetry' is modern, the idea of using letter arrangements to enhance the meaning of a poem is old.  Such shaped poetry was popular in Greek Alexandria during the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE, although only the handful which were collected together in the Greek Anthology now survive.  Examples include poems by Simmias of Rhodes in the shape of an egg, wings and a hatchet, as well as Theocritus' pan-pipes.  The post-Classical revival of shaped poetry seems to begin with the Gerechtigkeitsspirale (spiral of justice), a relief carving of a poem at the pilgrimage church of St. Valentin, Kiedrich.  The text is carved in the form of a spiral on the front of one of the church pews and created in 1510 by master carpenter Erhart Falckener.  But the heyday of the revival of shaped poetry came in the Baroque period when poets, in the words of Jeremy Adler, "did away with the more-or-less arbitrary appearance of the text, turned the incidental fact of writing into an essential facet of composition, and thereby . . . created a union of poetry with the visual arts".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry    

Anatole France (born François-Anatole Thibault; 1844-1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers.  Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.  He was a member of the Académie Française, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his brilliant literary achievements, characterized as they are by a nobility of style, a profound human sympathy, grace, and a true Gallic temperament".  France is also widely believed to be the model for narrator Marcel's literary idol Bergotte in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatole_France#   Anatole France quote:  “Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.”    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2896 

How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen 

Home from school, suspended for bad behavior, I come to the end of To Kill a Mockingbird and hear the crack as Jem’s arm breaks as clear as I can hear the kitchen clock tick.  Lying on the beach listening to a transistor radio, I feel midway through Main Street the claustrophobia of small-town life, particularly for women, so acutely that the shiver runs all through me that’s said in superstitions to be a ghost walking over my grave.  And one afternoon in college I skip my seminar on writers of the Renaissance so I can finish Sons and Lovers, so swept away am I by the passion that a disappointed woman feels for her sons.  And I know that I will never, ever write as well as this, but that if anything even dimly like this power, to enthrall, to move, to light up the darkness of daily life, lies hidden like a wartime cryptogram within the Royal manual typewriter on my dorm room desk, I must try to make a go of it.  Why would anyone aspire to be president of the United States or of General Motors if they could write like D. H. Lawrence instead?  That’s what I remember thinking.  That’s not to say that I immediately set myself the work of constant writing; that, too, is a writer’s life story that I suspect.  But I did begin to think of myself as a writer, although I was not sure what sort of writer I was.  Like most young people, I went through a romance with poetry, enamored of the music and the rhythm of the words, and by the soothing notion that there need be so much less to the product than there was in even a slender novel.  In my own life, this romance fell in a predictable period.  It came after the end of elementary school, when poetry was something between a punishment and a spelling bee, “The Children’s Hour” committed to memory, and college, when I took a modern poetry course from the same professor who found Galsworthy beneath notice.  He had a fine, sonorous voice that rang in the small stuffy classroom, vying successfully with the sound of traffic on Broadway, and those half glasses that I still associate with intelligence even though I now wear, and loathe, them.  And when he read Ezra Pound’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley” aloud, dipping his out-sized shaggy head to the page—“For three years, out of key with his time/He strove to resuscitate the dead art/Of poetry; to maintain ‘The Sublime’/In the old sense. Wrong from the start”—I knew that, whatever else I might be, I was no poet.  My books from that course are full of painstaking marginalia, as though if I paid close enough attention the bird would fly in my breast.  But I didn’t have poetry in me.  I wrote fiction in college, and then for many years I wrote fact, as best I could gather, discern, and describe it, as a newspaper reporter.  Then I wrote fiction again.  Reading taught me how to do it all.  “Books are over,” the editor of a journal to be found only on the Internet told me one day at a conference on the future of the newspaper business.  Just my luck.  After all these years of reading books I’d finally written one; when I took time to alphabetize my shelves, it came between Proust and Ayn Rand, which seemed representative of how I’d read all my life, between the great and the merely engagingly popular.  I could still remember the time I had held my first hardcover book.  The Federal Express truck raised a cloud of gravel and dust on a country road as I ripped into the envelope, removed the book, and lifted it up and down in my outstretched hands, just to feel the heft of it, as though it was to be valued by weight.  I held it the way I’d seen babies held at religious ceremonies.  https://bookreadfree.com/10444/290634    

January 7, 2025, Toledo celebrated its 188th birthday and has adopted a brand new city flag.  Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz met with the artist Mark Yappeuying yesterday.  He put so much care into the details of this flag to tell Toledo's From Fort Industry to the Veteran's Sky Bridge and our rich history–this flag is an evolution of our past flags, connecting our past to our present and future.  You can read more about the flag's design on the City of Toledo's website (https://toledo.oh.gov/flag?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=mayor&utm_campaign=www) , and tune into the Wednesdays with Wade podcast (https://toledo.oh.gov/government/mayor/podcast?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=mayor&utm_campaign=www) to hear the artist speak about his design choices and how he believes this flag represents Toledo's past, present, and future.  Episode 59 https://toledo.oh.gov/government/mayor/podcast?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=mayor&utm_campaign=www  

Even though they are different words, trouper and trooper can both be used to describe one who perseveres through hardship or difficulty.  Trouper originates from one who is part of a theatre troupe and thus realizes the show must always go on.  Trooper originates from the designation given to soldiers and police officers, who are also no strangers to difficult conditions in the line of duty.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-trooper-vs-trouper#:~:text=Trouper%20originates%20from%20one%20who,these%20triumphant%20actors'%20foot%20casts.    

Bitcoin (cyptocurrency) was first released on January 9, 2009. 

Proper noun  bitcoin

(uncountable, computing, finance) A decentralized cryptocurrency using blockchain technology. [from 2008] hypernym ▼quotations ▼

Noun  bitcoin (plural bitcoins or bitcoin)

(countable, computing, finance) A unit of the bitcoin (proper noun sense 1) cryptocurrency. synonyms ▲quotations ▼ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bitcoin#English    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2895  January 9, 2025

Thomas Shelton made his living from shorthand, teaching the subject in London over a period of thirty years while he developed his stenographical systems.  Shelton knew the stenography of John Willis and took over its geometrical basic principle for his own shorthand.  He published several books about shorthand which he sold from his house.  Shelton invented a new stenographical system and published it in 1626 in the book Short-Writing (in later editions since 1635 called "Tachygraphy", Ancient Greek for "speedy writing").  In Shelton's shorthand system every consonant was expressed by an easy symbol which sometimes still resembled the alphabetical letter.   The vowels were designated by the height of the following consonant.  Thus the B symbol with the L symbol written directly above meant "ball", while the B symbol with the L symbol below meant "bull".  A vowel at the word end was designated by a point in the suitable position.  For initial vowels there were additional symbols.  There were other symbols for frequent prefixes and suffixes as well as for consonant connections.  A disadvantage of Shelton's shorthand was that vowels and diphthongs were not always distinguished.  For example, the symbols for "bat" could mean "bait" or "bate" as well, and the symbols for "bot" could mean "boot" or "boat" as well.  This can only be decided from the context.  An advantage of his system was that it could be easily learnt.  Therefore, between 1626 and 1710 more than 20 editions of his "Tachygraphy" were printed.  German issues appeared between 1679 and 1743 and a French issue in Paris in 1681.   Shelton's shorthand was used, amongst others, by Samuel Pepys, Sir Isaac Newton, John Byrom and US-President Thomas Jefferson.  In the year of his death, 1650, Shelton published yet another shorthand system called "Zeiglographia", but it did not become as widespread as his "Tachygraphy".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Shelton_(stenographer)

Peter Yarrow, a vocalist with the US folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, died at age 86 January, 2025.  Yarrow took lead vocals on Puff, the Magic Dragon, The Great Mandella and Day Is Done, songs he either wrote or co-wrote with Noel Paul Stookey.  Stookey is the last surviving member of the group, as Mary Travers died in 2009.  https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/jan/07/peter-yarrow-of-folk-trio-peter-paul-and-mary-dies-aged-86   

The American flag flies at half-staff or at half-mast when the country or a state is in mourning.  The president, a state governor, or the mayor of the District of Columbia can order flags to fly at half-staff.  In most cases, an American flag flying at half-staff marks one of three observances:

·        The death of a government official, military member, or emergency first responder

·        A national tragedy

·        Memorial Day or another national day of remembrance

https://www.usa.gov/flag

Following former President Jimmy Carter's death Dec. 29, 2024, President Joe Biden declared a National Day of Mourning honoring the humanitarian leader Jan. 9, 2025 the day of Carter's funeral in Washington, D.C.  The tradition, which began with a one-day government shutdown following Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, is one of many ways the United States honors its late presidents.  Biden's statement also declared all American flags displayed at public and military sites globally be flown at half-staff for 30 days following Carter's death.  Though a National Day of Mourning isn't recognized as an official federal holiday, meaning many of the businesses typically affected by national celebrations won't be closed, some organizations will be affected by the day of observance.  Here's what's open and what's closed on the National Day of Mourning this Thursday.  Mail will not be delivered Thursday.  In an executive order issued Dec. 30, Biden declared that all federal agencies would be closed Jan. 9 in honor of Carter's funeral, including the United States Postal Service.  All federal employees should be given the day off except for those most important to the country's "national security, defense, or other public need," according to the announcement.  The ruling also applies to all U.S. courts, including the Supreme Court.  Most banks will remain open Thursday because it is not an official federal holiday.  In a statement released Dec. 30, New York Stock Exchange Group president Lynn Martin announced that all markets would be closed Jan. 9 out of respect for President Carter.  Similar to most banks around the country, most public schools will remain open Thursday because it is not an official federal holiday.  However, in accordance with National Day of Mourning protocol, all organizations affiliated with the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity, including all military schools, will be closed.  https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/national-day-of-mourning-closures/3807668/  The U.S. Navy Glee Club sang in the Jimmy Carter service in the Capitol.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2894  January 8, 2025 

The Toledo Museum of Art announced Dec. 30, 2024 that parking will be free for all visitors beginning Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025 after receiving a donation.  The art museum said the "generous" donation is from the Taylor Automotive Family to honor the late Julie Taylor.  “Free parking is the amenity visitors request most often, and we’re excited to make it available to everyone,” Jennifer McCary, chief culture and brand experience officer at the museum said.  “It aligns with TMA’s long-standing commitment to free museum admission, honoring the vision of our founders, Edward Drummond and Florence Scott Libbey, and creating more opportunities for TMA to integrate art into the lives of others.”  According to the museum's website, parking was originally $10 for visitors and only free for members.  https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/free-parking-toledo-museum-of-art/   

According to Southern tradition, eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day will bring a year's worth of good luck and/or monetary gain.     

How to Make New Year's Black-Eyed Peas

Soak the peas overnight.

Cook the onions and garlic in oil, then cover with broth and water.

Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Cook until the peas are tender and the meat falls off the bone. 

Place black-eyed peas into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let soak at room temperature, 8 hours to overnight. Drain and rinse; set aside.  Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic; cook and stir until onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes.  Pour in broth and water; bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer.  Stir in black-eyed peas, ham hocks, tomatoes, pepperoncini, bay leaf, garlic powder, thyme, salt, and pepper.  Cover and simmer until peas are tender, ham meat is falling off the bones, and broth is thickened, about 3 hours.  Find ingredients at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/213029/new-year-black-eyed-peas/    

At Silent Book Club® there's no assigned reading.  SBC members gather in bars, cafés, bookstores, libraries, and online to read together in quiet camaraderie.  All readers are welcome—ebooks or audiobooks, poetry or prose, fiction or non-fiction . . .  it's BYOBook   https://silentbook.club/?srsltid=AfmBOor8CkZmyN5TDxU7arrk69q7U8R3nMWH41MCinxbe_iaABkcpY26   

Silent book club in Toledo, Ohio generally meets at Earth Coffehouse & Cafe (1447 N. Summit) the first Saturday of each month for two hours.  Times and locations sometimes vary, so check for event details.  The first and last half hour are for reading and chatting, but that middle hour is for silent reading.  Come join us!  In between meetings, we'll share bookish news.   

Earth An Ambitious Coffeehouse & Cafe  Open to the public weekdays 7:30am – 7pm, and Saturdays 10am – 4pm. Located inside TolHouse in the Historic Vistula District. https://earth.tolhouse.com/    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2893  January 7, 2025

 

New Year's Eve (plural New Year's Eves)

The holiday occurring on the last day of the year, celebrated on December 31st in cultures following the Gregorian calendar

Related terms

New Year's Day

watchnight (not identical to New Year's Eve – New Year's Eve is the entire day before New Year's Day, whereas watch night is the night that begins at sundown on New Year's Eve and ends with sunrise on New Year's Day)

 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Eve    

Revelers began celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year’s Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square.  Seven versions of the Ball have been designed to signal the New Year.  The first New Year’s Eve Ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds.  It was built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, and for most of the twentieth century the company he founded, sign maker Artkraft Strauss, was responsible for lowering the Ball.  As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled “lobster palaces” and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers “1908” fashioned of tiny light bulbs.  At the stroke of midnight, they all “flipped their lids” and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers “1908” on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the New Year.  The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City.  Nevertheless, the crowds still gathered in Times Square in those years and greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked at the base of the tower—a harkening-back to the earlier celebrations at Trinity Church, where crowds would gather to “ring out the old, ring in the new.”  In 1920, a 400 pound Ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original.  In 1955, the iron Ball was replaced with an aluminum Ball weighing a mere 150 pounds.  This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the “I Love New York” marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988.  After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square.  In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum Ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.  The actual notion of a ball “dropping” to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year’s Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square.  The first “time-ball” was installed atop England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833.  This ball would drop at one o’clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument).  Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work.  The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day--and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships’ captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide.  See pictures at https://timessquareball.net/ball-history/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2892  December 31, 2024