Francis Julius Bellamy (1855–1931) was an American Christian socialist Baptist minister and author.  He is best known for writing the original version of the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892.  Francis Julius Bellamy was born on May 18, 1855, in Mount Morris, New York to Rev. David Bellamy (1806–1864) and Lucy Clark.  His family was deeply involved in the Baptist church and both Francis and his father became ministers.  The family moved to Rome, New York, when Francis was only 5.  Here, Bellamy became an active member of the First Baptist Church where his father served as minister until his death in 1864.  Francis went on to attend the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, where he studied theology and belonged to the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity.  Bellamy's travels brought him to Massachusetts where he penned the "Pledge of Allegiance" for a campaign by the Youth's Companion, a patriotic circular and magazine.  Bellamy "believed in the absolute separation of church and state" and purposefully did not include the phrase "under God" in his pledge.  In February 2022, Barry Popik tweeted a May 1892 newspaper report from Hays, Kansas, of a school flag-raising on 30 April accompanied by an almost identical pledge.  An alternative theory is that the pledge was submitted to an 1890 patriotic competition in The Youth's Companion by a 13-year-old Kansas schoolboy, coincidentally named Frank E. Bellamy.  Based on the inconsistency of the facts, some favor Frank E. Bellamy rather than Francis Bellamy as the originator.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bellamy    

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy (1855-1931).  It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892.  Bellamy had hoped that the pledge would be used by citizens in any country.  In its original form it read:  "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added.  At this time it read:  "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."  Section 4 of the Flag Code states:  The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag:   "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.", should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart.  When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart.  Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute."  The original Bellamy salute, first described in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who authored the original Pledge, began with a military salute, and after reciting the words "to the flag," the arm was extended toward the flag.  At a signal from the Principal the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag.  Another signal is given; every pupil gives the flag the military salute—right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it.  Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, "I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands; one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all." At the words, "to my Flag," the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, toward the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side.  The Youth's Companion, 1892  

Shortly thereafter, the pledge was begun with the right hand over the heart, and after reciting "to the Flag," the arm was extended toward the Flag, palm-down.  In World War II, the salute too much resembled the Nazi salute, so it was changed to keep the right hand over the heart throughout. the right hand over the heart throughout.  Link to other historic documents at https://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm

Mary Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist.  She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.  She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters, often in violent situations.  An unsentimental acceptance or rejection of the limitations, imperfections or differences of these characters (whether attributed to disability, race, crime, religion or sanity) typically underpins the drama.   Her writing reflects her Roman Catholic faith and frequently examines questions of morality and ethics.  Her posthumously compiled Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O%27Connor    

Cooking Peppermint Chiffon Pie with Flannery O’Connor  by Valerie Stivers   July 9, 2024  Flannery O’Connor lunched regularly with her mother with fried shrimp and peppermint chiffon pie.  O’Connor, after a diagnosis of lupus brought her home to Milledgeville in 1951, led a life in a farmhouse outside of town with her domineering mother, Regina, that bore some resemblance to a nun’s.  Every morning started with Catholic Mass followed by cornflakes and a thermos of coffee in her spinster bedroom while she wrote for three hours.  The writing time, she said, was her “filet mignon.”  Find recipe adapted from the Sanford House restaurant recipe.  https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2024/07/09/cooking-peppermint-chiffon-pie-with-flannery-oconnor/   

Date Bark  Prep Time: 5 mins  Total Time: 45 mins  Yield:  About 15 pieces   Add nuts, coconut flakes, dried fruit, anything you want.  See recipe at https://rachlmansfield.com/easy-date-crunch-bark/   

STRANGE TERMS read by The Muser in various books:  “Made from select hops, choice water, slow-aged for perfect flavor, Ubik is the nation’s number-one choice in beer.  Made only in Cleveland.”  “aloof but amiable”, “frontier enterprises in Iowa”, “cherished grudge”, disagree cordially”.   

Philip Kindred Dick (1928–1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer and novelist.  He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime.  His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.  He is considered one of the most important figures in 20th-century science fiction.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick    

Pawpaw is a native tree of Indiana, found growing in low woods, and along rivers and streams in much of Indiana and the Midwest, with the heart of its territory in the Ohio Valley.  They are primarily found as understory trees, meaning that they grow beneath the main canopy of the forest (under the partial shade of taller trees).  Pawpaws can form small colonies of trees.  The fruit does have a flavor somewhat like a banana, although others have described the taste as similar to mango.  The fruits are greenish-yellow berries, which turn brownish-black when fully ripe.  Fruit can vary considerably in size, having an oblong to round shape.  Pawpaws are available from nurseries as bare-root and container-grown trees.  Once established, the pawpaw is vigorous and easy to maintain.  Fruit production may begin after about five to seven years.  See picture at https://extension.purdue.edu/news/county/whitley/2021/12/pawpaw--the-indiana-banana.html   

The opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics takes place July 26, 2024 in Paris.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2842  July 26, 2024   

On July 23, 1929, less than seven years after seizing power, Mussolini’s fascist government officially banned the use of foreign words in Italy.  This was ostensibly to maintain and promote the purity of the Italian culture—boilerplate censorship wrapped in the banner of nationalism, but made more ridiculous by the fact that, when Mussolini came to power in 1922, only 12% of Italians spoke “pure” Italian—the majority of the citizens spoke a variety of regional languages and dialects, which (despite the real targets being French, English, and other frightening foreign languages) were naturally forbidden, along with Italian words of foreign origin, loanwords, and even some proper names.  The policy effectively banned the five letters that do not exist in the Italian alphabet: J, K, W, X, and Y.  Banned words were replaced by new, invented Italian terms, and a new industry sprang up to dub foreign films into Italian.  As a result, dubbing is still the norm in Italy, and has grown into a major industry—there’s even an “International Grand Prize of Dubbing,” otherwise known as “Italy’s Dubbing Oscars” awarded in Rome every year.  Other artifacts remain too—during Mussolini’s reign, Mickey Mouse was re-named Topolino, while Donald Duck became Paperino (“Lil’ Mouse” and “Lil’ Duck” respectively), and Italians still use those names today.  On the other hand, despite Mussolini’s efforts, Italy is still full of dialects and regional loyalties.  Italian only became the country’s official language in 2007, and even then, the change had its detractors, including Franco Russo, a member of the Italian Communist Party, who argued that Italy’s post-war constitution purposefully omitted any mention of a national language, to thwart Mussolini’s intentions.  Literary Hub  July 21, 2024    

Guy Wilkie Warren (1921–14 June 2024) was an Australian painter who won the Archibald Prize in 1985 with Flugelman with Wingman.  His works have also been exhibited as finalists in the Dobell Prize and he received the Trustees Watercolour Award at the Wynne Prize in 1980.  Warren served in the Australian Army during World War II from 15 May 1941 until 3 April 1946.  Many of Warren's creative influences can be traced to his Army service, especially his service in southeast Queensland.  At the end of World War II, Warren undertook art training at the National Art School.  During this time, he met other veteran artists who had also served in World War II, and who took advantage of the British Commonwealth's post-war training scheme.  On completing this program, he travelled to England to pursue landscape painting where a chance meeting with a young veteran and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough.  Warren's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions.  In 2016, the S. H. Ervin Gallery held Genesis of a painter: Guy Warren at 95, which focused on works from the 1950s and 60s together with works painted late in his life.  The intention of the exhibition was to show his "enduring imagery of the relationship between the figure and background".  At least two exhibitions were held at the time of his hundredth birthday, From the Mountain to the Sky, held by the National Art School, and Hills and Wings: A Celebration of Guy Warren and his Work, at the University of Wollongong, where he was previously the director of the University's art collection.  Warren was a sitter for portraits on several occasions, including for four or five artists painting for Australia's premier portraiture competition, the Archibald Prize.  In the early 2000s he posed for Ann Cape, for her work Figure within the landscape: Guy Warren, that hung in the 2004 prize exhibition.  Then in 2021, the 100th year of the Archibald Prize, painter Peter Wegner won the award for his portrait of Warren–who was, like the prize, in his hundredth year.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Warren_(artist)    

balderdash  (BAWL-duhr-dash)  noun:  nonsense.  Origin unknown.  Earliest documented use:  1596.  A-Word-A-Day with Anu Garg  June 19, 2024   

Kaldi or Khalid was a legendary Arab Ethiopian goatherd who is credited for discovering the coffee plant around 850 CE, according to popular legend, after which such crop entered the Islamic world and then the rest of the world.  The story is probably apocryphal, as it was first related by Antoine Faustus Nairon, a Maronite Roman professor of Oriental languages and author of one of the first printed treatises devoted to coffee, De Saluberrima potione Cahue seu Cafe nuncupata Discurscus (Rome, 1671).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaldi    

Women who have cats have long been associated with the concept of spinsterhood, widowhood or even witchcraft.  In more recent decades, the concept of a cat lady has been associated with "romance-challenged (often career-oriented) women".  A cat lady may also be an animal hoarder who keeps large numbers of cats without having the ability to properly house or care for them.  They may be ignorant about their situation, or generally unaware of their situation.  People who are aware of it are not normally considered cat ladies.  Some writers, celebrities, and artists have challenged the gender-based "Crazy Cat Lady" stereotype, and embraced the term to mean an animal lover or rescuer who cares for one or multiple cats, and who is psychologically healthy.  The documentary Cat Ladies (2009) tells the stories of four women whose lives became dedicated to their cats.  The film was directed by Christie Callan-Jones and produced by Chocolate Box Entertainment, originally for TVOntario.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_lady    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2841 July 24, 2024 

Credit cards and debit cards typically look almost identical, with 16-digit card numbers, expiration dates, magnetic strips, and EMV chips.  Both can make it easy and convenient to make purchases in stores or online, with one key difference.  Debit cards allow you to spend money by drawing on funds you have deposited at the bank.  Credit cards allow you to borrow money from the card issuer up to a certain limit to purchase items or withdraw cash.  https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/050214/credit-vs-debit-cards-which-better.asp   

In 1912, two young Cincinnati electrical engineers, Daniel O'Conor and Herbert Faber, discovered that high-pressure plastic resins could replace the mineral mica in insulation material for electrical parts.  How did the name “Formica” come to be?  O'Conor and Faber needed a substitute "for" mica, so they swapped in the plastic resins, which led to the company name–you guessed it–Formica.  The material was patented in 1913, and they started their own business.  In 2013, Formica celebrated its 100th birthday and a new tagline:  Formica^®.  For Real.  https://www.formica.com/en-us/articles/inspiration/history-of-the-formica-brand    

An obi (帯) is a belt of varying size and shape worn with both traditional Japanese clothing and uniforms for Japanese martial arts styles.  Originating as a simple thin belt in Heian period Japan, the obi developed over time into a belt with a number of different varieties, with a number of different sizes and proportions, lengths, and methods of tying.  The obi, which once did not differ significantly in appearance between men and women, also developed into a greater variety of styles for women than for men.  Despite the kimono having been at one point and continuing to appear to be held shut by the obi, many modern obi are too wide and stiff to function in this way, with a series of ties known as koshihimo, worn underneath the obi, used to keep the kimono closed instead.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obi_(sash)   

shale  noun   a type of soft, gray rock, usually formed from clay that has become hard, that breaks easily into thin layers   https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/shale    

Zelig is a 1983 American satirical mockumentary comedy film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen as Leonard Zelig, a nondescript enigma, who, apparently out of his desire to fit in and be liked, unwittingly takes on the characteristics of strong personalities around him.  The film, presented as a documentary, recounts his period of intense celebrity during the 1920s, including analyses by contemporary intellectuals.  The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for numerous awards, including the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography and Costume Design.  Zelig was photographed and narrated in the style of 1920s black-and-white newsreels, which are interwoven with archival footage from the era and re-enactments of real historical events.  Color segments from the present day include interviews of real cultural figures, such as Saul Bellow and Susan Sontag, and fictional ones.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelig   

The film Zelig premiered in the United States on 15 July 1983.    

Brood XIII 17-year cicadas emerged in summer 2024 in Wisconsin for the first time since 2007.  Areas across the state, such as Lake Geneva and the Driftless area, were overtaken by hundreds of chirping insects.  While Brood XIII cicadas spend most of their lives underground, once every 17 years, the species emerges as adults to breed.  The species' adult life only lasts about four to six weeks.  The bobbleheads are only available through the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum's online store at https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2024/06/21/cicada-bobblehead-celebrates-the-brood-xii-cicadas-in-wisconsin/74138441007/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2839  July 19, 2024 

 

Distance lends enchantment to the view proverbial saying, late 18th century; originally a quotation from the Scottish poet Thomas Campbell (1777–1844):  ‘'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue.’  Compare blue are the hills that are far away.  Go the distance.  Complete a difficult task or endure an ordeal.  A metaphor from boxing, meaning when used of a boxer, ‘complete a match without being knocked out’, and of a boxing match, ‘last the scheduled length’.  In the US there is an additional baseball-related sense, ‘pitch for the entire length of an inning’.  https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095722302 The first time Theodore Geisel used the pen name “Seuss,” it was 1925, and he was a senior at Dartmouth College.  Ted, as his friends called him, was an editor at the campus humor rag, the Jack-O-Lantern, where he also published his cartoons.  Until, that is, he and his friends were caught drinking bootleg gin in his room—this was 1925, remember, the middle of Prohibition—and as a punishment, Ted was forced to resign from his position at the paper.  Literary Hub  July 14, 2024

“Nonsense wakes up the brain cells.  And it helps develop a sense of humor, which is awfully important in this day and age.  Humor has a tremendous place in this sordid world.  It’s more than just a matter of laughing.  If you can see things out of whack, then you can see how things can be in whack.”  Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904–1991) was an American children's author and cartoonist.  He is known for his work writing and illustrating more than 60 books under the pen name, Dr. Seuss.  His work includes many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages by the time of his death.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Seuss   Marie Paradis from Chamonix (then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia) became the first woman to climb Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest mountain, on 14 July 1808.  Chekhov’s gun   (chek-ofs GUHN)  noun  1. The literary principle that if an element is introduced in a story, it must be shown to have a purpose.  2.  An element introduced in a story that is revealed to have a purpose later on.  After the playwright and doctor Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) who espoused this principle. Earliest documented use:  1951.    NOTES:  Chekhov said, “One must never place a loaded rifle on the stage if it isn’t going to go off.”  Not trying to be a smart alec, but one must never place a loaded firearm on a stage or set, going off or not.  At any rate, we understand his point and it wasn’t about the rifle gathering rust.  Also see:  red herring, McGuffin, prolepsis, Ockham’s razor.  A Word A Day with Anu Garg  July 15, 2024  The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man.  Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish.  Only the bicycle remains pure in heart. - Iris Murdoch, writer (15 Jul 1919-1999)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2838  July 15, 2024 

Inconspicuous, fragile, published sans fanfare, ignored by reviewers, its sales poor, had Tamerlane been Edgar Allan Poe’s only publication, a one-off chapbook of melancholy romantic verse, it would now be a mere bibliographical curiosity.  Instead—because its author went on to invent the modern detective story (think “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Purloined Letter”), revolutionize the Gothic genre with tales like “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” pen triumphs of supernatural horror like “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and write the classic macabre poem “The Raven,” which many of us tried to memorize as kids.  Tamerlane, for its now-insignificant deficiencies as a poem and a pamphlet, is of towering importance to Poe specialists and aficionados alike.  The Holy Grail of book collecting, Tamerlane is one of those books that—like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the original boards, which sold at Christie’s in 2021 for $1.17 million, or Shakespeare’s first folio, priced at $7.5 million and sold in 2023 by the London-based rare book firm Peter Harrington on its 400th anniversary—causes a stir among rare book enthusiasts whether or not they have any hope, or desire, of acquiring it.  (Not to mention the Bay Psalm Book or even the Eliot Algonquin Bible, other ultra-rare early American printed books, though religious texts, not literary.)  Whenever a first edition of Tamerlane comes under the hammer—a rare event in itself—its past legacy and future home become the topic of discussion among booksellers, archivists, collectors, and Poe scholars around the world.  Originally produced in an edition estimated at forty or fifty copies, Tamerlane was from its inception a rarity.  The Morgan Library doesn’t own a copy.  Nor does the Library of Congress.  The copy once held by the University of Virginia, Poe’s not-quite alma mater, was stolen in 1973 from the McGregor Room vault in Alderman Library.  If it is never recovered, an unfortunate possibility, the number of known copies drops to eleven.  At least one prominent Poe expert I know speculates it may have been destroyed to hide the evidence.  After all, it would be wildly risky to try to sell the copy.  Where in the world would a fence safely offer it?  Besides, the theft, a presumed inside job, happened long enough ago that it’s not inconceivable the thief is dead.  Wherever it is out there in illicit limbo, one hopes that whoever has it will earn their gothic angel’s wings by restoring it to the Alderman.  https://lithub.com/in-search-of-the-rarest-book-in-american-literature-edgar-allan-poes-tamerlane   

According to the United States Census Bureau, Lebanon, Ohio has a total area of 12.97 square miles (33.59 km²), of which 12.96 square miles (33.57 km²) is land and 0.01 square miles (0.03 km²) is water.  The Golden Lamb Inn is the oldest hotel in Ohio, having been established in 1803.  The present structure is built around the 1815 rebuilding of the inn and has been visited by 12 presidents.  The Warren County Historical Museum includes the Harmon Museum, housed in Harmon Hall, a three-story, 28,000 square feet (2,600 m²) building with displays and exhibits of art and artifacts from prehistoric eras to the mid-20th century.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon,_Ohio   

The “Harper Valley P.T.A” saga began with a song.  In 1967, Bobbie Gentry had a crossover monster hit with her song “Ode to Billie Joe.”  Margie Singleton had some success with her cover of Gentry’s song, so she asked Tom T. Hall to write a similar song for her as a follow-up.  The song that Hall wrote for Singleton was “Harper Valley P.T.A.,” which he based upon a story he’d heard growing up in Olive Hill, Kentucky.  However, Jeannie C. Riley, from Anson, Texas, recorded a version of “Harper Valley P.T.A” on July 26, 1968, and it was on the radio and on the Billboard charts in August.  The song became a huge hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 21, 1968, and topping the Billboard Hot Country chart on September 28, 1968, making it the first song by a woman to reach the top of both charts.  Harper Valley P.T.A. was filmed in Lebanon, Ohio, with additional scenes filmed in California.  https://www.grahmsguide.com/harper-valley-pta-1978    

Jan.  6, 2010  TIME 100 list of the best novels on TIME.com:  There were only two ground rules. We picked 1923–when TIME began publishing–as our starting point.  And we focused on books written in English.  That’s why there is no Ulysses (published in 1922) or One Hundred Years of Solitude (originally written in Spanish).  Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo, our book critics, reread many of the classics and discovered a few that they had never had a chance to read. There were some easy calls (The Sound and the Fury, Invisible Man, Herzog) and some not so easy (Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer did not make the cut, though both critics admire their essays and nonfiction books).  Several authors appear twice, including William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov and Saul Bellow.  And one author on the list is actually a TIME alumnus:  James Agee, who reviewed movies and books for the magazine in the 1940s and is represented by A Death in the Family.  I find almost all our critics’ arguments persuasive, but I still feel John le Carré’s best book is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (not on the list) instead of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (on the list).  Oh, and one more thing:  this time around, Gone with the Wind fans get their revenge.  The film may not have made the movie list, but Margaret Mitchell’s book makes this one.  I know the list will spark lots of discussions, but I hope it also sends you back to books you read with pleasure years ago as well as to books that you may not have heard of.  James Kelly https://entertainment.time.com/2005/10/16/all-time-100-novels/slide/times-list-of-the-100-best-novels/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2837  July 10, 2024

Linda S. Howington (b. 1950) is an American best-selling romance author writing under the pseudonym Linda Howard.  After 21 years of penning stories for her own enjoyment, she submitted a novel for publication which was very successful.  Her first work was published by Silhouette in 1982.  She is a charter member of Romance Writers of America and in 2005 Howard was awarded their Career Achievement Award.  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16961.Linda_Howard 

“A thousand thoughts ran through my mind.  Well, at least six or seven, anyway, because a thousand thoughts are a lot.  Try counting your own thoughts and see how long it takes you to get to a thousand.”  Linda Howard, To Die For

"This isn't one of my good days.  The only thing holding me together is static cling."  Linda Howard, Duncan's Bride

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/16961.Linda_Howard?

plain sailing (uncountable)  noun  (nautical)  The navigation of waters free from hazards or unfavourable winds.  Obsolete spelling of plane sailing (“a technique for navigation using the assumption that the journey occurs over a plane or flat surface rather than the actual curved surface of the Earth, which is sufficiently accurate over short distances”). quotations ▼  (figurative) 

Something that is easy, simple, or straightforward; something that offers no difficulties or trouble. synonyms ▲quotations ▼  Synonyms:  child's play, smooth sailing, walk in the park  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/plain_sailing#English    

Peter Charles Schjeldahl (1942–2022) was an American art critic, poet, and educator.  He was noted for being the head art critic at The New Yorker, having earlier written for The Village Voice, ARTnews, and The New York Times.  Schjeldahl was born in Fargo, North Dakota.  His father, Gilmore, was the inventor of the airsickness bag, and whose company produced NASA’s first communications satellite; his mother, Charlene (Hanson), was Gilmore's office manager.  Schjeldahl was raised in small towns throughout his home state and Minnesota.  He studied at Carleton College from 1962 to 1964, and at The New School.  He began his professional writing career as a reporter in 1962 at The Jersey Journal, in Jersey City, and in Minnesota and Iowa.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Schjeldahl   

Magenta is a purplish-red color.  On color wheels of the RGB (additive) and CMY (subtractive) color models, it is located precisely midway between blue and red.  It is one of the four colors of ink used in color printing by an inkjet printer, along with yellow, cyan, and black to make all the other colors.  The tone of magenta used in printing, printer's magenta, is redder than the magenta of the RGB (additive) model, the former being closer to rose.  Magenta took its name from an aniline dye made and patented in 1859 by the French chemist François-Emmanuel Verguin, who originally called it fuchsine.  It was renamed to celebrate the Italian-French victory at the Battle of Magenta fought between the French and Austrians on 4 June 1859 near the Italian town of Magenta in Lombardy.  A virtually identical color, called roseine, was created in 1860 by two British chemists, Edward Chambers Nicholson, and George Maule.  The web color magenta is also called fuchsia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta   

The cottonwood—also known as the poplar—is a tall tree with a spreading crown, named for its cotton-like seeds.  The diverse poplar family includes the quaking aspen, which boasts the widest range of any North American tree, and the Plains cottonwood, which was the only tree many early settlers met as they forged westward through America's prairies.  Today as in centuries past, the cottonwood offers welcome shade, as its powerful trunk divides into thick branches and opens into a spreading crown.  Many cottonwoods grow from 70 to 100 feet tall. https://www.arborday.org/programs/nationaltree/cottonwood.cfm    

See Cottonwood Poems written by Poets on PoetrySoup.  https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/cottonwood#google_vignette   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2836  July 8, 2024