In botany, a sport or bud sport, traditionally called lusus, is a part of a plant that shows morphological differences from the rest of the plant.  Sports may differ by foliage shape or color, flowers, fruit, or branch structure. The cause is generally thought to be chance in a single cell.  Sports with desirable characteristics may be grown into new plants by vegetative reproduction and are often propagated as new cultivars that retain the characteristics of the new morphology.  Such selections are often prone to "reversion", meaning that part or all of the plant reverts to its original form.  An example of a bud sport is the nectarine, at least some of which developed as a bud sport from peaches.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport_(botany)    

Having red hair and blue eyes is very rare.  Only 17% of the world’s population have blue eyes, and only 1 to 2% have red hair.  In the array of possible natural hair colors, dark hues are the most common—more than 90 percent of people worldwide have brown or black hair.  That’s followed by blonde hair.  Red hair, occurring in just 1 to 2 percent of the population, is the least common.  Blue eyes are similarly uncommon, and they may be becoming rarer.  One study found that between 1899 and 1905, more than half of non-Hispanic white people in the United States had blue eyes.  But from 1936 to 1951, that number fell to 33.8 percent.  Today, estimates suggest about 17 percent of people worldwide have blue eyes.  Your hair color and eye color come down to what genes you inherit from your parents.   If one person has both red hair and blue eyes, there’s a good chance one or both of their parents do, too, but not always.  You must inherit two sets of genetic information for both your hair color and your eye color to have these less-common characteristics.  The likelihood of this happening is quite rare, especially if neither of your parents has red hair or blue eyes.  Sometimes, however, the genetic stars align, and individuals are born with the rare combination of red hair and blue eyes.  Gene characteristics fall into two categories:  recessive and dominant.  Parents share the blueprint of many features, from hair color to personality, in their genes.  Though hair color is influenced by multiple genes, in general, dominant genes win out in a head-to-head matchup against recessive genes.  Brown hair and brown eyes, for example, are both dominant, which is why they make up such a large percentage of hair-eye color combinations.  Parents can also be carriers for recessive genes.  While they may display the dominant genes, they still have and can pass to their kids—the recessive genes.  For example, two brown-haired, brown-eyed parents can have a child with blonde hair and blue eyes.  Both parents can display recessive gene characteristics, and they can pass those to their children, too.  For example, if both parents have red hair, a child receives mostly the genetic information for red hair, so the chances they will have red hair is almost 100 percent.  If one parent is redheaded and the other isn’t, the chances their child will have red hair is about 50 percent, though the shade of red may vary greatly.  Lastly, if both parents are carriers of the gene variant but don’t have red hair, the child has about a 1 in 4 chance of having truly red hair.  The true pattern of inheritance of hair color is somewhat more complicated, though, as there are many genes involved.  Melanocytes are melanin-forming cells in your skin.  The amount and type of melanin your body produces determines how dark or light your skin will be.  Red hair is the result of a genetic variant that causes the body’s skin cells and hair cells to produce more of one particular type of melanin and less of another.  Whether you have one or both MC1R gene copies inactivated can also determine the shade of red hair you have, from strawberry blonde to deep auburn to bright red.  This gene is responsible for freckles in many redheads, too.  You might believe that because these genetic traits are rare, they could be diluted out of the gene pool entirely.  That’s not likely to happen.  Even when you can’t see recessive characteristics—red hair, for example—they’re still there, hiding out in a person’s chromosomes.  When a person has a child, they can pass their recessive gene information to their offspring, and the trait could win out.  That’s why something like red hair or blue eyes could “skip” generations and show up a few steps down the family line.  Red hair is more common in women, according to research.  However, Caucasian males are more likely to have blue eyes than females, research shows.  https://www.healthline.com/health/red-hair-blue-eyes#genetics    

A poet laureate (plural:  poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions.  Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) of Arezzo were the first to be crowned poets laureate after the classical age, respectively in 1315 and 1342.   In Britain, the term dates from the appointment of Bernard André by Henry VII of England.  The royal office of Poet Laureate in England dates from the appointment of John Dryden in 1668.  In modern times, the title of poet laureate may be conferred by an organization such as the Poetry Foundation, which designates a Young People's Poet Laureate, unconnected with the National Youth Poet Laureate and the United States Poet Laureate.  The office is also popular with regional and community groups.  Examples include the Pikes Peak Poet Laureate, which is designated by a "Presenting Partners" group from within the community, the Minnesota poet laureate chosen by the League of Minnesota Poets (est. 1934) the Northampton Poet Laureate chosen by the Northampton Arts Council, and the Martha's Vineyard Poet Laureate chosen by ten judges representing the Martha's Vineyard Poetry Society.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_laureate#    

Marcus Aurelius (26 April 121–17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher.  He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace, calm, and stability for the Roman Empire lasting from 27 BC to 180 AD  https://en.wikipedia.org    

April 27, 2026

Nilanjana Sudeshna "Jhumpa" Lahiri (born July 11, 1967) is a British-American author known for her short stories, novels, and essays in English and, more recently, in Italian.   Her debut collection of short-stories, Interpreter of Maladies (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and her first novel, The Namesake (2003), was adapted into the popular film of the same name.  The Namesake was a New York Times Notable Book, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, and was made into a major motion picture.  Unaccustomed Earth (2008) won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, while her second novel, The Lowland (2013) was a finalist for both the Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award for Fiction.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jhumpa_Lahiri

Milk Duds are a brand of candies made with chocolate, created in 1928 by Hoffman and Company of Chicago and now produced and marketed by The Hershey Company, under license from owners of the Highlander Partners, a Dallas-based global private equity firm.  The candy, sold in a golden-yellow theatre-style box, is an irregularly shaped caramel disk with a confectionery chocolate coating of cocoa and vegetable oil.  At its original naming, according to Hershey, "milk" referred to the product's initial milk ingredient, and "dud" referred to failed attempts to create a spherical shape.  In 1928, Hoffman and Company of Chicago tried to manufacture a spherical, chocolate-covered caramel candy.  Because they were unsuccessful in achieving the spherical shape, the candies were called "duds".  This inspired the candy's name, "Milk Duds".  In the same year, Holloway took over Hoffman and Company and the production of Milk Duds.  In 1960 Holloway sold Hoffman and Co. to Beatrice Foods.   In 1986, Leaf purchased the Milk Duds business.  In 1992, production of Milk Duds candy was moved to Leaf Candy Company's Robinson, Illinois, plant.   In 1996, Leaf's North American confectionery operation was acquired by Hershey Foods Corporation of Hershey, Pennsylvania.   In 2018, Huhtamäki Oyj, a Finland-based food and beverage packaging company, sold ownership of Milk Duds to Highlander Partners, who licenses the candy to Hershey.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Duds#    

In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Apollo is one of the Olympian deities.  His numerous functions include healing, prophecy, music, poetry, and archery.  He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.  He is considered to be the most beautiful god and is represented as the ideal of the kouros (ephebe, or a beardless, athletic youth).  In the 5th century BC, his worship was imported to Rome.  As the patron deity of Delphi (Apollo Pythios), Apollo is an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle and the deity of ritual purification.  His oracles were often consulted for guidance in various matters.  He was in general seen as the god who affords help and wards off evil, and is referred to as Alexicacus, the "averter of evil".  Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius.  Apollo delivered people from epidemics, yet he is also a god who could bring ill health and deadly plague with his arrows.  The invention of archery itself is credited to Apollo and his sister Artemis.  Apollo is usually described as carrying a silver or golden bow and a quiver of arrows.  As the god of mousike, Apollo presides over all music, songs, dance, and poetry.  He is the inventor of string-music and the frequent companion of the Muses, functioning as their chorus leader in celebrations.  The lyre is a common attribute of Apollo.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo   

Jelly beans are small bean-shaped sugar candies with soft candy shells and thick gel interiors (see gelatin and jelly).  The confection is primarily made of sugar and sold in a wide variety of colors.  It has been claimed that jelly beans were first sold in 1861, when Boston confectioner William Schrafft urged people to buy them as gifts for soldiers in the American Civil War.   A more definite reference appears in food testing records of the United States Department of Agriculture published in 1887.   Most historians suggest that jelly beans were first associated with celebrations of Easter in the United States sometime during the 1930s due to their egg-like shape.   The basic ingredients of jelly beans include sugar, tapioca, corn syrup, and pectin or starch.  Relatively minor amounts of the emulsifying agent lecithin, anti-foaming agents, an edible wax such as carnauba wax or beeswax, salt, and confectioner's glaze are also included.   The ingredients that give each bean its character are also relatively small in proportion and may vary depending on the flavor.  In United States slang during the 1910s and early 1920s, a "jellybean" or "jelly-bean" was a young man who dressed stylishly but had little else to recommend him, similar to the older terms dandy and fop.  F. Scott Fitzgerald published a story, The Jelly-Bean, about such a character in 1920. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jelly_bean    

April 24, 2026

 

The Little Leather Library Collection consists of 101 books, 3-1/4” x 4,” published by the Little Leather Library Corporation of New York.  The miniature books are bound in imitation leather and characteristic of the Redcroft edition published between 1920-1924.  The Little Leather Library Corporation of New York was the first company to mass-market inexpensive books in the United States.  The corporation, founded in 1916 by Albert Boni, Harry Scherman and Maxwell Sackheim, made available a wide variety of classics by authors including Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Morris, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry James, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde and William Butler Yeats in miniature editions.  Only the first two editions were bound in real leather.  When first published, the little books were sold at the Woolworth’s chain.  By the early 1920s, the books were advertised in popular magazines, selling in National Geographic from 1922 to 1924. Sometimes a miniature classic might appear in a cereal box as a promotion.  Robert K. Hass, Inc., Publishers took control of the Little Leather Library Corporation in 1924.  Boni later established Modern Library Publishing Company, of which Random House Publishers would become a subsidiary company. Scherman and Sackheim as well as Hass were later involved in the establishment of the Book of the Month Club.  https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c86d604k/    

Jurassic Park, later referred to as Jurassic World, is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of cloned dinosaurs.  It began in 1990 when Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment bought the rights to Crichton's novel Jurassic Park before it was published.  The book was successful, as was Steven Spielberg's 1993 film adaptation.  The film received a theatrical 3D re-release in 2013, and was selected in 2018 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  Crichton's 1995 sequel novel, The Lost World, was followed by a 1997 film adaptation, also directed by Spielberg.  Crichton did not write any further sequels in the series, although Spielberg would return as executive producer for each subsequent film, starting with Jurassic Park III (2001).  In 2015, a second trilogy of films began with the fourth film in the series, Jurassic World.  The film was financially successful, and was followed by Jurassic World:  Fallen Kingdom (2018) and Jurassic World Dominion (2022).  The Jurassic World films were co-written by Colin Trevorrow, who also directed the first and third installments in the trilogy.  Jurassic World Rebirth, a new film set after the preceding trilogy, was theatrically released on July 2, 2025, without Trevorrow's involvement.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurassic_Park_(franchise)   

John Michael Crichton (1942–2008) was an American author, screenwriter and filmmaker.  His books have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, and over a dozen have been adapted into films.  His literary works heavily feature technology and are usually within the science fiction, techno-thriller, and medical fiction genres.  Crichton's novels often explore human technological advancement and attempted dominance over nature, both with frequently catastrophic results; many of his works are cautionary tales, especially regarding themes of biotechnology.  Several of his stories center on themes of genetic modification, hybridization, paleontology and/or zoology.  Many feature medical or scientific underpinnings, reflective of his own medical background.  Crichton received an MD from Harvard Medical School in 1969 but did not practice medicine, choosing to focus on his writing instead.  Initially writing under a pseudonym, he eventually published 25 novels in his lifetime, including:  The Andromeda Strain (1969), The Terminal Man (1972), The Great Train Robbery (1975), Congo (1980), Sphere (1987), Jurassic Park (1990), Rising Sun (1992), Disclosure (1994), The Lost World (1995), Airframe (1996), Timeline (1999), Prey (2002), State of Fear (2004), and Next (2006).  Four more novels, in various states of completion, were published after his death in 2008.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton   Surname is pronounced "cry-ton”.  https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/crichton-michael-1942-2008    

Johann Zinn and the Cinderella Flower: From Eyesore to Beloved Zinnia 
April 6 is the anniversary of the death of Johann Zinn, who died young at the age of 32.  Johann accomplished much in his short life, and he focused on two seemingly disconnected areas of science:  human anatomy and botany.  From an anatomy standpoint, Johann focused on the eye.  He wrote an eye anatomy book and became the first person to describe the Iris.  Today, several parts of the eye are named in Johann’s honor, including the Zinn zonule, the Zinn membrane, and the Zinn artery.  As a young man, Johann was appointed the University Botanic Garden director in Göttingen (pronounced "Gert-ing-en").  He initially thought the University wanted him to teach anatomy, but that job was filled, so he took the botany job instead.   One day, Johann received an envelope of seeds from the German Ambassador to Mexico.  After growing the plants, Johann wrote about them, drew the blossoms, and shared the seed with other botanists throughout Europe.  Like most botanists in the 1700s, Johann corresponded with Linnaeus.  Johann’s reputation as a bright, young garden director--and the fact that he tragically died young from tuberculosis--spurred Linnaeus to name the flower Zinnia in his honor.  https://thedailygardener.org/ota20210406/    

April 20, 2026