Wendell Berry (born August 5, 1934, Henry County, Kentucky) is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. e is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He is also an elected member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and a recipient of The National Humanities Medal. Berry's nonfiction serves as an extended conversation about the life he values. According to him, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. As a prominent defender of agrarian values, Berry's appreciation for traditional farming techniques, such as those of the Amish, grew in the 1970s, due in part to exchanges with Draft Horse Journal publisher Maurice Telleen. Berry has long been friendly to and supportive of Wes Jackson, believing that Jackson's agricultural research at The Land Institute lives out the promise of "solving for pattern" and using "nature as model." The concept of "Solving for pattern", coined by Berry in his essay of the same title, is the process of finding solutions that solve multiple problems, while minimizing the creation of new problems. The essay was originally published in the Rodale Press periodical The New Farm. Though Mr. Berry's use of the phrase was in direct reference to agriculture, it has since come to enjoy broader use throughout the design community. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Berry

The Real Work by Wendell Berry The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. Find the whole poem at: http://www.panhala.net/Archive/The_Real_Work.html

Leave it to Beavers by Joel Millman Clyde Woolery's ranch on Beaver Creek outside Kinnear, Wyo., has been beaver-free for decades, but he could sure use their help now. A small beaver colony, he says, would engineer dams that raise the water table under his pastures, opening up drinking holes for his cattle. So the 64-year-old rancher put himself on a waiting list this year hoping state officials would bring him a beaver or two. Wyoming's Game and Fish Commission periodically plucks the rodents from drainage culverts. Beaver backers have a simple creed: Trapping, not killing, "nuisance" beavers, they say, can add value to wilderness reserves and farmland by increasing their water content. That, in turn, restores fish habitats and native plants, which allow bigger species like moose, cougar and elk to thrive. "We call ourselves Beaver Believers because we found beavers do restoration work better than people," says Celeste Coulter, stewardship director at the North Coast Land Conservancy, a Seaside, Ore., group that urges developers to set aside land for beavers. "We can spend $200,000 putting wood into a stream, cabling down logs. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't," she says. "Put in a colony of beavers and it always works." Justin Burnett, a rancher in Richards, Texas, desperately wants beavers. He blames low creek levels for a "red water" virus that is killing his Angus herd. "Since we are in an extreme drought and there are no beavers to keep the water level sufficient, the water is stagnant and becoming deadly," he wrote the Lands Council. "The creek is constantly getting shallower. I just need beavers back at my ranch."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904253204576512391087253596.html

Tiffany Setting by Eric Wills Sergio Guardia never thought he'd live outside Manhattan. But when the Bolivian-born architect and owner of a New York-based firm began looking for an apartment, the price of units in the city forced him to broaden his geographic horizons. And so, after losing a few bidding wars for townhouses and apartments, he found himself across the Hudson River in Newark, N.J., standing before a three-story Forest Hill house that the listing agent told him had been built by the Tiffany family. Guardia hadn't considered Forest Hill, or even heard of it, until The New York Times ran an article titled, "Yes, We're in Newark." The November 2007 story described the National Register-listed neighborhood as an oasis in a city usually derided for urban blight and crime. He found himself walking through the Tiffany house that day, taking in stained-glass windows, intricately designed parquet floors, remarkable woodwork—each room, he says, revealing "one wonderful surprise after another." He was smitten. To be sure, the house had been horribly neglected and needed years of work, but the bones were magnificent. And the structure, just a short walk from a historic park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, was massive—eight bedrooms, 5,100 square feet plus a 1,600-square-foot basement—much larger than anything he could have afforded in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Though Guardia has preserved the house's outstanding details—the marble fireplace mantel, the white built-in cabinets in the kitchen, the stained-glass windows in the living room and baths—he has modernized the interiors with his choice of furniture: A white fiberglass Eames chaise stands in the living room, a marble Saarinen tulip table fills the kitchen. The contrast is pleasing, playful; the Modernist décor helps accentuate the distinguished 19th-century architecture and keeps it from seeming stuffy or dour. Guardia's work is hardly done. Copper trim on the outside of the house, painted an unfortunate green, can't be stripped but can be repainted to resemble its original color. The windows—all 62—need extensive restoration work. A wood deck built onto the back of the house must be demolished. Guardia jokes that the experience of purchasing and restoring an ornate historic house has given him a newfound respect for clients: "Now that I've been through this, I know how difficult and time-consuming it is," he says. See picture and more of the story at: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2011/september-october/tiffany-setting.html

"Louis Comfort Tiffany was unappreciated for years. Now he's appreciated as an American genius. We have to do everything to preserve his windows, to pass them along for future generations. Restoration keeps the past alive."
Barbara Meise, specialist in stained-glass restoration, who has removed, repaired and cleaned the Tiffany windows in Sergio Guardia's eight-bedroom home in Newark, New Jersey

"Beside myself with joy" means experiencing extreme joy. "Beside" was formerly (15th through 19th centuries) used in phrases to mean "out of a mental state or condition, as 'beside one's patience, one's gravity, one's wits'" (Oxford Engl. Dict.), and that use survives only in "'beside oneself': out of one's wits, out of one's senses." "Beside himself. Why do we describe a distraught person as being 'beside himself'? Because the ancients believed that soul and body could part and that under great emotional stress the soul would actually leave the body. When this happened a person was 'beside himself.' This same thought is to be found in 'out of his mind'; and in 'estasy' too. 'Ecstasy' is from the Greek and literally means 'to stand out of.'" From "Dictionary of Word Origins" by Jordan Almond (Carol Publishing Group, Secaucus, N.J., 1998)
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/10/messages/179.html

Internet Anagram Server and a link to the Anagram Hall of Fame: http://wordsmith.org/anagram/ I put in the 11 letters of my name to find anagrams and there were 9319.

Small Wonder: Wilmington by Arnold Berke
The largest city in the second-smallest state, Wilmington, Delaware grew from a Swedish settlement in 1638 to an industrial port that made flour, textiles, railroad cars, ships—and gunpowder, which transformed a plucky clan of French immigrants called the du Ponts into one of America's foremost families. My favorite landmark was the 1922 public library, built on land given by Pierre S. du Pont. I ogled its terra cotta frieze and plain stone center section, the result of axing a planned portico, as stone owls studied me from second-story windows. You could call it imposing, or call it historic, the library orchestrates classical forms so refreshingly that I called it delicious. A few blocks south on Market Street stands the Grand Opera House, built in 1871 at the peak of Second Empire bravura, with a look-at-me facade of vigorously articulated cast iron. Its restoration in the 1970s was a big deal for American preservation, then getting its feet wet. Pleasantly exhausted by my walking tours, I slid behind the wheel of my car and headed out of town in search of the du Ponts. In 1802, on Brandywine Creek, Eleuthère Irénée (E.I.) du Pont founded his gunpowder plant, Eleutherian Mills. The 235-acre estate, now called Hagley Museum, interprets that industry and the family's entrepreneurial and artistic genius. Down the Brandywine is Delaware's grandest house, Nemours(1910). Architects Carrère and Hastings designed, and Alfred I. du Pont built, this 72-room fusion of French and American taste with Versailles-like gardens. Executive Director Grace Gary took me around, starting at the visitors center, which explains the du Ponts. By this point, I was getting lost in the branches of the family tree—and their world. Alfred ran the firm with his cousins (including Pierre S., who built the downtown hotel), but because of family and company quarrels, ultimately fell out with both. Still, says Gary, "family was vitally important to Alfred. He built Nemours not just for himself, but in homage to the du Ponts." Nemours reopened in 2008 after a major restoration and was as opulent as I had expected, its limestone-and-stucco walls enclosing richly finished and festooned rooms. To cite but one: I have a thing for entry halls, and this reception hall is a confection of faux-stone walls, checkered floor, and a coffered ceiling. In contrast was Alfred's woody retreat in the basement, with billiard room and bowling alley. Best of all was to stand in front of the house and relish what Gary calls "the million-dollar view" of gardens descending a quarter-mile-long axis, their lawns, pools, statues, and stonework guiding the eye. "Modern Delaware is largely the result of Alfred's determination to keep the company in the family and in the state," Gary told me.
See picitures and more of the story at: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2011/september-october/small-wonder-wilmington.html

Noble metals are metals that are resistant to corrosion or oxidation, unlike most base metals. They tend to be precious metals, often due to perceived rarity. Examples include gold, silver, tantalum, platinum, palladium and rhodium. http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/NOBLE+METAL?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=NOBLE+METAL&sa=Search#906

"I want to impose my will on the wood," says Wendell Castle without irony, taming a gnarly hunk of Peruvian walnut with a 14-inch chain saw. The artist moves around the wood block in his Scottsville, New York, studio—a former grain mill that he converted into a 15,000-square-foot workspace— rasping and trimming to the whine of the saw's engine, almost as if performing a well-coordinated dance. While he begins with a specific form in mind, Castle "reads" the wood's natural grain and approaches each of his pieces as a process of discovery. "You begin to have a conversation," he says. "Unexpected things might happen as I'm digging into the wood." Castle, the founding father of American furniture art, was the most interesting and unexpected story at last December's design fair in Miami. The artist's work was exhibited by three different dealers, and he upstaged most of the hot European designers on show, remaining the talk throughout the fair. As the focus in the art world shifts away from "flavor of the month" designers, Castle's approach to making objects that are both practical and transcendent, along with the serious credibility he has built up over 50 years, have allowed his work to resonate once again with collectors, dealers, museum curators and general design aficionados. "I'm always thinking as I draw," says Castle, who starts each project with a series of sketches. "I try to keep an open mind. What if I do this? What if I do that?" Once he's chosen a shape, he executes a full-scale drawing that he pins to the wall and uses as general reference as he cuts and laminates slabs of wood together, leaving hollow spaces inside. "By the time I start to carve I have the shape firmly in mind," he says. While he shuns mass production, he's recently started to experiment with computer mapping to create cross-sections of more complex forms. He makes a small model from clay or wax and has it digitized. "I'm never going to design directly on the computer," he insists. "I will always work by hand." —In November, a major exhibition of Castle's work will open at the Carpenter's Workshop Gallery in London. See pictures and more of the story at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576500651646426430.html

See a piano designed by Wendell Castle in Gallery One at The Toledo Museum of Art. Search Google images for wendell castle piano and it should be the first picture on the top left. Compare to a search in Bing images. Yahoo images is "powered by Bing" so gives the same result.

Between a rock and a hard place: a dilemma, more specifically a Morton's fork; a situation offering at least two possibilities, neither of which is acceptable
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Artifacts album)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (Australian Crawl album)
Between a Rock and a Hard Place (book), an autobiography by Aron Ralston
Scylla and Charybdis, a metaphor for dilemma from Greek mythology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_a_Rock_and_a_Hard_Place

Morton's fork is named for John Morton, Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of Canterbury, statesman, prelate and principal adviser for many years to Henry VII. The principle of Morton’s Fork was that people who displayed their wealth can afford to pay taxes - or in Morton’s time make forced loans to the king - while those who did not appear to be rich must be saving their money and hence also could be required to make loans to the king. In an extended sense, Morton’s Fork can be used to characterise any no-win situation e.g. “A fine Morton’s fork this - those who went were conspirators and those who stayed away were cowards” (Times Literary Supplement August 17th 1973). Morton’s Fork is a precursor of Catch-22, devised by Joseph Heller in his 1961 novel of that name to characterise a paradoxical situation to which the only logical response is deemed illogical.
http://lawsoflife.co.uk/mortons-fork/

Q: How long does a coin last?
A: About 25 years. U.S. Mint.
Q: Labor Day is next Monday. Just how many people can America put to work?
A: The nation's labor force, which includes everyone 16 and older, is 153.2 million people.
In 2009, real median earnings were $47,127 for men and $36,278 for women. U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Aug/JU/ar_JU_082911.asp?d=082911,2011,Aug,29&c=c_13

Though we think of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as a single list today, there were actually a number of lists compiled by different Greek writers. Antipater of Sidon, and Philon of Byzantium, drew up two of the most well-known lists. Many of the lists agreed on six of the seven items . The final place on some lists was awarded to the Walls of the City of Babylon. On others, the Palace of Cyrus, king of Persia took the seventh position. Finally, toward the 6th century A.D., the final item became the Lighthouse at Alexandria.
Take the Seven Wonders tour at: http://www.unmuseum.org/wonders.htm

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia is one of the ancient Seven Wonders of the World that was listed by Herodotus in his famous list. The statue was 12 meters (39 feet) tall. Herodotus said that statue occupied a whole room at western of the temple o Zeus in Olympia (about 150 Km west of Athens), the city where Greeks celebrated the original Olympics games. The statue was made by the Greek sculptor Phidias (who made also the statue of Athena in the Parthenon) in honor to the king of the Greek gods and it was the most famous master piece of art of all Greece. The statue was an ideal representation of the best classical style. It was made of ivory with gold plating. Because of the climate in Olympia, which was so damp, the statue required care so that the humidity would not crack the ivory. Therefore Phidias had the responsibility of the maintenance of the statue which was treated with oil constantly. In the first century Caligula ordered to transport the statue to Rome, but this attempt failed because the scaffolding constructed to do this work collapsed. The statue of Zeus presided the Olympics games until 393 AD, when the Roman emperor Theodosisus I decided to abolish the games and close the temple, because Rome became Christian and both temple and games were considered pagan manifestations. The reasons and circumstances of the destruction of the statue are not clear. A tradition compiled by the Byzantine historian Georgios Kedrenos says that the statue was carried to Constantinople and was destroyed in the great fire in 475. Another version says that it was burned with the temple in 425 AD. http://www.7wonders.org/wonders/europe/greece/olympia/zeus-at-olympia.aspx
List of statues by height: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_statues_by_height

The Pale or the English Pale was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. By the late 15th century the Pale became the only part of Ireland that remained subject to the English king, with most of the island paying only token recognition of the overlordship of the English crown. The tax base shrank to a fraction of what it had been in 1300. The word pale derives ultimately from the Latin word palus, meaning stake, specifically a stake used to support a fence. From this came the figurative meaning of boundary and eventually the phrase beyond the pale, as something outside the boundary. Also derived from the "boundary" concept was the idea of a pale as an area within which local laws were valid. The Pale boundary essentially consisted of a fortified ditch and rampart built around parts of the medieval counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare, actually leaving half of Meath, most of Kildare, and south west Dublin on the other side. The northern frontier of the Pale was marked by the De Verdon fortress of Castle Roche, while the southern border roughly corresponds to the present day M50 motorway in Dublin, which crosses the site of what was Carrickmines Castle. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale

Fiat money refers to money that is not backed by reserves of another commodity. The money itself is given value by government fiat (Latin for "let it be done") or decree, enforcing legal tender laws, previously known as "forced tender", whereby debtors are legally relieved of the debt if they (offer to) pay it off in the government's money. By law the refusal of "legal tender" money in favor of some other form of payment is illegal, and has at times in history (Rome under Diocletian, and post-revolutionary France during the collapse of the assignats) invoked the death penalty. Governments through history have often switched to forms of fiat money in times of need such as war, sometimes by suspending the service they provided of exchanging their money for gold, and other times by simply printing the money that they needed. When governments produce money more rapidly than economic growth, the money supply overtakes economic value. Therefore, the excess money eventually dilutes the market value of all money issued. This is called inflation. In 1971 the US finally switched to fiat money indefinitely. At this point in time many of the economically developed countries' currencies were fixed to the US dollar, and so this single step meant that much of the western world's currencies became fiat money based. Read about the general history of money at:
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/03-sci-rev/sci-rev-home/genhist_money.html

“Just My Type” is a smart, funny, accessible book that does for typography what Lynne Truss’s best-selling “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” did for punctuation: made it noticeable for people who had no idea they were interested in such things. Personal computers are the main reason that font fandom and do-it-yourself design have snowballed in the last two decades. Mr. Garfield’s book overlaps with Gary Hustwit’s 2007 documentary “Helvetica,” which concentrated entirely on a single, unstoppably popular typeface. One typically buoyant chapter is called “We Don’t Serve Your Type” and devoted to Comic Sans. Mr. Garfield moves on to the modernists, talking to many of the renowned designers who appeared in “Helvetica.” In a chapter called “What Is It About the Swiss?” he plumbs the 1957 creations of both Helvetica and Univers and the Swiss modernism that spawned them. He also cites the remarkable experiment conducted by Cyrus Highsmith, who tried to get through a day in New York without encountering Helvetica but found it on his clothing (washing labels), yogurt, computer, newspaper, money and even on a menu in Chinatown. And it makes the interesting point that it has proved difficult to protect fonts in court, since an alphabet can be regarded as being in the public domain. But for anyone with the patience and wherewithal to do so, each letter, number and glyph can be individually copyrighted. Among the many other matters of interest in this bright little book: how the @ sign is named in different languages (it’s a rollmop herring to the Czechs, an escargot to the French); the rock ’n’ roll secrets of Rolling Stone magazine’s big, shaded “R” and the Beatles’ lowered “T”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/books/just-my-type-a-book-about-fonts-by-simon-garfield-review.html

Bell, book and candle is the phrase that denoted excommunication from the Catholic church. In the excommunication ceremony officials close the book, quench the candle and toll a bell, as for someone who had died. The phrase is old and first appears, in Old English, circa 1300: "Curced in kirc an sal ai be wid candil, boke, and bell." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/61000.html See cultural references to bell, book and candle at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell,_book,_and_candle

Anonymous, the hacker group, has jostled with the Iranian government and the Church of Scientology and has briefly shut down the Web sites of Visa, MasterCard and other global corporations. When members appear in public to protest censorship and what they view as corruption, they don a plastic mask of Guy Fawkes, the 17th-century Englishman who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament. Stark white, with blushed pink cheeks, a wide grin and a thin black mustache and goatee, the mask resonates with the hackers because it was worn by a rogue anarchist challenging an authoritarian government in “V for Vendetta,” the movie produced in 2006 by Warner Brothers. What few people seem to know, though, is that Time Warner, one of the largest media companies in the world and parent of Warner Brothers, owns the rights to the image and is paid a licensing fee with the sale of each mask. The hackers wear the mask when they protest outside of Scientology buildings. And they wore it during a short-lived protest this month in San Francisco of the Bay Area Rapid Transit’s decision to cut off cell service to thwart an earlier protest inside train stations. See more of the story plus picture of the mask at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/technology/masked-anonymous-protesters-aid-time-warners-profits.html

In the mid 1500’s in South America, the Quechua tribe used deer, elk, and buffalo to make their jerky in the sun or over a fire. “Charqui” as it was called was introduced to the Spaniards who brought it to other countries including South Africa. In the early pioneer days of the United States, cowboys and settlers hung meat from their wagons to dry in the sun or would smoke over a fire. The Native American Indians also made jerky from the wild game they caught. The word charqui, meaning “to burn,” evolved into “charki,” “charque,” and then finally: “jerky.” This chewy snack has a shelf life of up to two years and does not need to be refrigerated. Read how to make jerky at: http://www.hobbyhelper.com/how-to-make-jerky/

Learn how to make puzzles and do puzzles at: http://www.hobbyhelper.com/category/games/

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar August 24, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson's chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company's manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. "The wood the government seized is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle. If you are the lucky owner of a 1920s Martin guitar, it may well be made, in part, of Brazilian rosewood. Cross an international border with an instrument made of that now-restricted wood, and you better have correct and complete documentation proving the age of the instrument. Otherwise, you could lose it to a zealous customs agent—not to mention face fines and prosecution. John Thomas, a law professor at Quinnipiac University and a blues and ragtime guitarist, says "there's a lot of anxiety, and it's well justified." Once upon a time, he would have taken one of his vintage guitars on his travels. Now, "I don't go out of the country with a wooden guitar." The tangled intersection of international laws is enforced through a thicket of paperwork. Recent revisions to 1900's Lacey Act require that anyone crossing the U.S. border declare every bit of flora or fauna being brought into the country. One is under "strict liability" to fill out the paperwork—and without any mistakes. Consider the recent experience of Pascal Vieillard, whose Atlanta-area company, A-440 Pianos, imported several antique Bösendorfers. Mr. Vieillard asked officials at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species how to fill out the correct paperwork—which simply encouraged them to alert U.S. Customs to give his shipment added scrutiny. There was never any question that the instruments were old enough to have grandfathered ivory keys. But Mr. Vieillard didn't have his paperwork straight when two-dozen federal agents came calling. Facing criminal charges that might have put him in prison for years, Mr. Vieillard pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act, and was handed a $17,500 fine and three years probation.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904787404576530520471223268.html

The Lacey Act of 1900, or more commonly The Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 3371–3378) is a conservation law introduced by Iowa Rep. John F. Lacey. Protecting both plants and wildlife by creating civil and criminal penalties for a wide array of violations, the Act most notably prohibits trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, transported or sold. The law was signed into law by President William McKinley on May 25, 1900, and is still in effect, although it has been amended several times. In 1900, illegal commercial hunting threatened many game species in the United States. The original Act was therefore directed at the preservation of game and wild birds, making it a federal crime to poach game in one state with the purpose of selling the bounty in another. The law prohibited the transportation of illegally captured or prohibited animals across state lines, and addressed potential problems of the introduction of non-native species of birds and animals into native ecosystems. It was the first federal law protecting wildlife, although today it is primarily used to prevent the importation or spread of potentially dangerous non-native species. The Lacey Act also makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase in interstate or foreign commerce any plant in violation of the laws of the United States, a State, an Indian tribe, or any foreign law that protects plants. The Lacey Act was most recently amended as of May 22, 2008, when The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 expanded its protection to a broader range of plants and plant products (Section 8204. Prevention of Illegal Logging Practices). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lacey_Act_of_1900

"Back formation continues to make a few contributions to the language. Television has given televise on the model of revise/revision, and donation has given donate on the model of relate/relation. Babysitter and stage manager have given babysit and stage manage for obvious reasons. More remote was the surprising lase from laser (the latter an acronym for 'lightwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation'), recorded from 1966."
(W.F. Bolton, A Living Language: The History and Structure of English. Random House, 1982) "Stripping the in- from inchoate is known as back-formation, the same process that has given us words like peeve (from peevish), surveil (from surveillance) and enthuse (from enthusiasm). There’s a long linguistic tradition of removing parts of words that look like prefixes and suffixes to come up with 'roots' that weren’t there to begin with."
(Ben Zimmer, "Choate." The New York Times, Jan. 3, 2010) http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/backformterm.htm

Badge engineering is the process of selling what is the same car apart from a few minor changes, mainly to the appearance, as different models with different model names. http://www.cardictionary.com/definition/badge-engineering.html

Just what is mesclun? Literally, a mixture. The name comes from the Latin verb misculare--"to mix." And what is in this mix? Well, that depends both on the season and the gardener's tastes, but it preferably includes some sharp and even slightly bitter greens, as well as herbs, flowers, and some wild plants or plants of wild origin, as well as some cutting lettuces, all harvested at a young and succulent age. You may to grow mesclun ingredients broadcast over a raised bed or scatter the seed over a finely prepared bed enriched with plenty of rotted manure plus a source of potassium, such as greensand. Rake it lightly and water regularly. All the classic salad greens taste better when they get plenty of water. Plant small amounts at a time, at frequent intervals, for harvest at the peak young stage. Mesclun is an ideal crop for apartment dwellers, incidentally, because of its quick turn-around time. You can sow mixed seed, or pots of individual ingredients. Supply plenty of fertilizer and water for lush succulent growth. Mesclun greens are especially grown in large bowl-shaped pots, as they resemble just what they are--big bowls of salad. http://www.frenchgardening.com/aupotager.html?pid=311086548324136

Novel titles inspired by Shakespeare--also find links to operas inspired by Shakespeare at: http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/resources/shakespeare-inspired-novel-titles.htm

As Congress scrutinizes every nook and cranny of the budget for possible revenue, a surprising court decision is allowing clergy members to buy or live in multiple homes tax-free. The U.S. Tax Court ruled that Phil Driscoll, an ordained minister and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter who went to prison for tax evasion, didn't owe federal income taxes on $408,638 provided to him by his ministry to buy a second home on a lake near Cleveland, Tenn. Under a provision of the tax code known as the parsonage allowance, first passed in 1921, an ordained clergy member may live tax-free in a home owned by his or her religious organization or receive a tax-free annual payment to buy or rent a home if the congregation approves. The Tax Court ruling, made final in March, extends the parsonage allowance to an unlimited number of homes, which may be owned either by the religious organization or the clergy member. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903635604576476340089320176.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_second

John Locke, a self-published writer who has built a large audience selling only digital books, is turning his attention to the physical paperback business and has struck a deal with a traditional publisher. CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster will distribute in paperback format eight of Mr. Locke's thrillers, which feature a former CIA assassin named Donovan Creed. Mr. Locke, through his John Locke Books imprint, will publish the books and Simon & Schuster will handle sales and distribution, including returns. "The e-book world has created an opportunity in self-publishing that simply didn't exist 18 months ago," said Arthur Klebanoff, chief executive of New York-based RosettaBooks LLC, a digital publisher house. "But one of the things not easily understood is that for every John Locke, there are probably 5,000 authors trying and falling short. This level of success is like hitting the lottery." Jane Dystel, Mr. Locke's New York literary agent, said that she was approached by Simon & Schuster and that the two then came to terms on a distribution deal, which will begin in February 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576524463148090224.html

billet (BIL-it)
verb tr., intr.:
1. To lodge or to be quartered.
noun:
2. A civilian place (as a private home) where soldiers are lodged temporarily.
3. An official order directing someone to provide lodging for soldiers.
4. A short letter or a note.
5. A job appointment.
6. A chunk of wood, suitable for fuel.
7. A metal bar or ingot.
For 1-5: From Anglo-Norman billette, diminutive of bille (bill), from Latin bulla (seal, sealed document), from bubble (amulet). Earliest documented use: around 1440. Note: The letter or note sense of the word billet is apparent in the French term for a love letter: billet-doux (literally, sweet note).
For 6-7: From Old French billette/billot, diminutives of bille (tree trunk), from Latin billa/billus (branch, trunk). Earliest documented use: around 1440.
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From: N. L. Zalokar Subject: billet Billet is also the name of the strap(s) on an English saddle to which the girth is attached. Check the billets on your saddle a second time before putting your foot in the stirrup.
From: Hope Bucher Subject: billet-doux Because of its French origin, the religious order, R.S.H.M, in Tarrytown, New York, had a custom of gathering all of the nuns together for a "billet-doux" reading every spring. Since it was the next year's assignment and could mean that a nun was being sent to a convent in South Africa or Brazil, it was often not considered a "sweet note". The gasps and screams, as each "billet-doux" was read from the auditorium stage, approached those heard at a horror movie. The vow of obedience left no choice but to pack and leave.
From: Andrew Pressburger Subject: Coronary In addition to having multiple meanings, coronary is also an example of nominalization, i.e. an adjective used as noun, the meaning of the latter understood without actually being stated. E.g coronary arteries, coronary thrombosis, coronary bypass operation, and the like. Other instances abound. A dirigible as an airship whose movement can be directed; a deductible is a portion of a benefit shouldered by the beneficiary. Most famously, there is the portable, which can be a pension, an insurance, a classroom, or a toilet, with the choice having career-defining implications. Especially as it's pronounced in certain dialects as potable, leading to further complications.
From: Bill Richardson Subject: Fugue The flight meaning of fugue induced me to make sure you are aware of the Terrafugia flying car. The prototype has flown successfully and received clearance from both the FAA and highway safety administration.

In the first significant design change in 67 years, United States currency was redesigned in 1996 to incorporate a series of new counterfeit deterrents. The new bills were issued beginning with the $100 bill in 1996, followed by the $50 in 1997, the $20 in 1998 and the $10 and $5 bills in 2000. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced that new designs would be undertaken every 7-10 years to stay ahead of currency counterfeiters.
http://www.newmoney.gov/currency/history.htm

Authors (alumni) from universities
University of Cincinnati http://magazine.uc.edu/favorites/authors.html
University of Illinois at Chicago http://www.uic.edu/uic/alumni/authors/index.shtml
University of Delaware http://www.udel.edu/udauthors/

Authors (not restricted to alumni) from university presses
University of Nevada http://www.unpress.nevada.edu/ForAuthors/
University of California http://www.ucpress.edu/resources.php
University of Notre Dame http://undpress.nd.edu/Authors/

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered northwest of Richmond, Virginia August 23 rattled people across the East Coast both mentally and physically. The quake could be felt from Charleston, SC, to Martha’s Vineyard with an estimated 12 million people living close enough to feel it. New York’s JFK Airport and Newark Airport were evacuated. Flights were grounded at Dulles and in Philadelphia. The Pentagon and White House were evacuated. San Diego geologist Pat Abbott said quakes are felt more intensely on the East Coast because the rocks there are older and denser. “The rocks here are younger more fractured and earthquake energy dies down more rapidly,” he said. “We go to the East Coast where a lot of those rocks are hundreds of millions of years old and billions of years old they are very, very hard and they transmit the energy very well.” According to Abbott, an identical earthquake hit in Whittier, CA in 1987 but it wasn’t felt as widely because of younger, weaker rocks that absorb energy. He said the bottom line is that people on the East Coast simply aren't used to quakes.
http://www.wtkr.com/news/kswb-east-coast-vs-west-coast-quakes-20110823,0,2451367.story

The earthquake affected some major sites and landmarks. The U.S. Capitol was cleared for employees to come back to get their belongings, but inspectors asked people to limit their time inside the building while engineers continue to work around the complex. A secondary inspection of the Washington Monument revealed some cracking in the stones at the top of the monument, the National Park Service said. Structural engineers will evaluate the cracks on Wednesday to determine the best way to repair the 126-year-old obelisk before it is reopened. The monument grounds have been reopened except for an area about 100 feet outside of the plaza. The National Cathedral will be closed to the public August 24 after three of the four corner spires on its central tower cracked and fell onto the roof. The Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington has cracks in the interior walls because of the earthquake, but there's no indication of structural damage at this point, Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough said.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/quake.landmarks.developments/

The epicenter of the earthquake, Mineral in central Virginia was once called Tolersville. But the discovery of pyrite, sulfur, lead and other minerals turned it into a booming little town, and by 1902 it was incorporated and named after the only thing anybody knew it for. “It’s a small town. It’s a pretty tough town; the mining and all,” said Edwin Keller, 60, who grew up in Mineral, was mayor for 12 years and is also a former fire chief for the town. “But real friendly and good people.” Mr. Keller says there are about 450 people living in Mineral proper. (Don’t mention the people with Mineral addresses over in the nearby Lake Anna area. “They want to be Mineral,” Mr. Keller said. “But I will fight that.”) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/25mineral.html

Sarah Van Aken has long had a passion for designing beautiful, functional, organic clothes. Her Philadelphia-based design house, SA VA, is comprised of four private-apparel brands: Van Aken custom shirts, Van Aken Signature custom hospitality uniforms, VA Private Label garment-manufacturing services and SA VA women’s ready-to-wear. “Each of the brands integrates high-design aesthetic and quality construction with socially consciousness business practices and community building,” explains Van Aken, a Philadelphia native who in 2008 partnered with local businessman Wayne Zukin, who funded the operation. “We strongly believe in local job creation, using sustainable and recycled raw materials, community partnerships, and producing all of the products in our Philadelphia Garment Center.” Her concept is a hit. The staff at the Gotham Bar & Grill, River Park, Aureole, Rouge Tomate, and the Fontainebleau Hotel wears the Van Aken Signature line of clothes and custom hospitality uniforms. Other clients include Vs. The Earth, a rock band based in Washington, DC., and Deviant Jeans. Van Aken’s flagship store and design studio, which is located at 1700 Sansom Street in downtown Philadelphia, is adjacent to her garment center. All of her fabrics are fair-trade, and many are eco-friendly and made in the United States. “As a company, we are really trying to consider every aspect of the garment — from how and whom it was made by, where it was made, what it was made with, how it is sold to our customers, and what happens when our customers are finished with a garment,” Van Aken explains. To this end, she has incorporated the following key operations into SA VA: Creating local jobs: In the next couple of years, Van Aken plans to create living-wage jobs in Philadelphia for 22 staff members. Low environmental impact: She is also determined to reduce by half the carbon footprint of SA VA by manufacturing her garments in Philadelphia. While her clothes were initially made in Bangladesh, every SA VA garment is now made at her Philadelphia factory. She also uses reclaimed fixtures in her store, recycled paperhangers, and compostable shopping bags.
http://trulyamazingwomen.com/the-women/fashion-designer-sarah-van-aken

List of truly amazing women who are changing the world http://trulyamazingwomen.com/the-women

See the values of these prefixes: yotta zetta exa peta tera giga mega kilo hecto deca deci centi milli micro nano pico femto atto zepto yocto. You will also find links to metric conversions at: http://www.simetric.co.uk/siprefix.htm

Jiffy is an informal term for any unspecified short period of time, as in "I'll be back in a jiffy". From this it has acquired a number of more precise applications for short, very short, or extremely short periods of time. The earliest technical usage for jiffy was defined by Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946). He proposed a unit of time called the "jiffy" which was equal to the time it takes light to travel one centimetre (approximately 33.3564 picoseconds). It has since been redefined for different measurements depending on the field of study. Read about its uses in electronics, computing and physics at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_%28time%29

Q. How much does a bird eat? I've heard 30% of its body weight and I've also heard they eat their own weight in food each day.
A. This completely varies depending on what species you're talking about. As with mammals, the amount of food a bird eats depends on the caloric value of the food, the size of the bird (the smaller the bird, the more it needs relative to its body weight), the bird's activity levels, and the temperature of its environment. A chickadee may eat 35 percent of its weight in food each day while a Blue Jay may eat only 10 percent of its weight and a Common Raven only 4 percent—but they all need more calories on colder days than warmer ones. Hummingbirds can consume 100 percent of their body's weight in sugar water or nectar every day, in addition to as many as 2,000 tiny insects. Before migration, it's not unusual for a hummingbird to double its weight, adding a huge amount of fat to power the long journey. Canada Geese eat lots of grass each day, partly because grass doesn't have a lot of usable calories per pound. A 5-pound Canada Goose eats about a half-pound of grass per day (about 10
percent of its body weight). See much more information and send your questions about birds to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology at: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/faq

Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important purposes: First, it conserves their energy. Each bird flies slightly above the bird in front of him, resulting in a reduction of wind resistance. The birds take turns being in the front, falling back when they get tired. In this way, the geese can fly for a long time before they must stop for rest. The second benefit to the V formation is that it is easy to keep track of every bird in the group. Flying in formation may assist with communication and coordination within the group. http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/geese.html

Google is expanding its Street View service into some of the world's most remote places. It will photograph the Amazon and Rio Negro Rivers of northwest Brazil in partnership with charity Foundation for a Sustainable Amazon (FAS). Google will train local people to collect images, and will leave behind equipment so work continues long-term. Pictures will be stitched together so users can explore 360-degree panoramics of the area. FAS approached Google two years ago with the plan to digitize high-quality images from the Amazon basin to demonstrate the effects of poor global sustainability efforts and widespread deforestation on the landscape. FAS project leader Gabriel Ribenboim said: "It is very important to show the world not only the environment and the way of life of the traditional population, but to sensitize the world to the challenges of climate change, deforestation and combating poverty." For Google, the project represents the biggest challenge for their Street View equipment, which was first designed to work over well-maintained, modern roads. Google's engineers will use the Street View "trike", originally developed to reach off road areas - such as Stone Henge and Kew Gardens. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14592184

Brazil's government on August 22 auctioned rights to the first major airport to be operated by a private company as the country moves to pick up the pace of investment in its air travel infrastructure ahead of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament. A consortium called Infra-America competed against three other groups to win the concession to build and operate new airport terminals near the northeastern Brazilian city of Natal. The consortium has three years to build the São Gonçalo do Amarante airport. It will then hold rights to operate the airport for 25 years. The license can be extended once, for five additional years. Infra-America beat out three other consortiums by offering a bid of 170 million Brazilian reais ($105.8 million). The bid was more than three times higher than the reserve price set by the government of 51.7 million reais.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576524530595225432.html

The garden strawberry was first bred in Brittany, France, about 1740 via a cross of Fragaria virginiana from eastern North America, which was noted for its flavor, and Fragaria chiloensis from Chile and Argentina brought by Amédée-François Frézier, which was noted for its large size. Eggplant is so called because the first varieties known to English-speaking people bore colorful egg-shaped fruits. But the most common sort known in North America is a bit larger, weighs about one pound and is deep purple in color. The eggplant is a member of the potato* family, and it is known worldwide as aubergine, brinjal, melanzana, garden egg, and patlican. It is available year-round though its peak season is early fall. There are many varieties of eggplant and they range in color from the familiar dark purple to pale mauve to yellow to white and is one of the most popular vegetables in the world. http://www.fiestamart.com/html/cooking101/secret-ingredient-archive.shtml
* Other sources say that eggplant is a member of the thistle family.

Website of the Day Word Games www.wordgames.com For fans of word games (“Scrabble,” “Boggle” and the like), there are word searches, typing challenges, crossword puzzles and more.

Number to Know 5: Number of NBA championships that Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has won.

This Day in History Aug. 23, 1784: Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin; it wasn’t accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.

Today’s Featured Birthday Basketball star Kobe Bryant (33)

Daily Quote “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.” – Author Nelson DeMille, who was born on this date in 1943. http://www.thekansan.com/newsnow/x1837740635/Morning-Minutes-Aug-23

1910 Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture.
1913 The crossword puzzle was invented by Arthur Wynne.
1918 Charles Jung invented fortune cookies.
See other inventions at: http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/twentieth_2.htm

The first U.S. coin to bear the words "United States of America," was a penny piece made in 1727. It was also inscribed with the plain-spoken motto: "Mind Your Own Business." 97% of all paper money in the US contains traces of cocaine. Since 1874 the mints of the United States have been making coins for foreign governments, whose combined orders have at times exceeded the volume of domestic requirements.
See more at: http://www.matchdoctor.com/blog_94982/SOME_TRIVIA_ON_MONEY.html

One hundred years ago Sunday August 21, an Italian handyman named Vincenzo Peruggia stole the world's most famous painting from the world's most famous museum. Fifty years to the day after the "Mona Lisa" heist, a brazen thief stole Goya's "Portrait of the Duke of Wellington" from London's National Gallery. Read details about art crime at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-0820-charney-art-theft-20110819,0,117238.story?track=rss

In tens of millions of reviews on Web sites like Amazon.com, Citysearch, TripAdvisor and Yelp, new books are better than Tolstoy, restaurants are undiscovered gems and hotels surpass the Ritz. Or so the reviewers say . As online retailers increasingly depend on reviews as a sales tool, an industry of fibbers and promoters has sprung up to buy and sell raves for a pittance. “For $5, I will submit two great reviews for your business,” offered one entrepreneur on the help-for-hire site Fiverr, one of a multitude of similar pitches. On another forum, Digital Point, a poster wrote, “I will pay for positive feedback on TripAdvisor.” A Craigslist post proposed this: “If you have an active Yelp account and would like to make very easy money please respond.” The boundless demand for positive reviews has made the review system an arms race of sorts. As more five-star reviews are handed out, even more five-star reviews are needed. Few want to risk being left behind. Sandra Parker, a freelance writer who was hired by a review factory this spring to pump out Amazon reviews for $10 each, said her instructions were simple. “We were not asked to provide a five-star review, but would be asked to turn down an assignment if we could not give one,” said Ms. Parker, whose brief notices for a dozen memoirs are stuffed with superlatives like “a must-read” and “a lifetime’s worth of wisdom.”
Determining the number of fake reviews on the Web is difficult. But it is enough of a problem to attract a team of Cornell researchers, who recently published a paper about creating a computer algorithm for detecting fake reviewers. They were instantly approached by a dozen companies, including Amazon, Hilton, TripAdvisor and several specialist travel sites, all of which have a strong interest in limiting the spread of bogus reviews. “We evolved over 60,000 years by talking to each other face to face,” said Jeffrey T. Hancock, a Cornell professor of communication and information science who worked on the project. “Now we’re communicating in these virtual ways. It feels like it is much harder to pick up clues about deception.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/technology/finding-fake-reviews-online.html

Cornell's paper on deceptive opinion spam (fictitious opinions that have been deliberately written to sound authentic) is here:
http://aclweb.org/anthology/P/P11/P11-1032.pdf

The new Lenfast plaza next to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) in Philadelphia, designed by recent Rome Prize recipient David A. Rubin of the renowned landscape architecture firm OLIN, will be completed by the end of August and serve as a public performance, exhibition, and civic space. The centerpiece of the plaza will be the Claes Oldenburg sculpture, Paint Torch, a 51 ft. high paintbrush capped with illuminated bristles. A sculpture by 2008 PAFA alumnus Jordan Griska will also be installed and remain on view for approximately a year. Griska’s Grumman Greenhouse will be crafted from a decommissioned US warfare aircraft, turning sections of the plane into working greenhouses. Grumman Greenhouse will be the first work by an emerging artist on display at Lenfest Plaza. The plaza project includes new sidewalks, curbs, lighting, benches, platforms for rotating artwork by PAFA students, alumni and faculty, and provisions for the Paint Torch sculpture. The opening ceremony of the Lenfest Plaza and the lighting of Claes Oldenburg’s Paint Torch sculpture will be held on Saturday, October 1, 2011.
See a drawing of Paint Torch at: http://www.pafa.org/About/Lenfest-Plaza/743/
See pictures of Grumman Greenhouse and artist Jordan Griska at: http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/art-entertainment-sports/item/19663-sculture-to-make-philadelphia-crash-landing

German data watchdogs on August 19 ordered federal agencies to shut down their Facebook pages and remove "like" buttons from their Web sites, suggesting that anyone who uses Facebook will have their online activity tracked.
"All institutions in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany [must] shut down their fan pages on Facebook and remove social plug-ins such as the 'like'-button from their Web sites," the German Data Protection Commissioner’s Office said in a statement. "Whoever visits facebook.com or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years." After "thorough and legal analysis," the commission said it concluded that Facebook and its "like" button violates Germany's Telemedia Act and its Federal Data Protection Act because data is transferred to the U.S. and Web analytics are sent to Web site owners. Facebook's privacy statement "does not nearly meet the legal requirements relevant for compliance of legal notice, privacy consent and general terms of use," the agency said. German agencies have until the end of September to stop using Facebook for official business. This is not the first time German officials have tangled with Facebook or other tech giants. Earlier this month, German data protection officials requested that Facebook disable its facial recognition software and delete any previously stored data. Last year, Johannes Caspar, head of data protection in Hamburg also launched an investigation into how Facebook handles the personal information of people who are not a part of the social networking site. In May, Google also voluntarily opted out of enlarging its Street View program within Germany. Last year, Google announced plans to extend Street View to 20 German cities by year's end, including Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Nuremburg, and Düsseldorf. For those who did not want photos of their homes included in Street View, Google gave people until Sept. 15 to notify the company via google.de/streetview. In all, 240,000 people opted out of having their homes on Street View. But continuing in the country apparently wasn't worth the effort.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391440,00.asp

Major websites such as MSN.com and Hulu.com have been tracking people's online activities using powerful new methods that are almost impossible for computer users to detect, new research shows. The new techniques, which are legal, reach beyond the traditional "cookie," a small file that websites routinely install on users' computers to help track their activities online. Hulu and MSN were installing files known as "supercookies," which are capable of re-creating users' profiles after people deleted regular cookies, according to researchers at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903480904576508382675931492.html

Vizier Abdul Kasem Ismail was a Persian bibliophile who traveled with forty camels carrying 117,000 books in alphabetical order. http://www.tundrabooks.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780887766985

The Great Wall of China is not a continuous wall but is a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain. The Great Wall of China, known as "long Wall of 10,000 Li" in China, extends about 8,850 kilometers (5,500 miles). A first set of walls, designed to keep Mongol nomads out of China, were built of earth and stones in wood frames during the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE). Many are familiar with the claim that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space or from the moon with the naked eye. This is simply not true. The myth of being able to see the Great Wall from space originated in Richard Halliburton's 1938 (long before humans saw the earth from space) book Second Book of Marvels said that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from the moon. From a low orbit of the earth, many artificial objects are visible on the earth, such as highways, ships in the sea, railroads, cities, fields of crops, and even some individual buildings. While at a low orbit, the Great Wall of China can certainly be seen from space but it is not unique in that regard. http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/greatwall.htm

John Van Etten, former grounds superintendent at the Mohonk Mountain House in upstate New York, recommends 15 plants that deer won't eat; your experience, of course, may differ. For a list of deer-resistant plants in your area, contact your local extension agent. Click on images of the 15 plants and learn about them at: http://www.finegardening.com/plants/articles/15-deer-resistant_plants.aspx
Thanks, Karen.

Punctuation marks are symbols that indicate the structure and organization of written language, as well as intonation and pauses to be observed when reading aloud. In written English, punctuation is vital to disambiguate the meaning of sentences. For example, "woman, without her man, is nothing" and "woman: without her, man is nothing" have greatly different meanings, as do "eats shoots and leaves" and "eats, shoots and leaves". The first writing systems were mostly logographic and/or syllabic, for example Chinese and Maya script, and they do not necessarily require punctuation, especially spacing. This is because the entire morpheme or word is typically clustered within a single glyph, so spacing does not help as much to distinguish where one word ends and the other starts. Disambiguation and emphasis can easily be communicated without punctuation by employing a separate written form distinct from the spoken form of the language that uses slightly different phraseology. The earliest alphabetic writing had no capitalization, no spaces and few punctuation marks. The oldest known document using punctuation is the Mesha Stele (9th century BC). This employs points between the words and horizontal strokes between the sense section as punctuation.

The Greeks were using punctuation marks consisting of vertically arranged dots - usually two (cf. the modern colon) or three - in around the 5th century BC. Greek playwrights such as Euripides and Aristophanes used symbols to distinguish the ends of phrases in written drama: this essentially helped the play's cast to know when to pause. In particular, they used three different symbols to divide speeches, known as commas (indicated by a centred dot), colons (indicated by a dot on the base line), and periods or full stops (indicated by a raised dot). The Romans (circa 1st century BC) also adopted symbols to indicate pauses. With the invention of moveable type in Europe began an increase of printed material. "The rise of printing in the 14th and 15th centuries meant that a standard system of punctuation was urgently required." The introduction of a standard system of punctuation has also been attributed to Aldus Manutius and his grandson. They have been credited with popularizing the practice of ending sentences with the colon or full stop, inventing the semicolon, making occasional use of parentheses and creating the modern comma by lowering the virgule. According to the 1885 edition of The American Printer, the importance of punctuation was noted in various sayings by children such as:
Charles the First walked and talked
Half an hour after his head was cut off.
With a semi-colon and a comma added it reads:
Charles the First walked and talked;
Half an hour after, his head was cut off.
See a table with punctuation marks, including word dividers, general typography and related marks at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

After learning of an "unwritten rule" that watches are best photographed at 10:10, I checked the Wall Street Journal on August 18, and yes, the four watches pictured were all set at 10:10.

For the third time this summer, a giant wall of dust swept over Phoenix and parts of central Arizona, turning the sky brown, delaying flights, and knocking out power to thousands. National Weather Service meteorologists said a thunderstorm packing winds of up to 60 mph pushed the dust storm toward the Phoenix area about 6 p.m. local time (9 p.m. ET) August 18. Weather officials say such massive dust storms, also known as haboobs in Arabic, only happen in Arizona, Africa's Sahara desert and parts of the Middle East because of dry conditions and large amounts of sand. The billowing wall of dust cut visibility to a few hundred yards. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44200582/ns/weather/

Website of the Day Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum www.nasm.si.edu
Number to Know 1939: Year when National Aviation Day was created. Today is the event, a day that was picked because it’s Orville Wright’s birthday.
This Day in History Aug. 19, 1812: War of 1812: American frigate USS Constitution defeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, earning her nickname "Old Ironsides."
Daily Quote “If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.” - Orville Wright http://www.hillsdale.net/newsnow/x643155390/Morning-Minutes-Aug-19

Harpa, the Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Center, is Iceland’s latest attraction. The grand opening won’t occur until Aug. 20, when acrobats and a wide selection of pop, jazz, and classical artists will perform alongside the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. But when Harpa held an open house with classical concerts over three days in mid-May, 100,000 people showed up, an astonishing number for a country whose entire population is less than 320,000. Visitors are coming not only to see performances, but also to shop and to eat. Reservations at Kolabrautin (“Coal Train,” a flashback to Reykjavik’s past), an upscale eatery that touts its use of fresh Icelandic ingredients, are already a tough ticket. Many are coming simply to ogle the building. Designed by Henning Larsen Architects of Copenhagen and artist Olafur Eliasson, it’s made of more than 10,000 glass windows that reference the columnar basalt common in Iceland’s terrain. The south façade is a double wall of glass pieces that catches the sunlight and acts like a prism, creating colorful blocks of light on Harpa’s floor and walls. On a Saturday in July, tourists were exploring the building by 9 a.m., an hour before the ground floor’s casual restaurant, Munnharpan (“Mouth Harp”) opens and two hours before guided tours of the 28,000-square-meter building start. he 45-minute circuit, which costs $15, takes visitors through Harpa’s four concert halls, as well as event spaces and galleries. If the weather is nice, tourists may also want to linger in the vast outdoor plaza. Aside from presenting a broad mix of programming—Broadway shows, Björk, classical concerts conducted by Gustavo Dudamel—Harpa has a bigger role to play in Iceland’s economy. The building was originally slated as a multiuse complex to house the new headquarters of Landsbankinn, a commercial bank taken over by the government during the crisis. That dream died with the financial collapse, but the government agreed in 2009 to provide funds for Harpa. With its meeting rooms halfway between continental Europe and North America, Harpa hopes to attract business conferences and conventions to Iceland. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/14/the-stunning-architecture-of-iceland-s-harpa.html

IUB's Main Library is not sinking According to legend, the Indiana University at Bloomington Main Library is sinking by an inch a year because the architect failed to take into account the weight of the books. Which is, of course, not true. The legend has circulated swiftly, on campus and beyond, and that makes it particularly tough to debunk. Lou Malcomb, head of the Government Publications Department, believes the rumor may be spreading more rapidly because of the increasing popularity of E-mail lists and Web sites. Wherever the legend surfaces, the original source of the information is unlisted and unverifiable. Urban legends are always told second hand. That's what makes them urban legends. http://www.iuinfo.indiana.edu/HomePages/100199/text/library.htm

In a check of the 100 top-selling men’s dress watches on Amazon.com in 2008, which included models from 20 brands, all but three watches were set to 10:10. Because brand names generally are centered on the upper half of a watch, hands positioned at 10 and 2 “frame the brand and logo,” said Andrew Block, executive vice president at Tourneau, the watch retailer, which has 51 stores worldwide. “It’s almost like an unwritten rule that everyone understands to photograph a watch a 10:10.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/business/media/28adco.html

When Harriet Monroe founded Poetry magazine in 1912, she wrote that her publication was "a modest effort to give to poetry her own place." Now, nearly one hundred years later, poetry quite literally has that place. Opened to the public in June 2011, the Poetry Foundation new building houses a public garden, a 30,000-volume library, an exhibition gallery, the Foundation's programming offices—including the offices of Poetry magazine—and space for the Foundation’s extensive roster of public programs and events.
Address: 61 West Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 Building Hours: 11AM - 4PM Garden Hours: 9AM - 5PM
See library information and view photographs and architectural renderings at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/foundation/a-home-for-poetry

Poetry's New Palace by Joel Henning
In 2002, big money found its way to poetry through Ruth Lilly's bequest, currently valued at some $200 million, to Poetry magazine. And now about $21 million of that money has been transformed into a small, elegant new building in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood that houses the magazine, the Poetry Foundation that publishes it, and its additional post-Lilly bequest programs. One enters through a garden that seems almost like a carved space in the property. Mr. Ronan installed heat tubing under the garden to melt winter snows, so all year long this space, open to the sky and to the building's interiors through glass expanses, will welcome visitors. Zinc walls add to the unusual quality of the building. And those surrounding the garden are perforated, offering a look inside after sunset. Once inside, visitors can turn right into a two-story library housing 30,000 volumes. Besides shelves, this inviting and light-filled open space contains a spare but impressive 44-foot wood table, offering the public places to read or search the web on several computers. The children's poetry area contains little cork stools complementing the trees visible in the garden, one of Mr. Ronan's several touches to make his design cohere, inside and out. To the left is a 125-seat performance space designed to permit the reciting of poetry without amplification. It's a pleasure to hear poems read aloud in a lovely room unspoiled by speakers, cables and microphones. What's more, the fabric ceiling and patterned concrete wall, designed to enhance the acoustics, add to the room's aesthetics. A gallery lit by soft northern sunlight between the library and performance space displays poetry-related exhibits. Upstairs are the offices of the magazine, the foundation and its programs. While the offices and conference rooms are spare, workers remain in sight of the garden, the library and the city through ample windows and a skylight. The foundation, whose audience was once limited to 10,000 Poetry subscribers, now reaches 19 million Americans who would not otherwise have seen or heard poem Among its media partnerships are the "Writer's Almanac," a daily poetic offering chosen by Garrison Keillor, and features on the "PBS NewsHour." The poetryfoundation.org website contains 10,000 poems, poetry news, a blog and podcasts. And an iPad app even allows curious users to "spin" it to find new poems. Search "architecture and design" on the site and you'll find, among other poems, "In this Simple Shelter" by Cat Ruiz:
A fine construction of elegant contours
in soft green and new wood.
But what else does it say, yet?
Consistent with its fine acoustics, the little gem of a building housing the Poetry Foundation will quietly, over the course of time, say good and useful things. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904006104576500563264598614.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

angelica = archangel = ground ash = masterwort Pronunciation: an-JEL-ih-ca
Notes: Angelica is prized for its crunchy stems, which are often candied and used to decorate baked goods. You can also use the leaves and stems to add a celery flavor to liqueurs, sauces, and vegetable side dishes. Substitutes: lovage (This also tastes like celery, and the stems can be candied like angelica.) OR tarragon
borage Pronunciation: BORE-idge or BURR-idge or BAHR-idge Notes: Borage is best known for its attractive blue flowers, but Europeans sometimes use the leaves as an herb in salads and soups. Borage has a mild flavor that's been likened to that of cucumbers. The leaves are covered with prickly, throat-catching hairs, so it's best to either blanch them or chop them finely before serving them. Substitutes: spinach OR escarole OR burnet
chervil = French parsley Pronunciation: CHUR-vil Notes: This feathery green herb tastes like a subtle blend of parsley and anise. It's far more plentiful in Europe than in America. Avoid the dried version--it has very little flavor. Substitutes: cicely OR parsley + tarragon OR fennel leaves + parsley OR fines herbes (This is a blend of herbs that usually includes chervil, parsley, chives, and tarragon.) OR parsley + dill OR tarragon (Like chervil, this is good for flavoring vinegars.) OR chives (especially with eggs) OR dill weed (good for flavoring vinegars)
See many more at The Cook's Thesaurus: http://www.foodsubs.com/HerbsEur.html

A campground is growing in Brooklyn. Just opened—on July 4, it's the only campground for the general public inside any American city's limits that belongs to the National Park Service, the outfit that brings you peaks, lakes, canyons, geysers and glaciers, from the Everglades in Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. The camp is at Floyd Bennett Field, a disused airport on Jamaica Bay, 15 miles from Times Square. Floyd Bennett was famous for flying to the North Pole, though it later came out that he never actually got there. He was living in Brooklyn when he died in 1928. The Navy used the field in World War II, and the Coast Guard moved in until 1971, when Gateway National Recreation Area was born. The idea for a public campground came up in 1983, and the Park Service didn't get to building it until this year: 41 sites in the bushes between runways, and six on the tarmac for recreational vehicles. Picnic tables, fire rings, grills and mosquito magnets set the federal budget back $63,000. "I'm a big dreamer here," says Linda Canzanelli, Gateway's superintendent, who envisions 90 campsites on the field in a couple of years as part of President Barack Obama's new "America's Great Outdoors" initiative, aimed at city types who spend too time much indoors. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903918104576500561033891344.html

ORIGIN OF scofflaw 1924, from scoff (q.v.) + law. The winning entry in a national contest during Prohibition to coin a word to characterize a person who drinks illegally, chosen from more than 25,000 entries; the $200 winning prize was split between two contestants who sent in the word separately, Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=scofflaw

ORIGIN OF SCOFF
Middle English scof, perhaps of Scandinavian origin; akin to obsolete Dan skof jest; akin to OldFrisian skof mockery First Known Use: 14th century
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scoff

Both the library and journalism professions are undergoing profound transformations essential to their survival. Both depend on, disseminate, and create information for a living, and provide it in multiple formats— from paper to Twitter. In the United States, both professions also share the values of transparency and freedom of speech as enshrined in the First Amendment. Newsrooms and libraries produce information essential to the healthy functioning of democracy. Ironically, they are also threatened by the same social media that help them thrive: It is harder to verify “facts” and to provide “objectivity”—if there ever was such a thing. And the definitions of who is a “real” reporter or a “real” librarian are getting murkier every day. David Weinberger, senior fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, presented a provocative model of “Knowledge as Transitional”at a conference “Beyond Books: News, Literacy, Democracy, and America’s Libraries”—immediately preceding the National Conference for Media Reform in Boston. The group was convened by Journalism That Matters, a Seattle-based organization dedicated to making the media more accessible, diverse, and conducive to civic engagement. The coauthor of Cluetrain Manifesto, Weinberger believes that 21st-century knowledge is not obtained in a linear fashion but in a more random process involving a variety of sources building on each other (such as the web). As a result, libraries and journalists are gathering information in ways that demand new skills and organization of services. Weinberger’s remarks inspired participants to think beyond the traditional boundaries of our respective professions and to consider creative new ways to serve the public. Of course, some librarians and journalists are already doing just that:
Some public libraries house community newsrooms or public access television studios;
A Brooklyn project is putting cameras into the hands of young people to create news in underserved communities;
A thriving community information portal about suburban Chicago is sponsored by Skokie (Ill.) Public Library and was created by Northwestern University’s journalism school.
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/07272011/line-between-librarianship-and-journalism-blurring

Baked eggs
Grease muffin tin. Put in 1/2 English muffin or small piece of toast or pita in cups. Crack egg on top and bake at 350 degrees until done, about 15 minutes. If desired, place sliced tomato and cheese between the egg and the muffin.
Thanks, Marlene.

A little more than three centuries ago, a violent tempest with no name—and no meteorological forewarning—ripped through England. It was probably the fiercest storm in British history, which is saying something for an island whose inhabitants are famous for gripes about the weather. Yet it left more than a legacy of destruction. It also became a source of creative inspiration, giving birth to the first substantial work of modern journalism: "The Storm," by Daniel Defoe. On the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 24, 1703, Londoners felt the first strong breezes. By 4 p.m., the winds had picked up. The worst of the storm was still more than two days away, but that night the gusts were powerful enough to knock over part of a house and nearly crush Defoe, who was then a minor poet and pamphleteer in his early 40s. When the storm struck, Defoe was fresh from prison. He had written a satirical tract on the religious intolerance of high-church Anglicans. For this offense he was fined, placed in a pillory and jailed for several months. Upon his release, Defoe was desperate for money to support his family and wrote at a frantic clip. The scholar Paula R. Bachscheider estimates that more than 400,000 words poured from his pen over the next year. About 75,000 of them went into "The Storm," the first book-length work of his career. After Defoe's close call with the collapsing house, the winds remained high in London. On the night of Friday, Nov. 26, Defoe looked at his barometer. He had never seen the mercury so low and suspected that "the Tube had been handled and disturb'd by the Children." As Friday turned into Saturday, the storm unleashed its full fury. The wind shrieked and homes rattled. From start to finish, the mayhem lasted an entire week. The human toll was substantial: 123 dead in and around London and an estimated 8,000 drowned at sea, including about one-fifth of the sailors in the queen's navy. The physical wreckage was equally immense, with 800 houses flattened, 400 windmills demolished and the newly built Eddystone Lighthouse, off England's southern coast, washed away. Whole forests blew over. On a tour of Kent, Defoe started to count the fallen trees but quit at 17,000, having grown "tired with the Number." So it's little wonder that he reached for superlatives to describe what he called "The Greatest, the Longest in Duration, the widest in Extent, of all the Tempests and Storms that History gives any Account of since the Beginning of Time." All of this appeared the following summer in "The Storm," which might be called the world's first instant book. The heart of the manuscript contains about 60 accounts of the tempest from around England, selected and excerpted by Defoe. "The Storm" was not a best seller. A proposed sequel with additional material never went to press—a reminder that journalism and book publishing, for all of their occasional pretensions, are ultimately commercial enterprises and vulnerable to the whims of consumers. Yet Defoe had invented a new way to examine the world, and today's journalists are his descendants.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904800304576476142821212156.html

Graphic novels recommended for public libraries by Steve Raiteri By way of introduction: I'm a librarian at the Greene County Public Library in Xenia, Ohio, and for the past few years I've been buying graphic novels (comic books, that is) for my library system. They've proven very popular at our libraries, and I put this page together to help other librarians who may want to add graphic novels to their collections but have difficulty locating information about them. I've been a comic book reader for over 25 years, and this is a selective list of what I think are the best books we've gotten so far, out of over 1000 titles we've bought. (It also includes a few titles that I have not bought for the library yet, but hope to, if budget allows.) The list grew out of a handout I created for a program on graphic novels that I presented at an Ohio Library Council chapter conference in 1997, and I have updated it regularly since. I've read almost every book listed here. A word about terminology: a "graphic novel", by definition, is a stand-alone story in comics form, published as a book. Examples are Batman: The Killing Joke and Cathedral Child. Most of the titles on this list, however, are actually trade paperback (or sometimes hardcover) collections of stories that were initially published serially in comic books. Many of the best books on this list, from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns to Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, are books of this type. Some of them do amount to stand-alone novels published serially (as Charles Dickens used to do), while others are anthologies of a variety of stories, and some are excerpts from larger narratives, with subplots introduced in the middle of the story (in the manner of a soap opera) and concluded in later, uncollected issues of the comic book. To simplify matters, the term "graphic novel" is sometimes extended to cover all of these books, and I use it that way here. After each title, I've listed the ISBN number and price.
Cerebus (0919359086, 25.00)
High Society (0919359078, 25.00) This black and white fantasy series by Dave Sim began in the late 1970s, and was one of the first self-published comics to gain a large audience. The title character is a walking, talking aardvark in a world of humans. Together these two books collect the first 50 issues of the series . It began as a parody of Conan the Barbarian, quickly growing to include parodies of other fantasy and comics characters and characters patterned after real-life comedians, but by the middle of the first book Cerebus becomes involved in complex political intrigue, and the parody becomes only part of a much larger story. There are many more books in the series to buy if demand warrants -- these first two are the most accessible, in my opinion. -- Aardvark-Vanaheim
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Authorized Collection (1563892715, 14.95) Comics version of Douglas Adams' hilarious book. -- DC
The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln (1887279873, 19.95) (op) By Scott McCloud of Zot! fame, this is a fun, far-out story about Abraham Lincoln's return to America in the present day, with artwork done entirely on computers. -- Homage ou will find many interesting titles described at: http://my.voyager.net/~sraiteri/graphicnovels.htm
Note that the list was last updated in 2003.

impresa (im-PRAY-zuh) noun
An emblem or device, usually with a motto. From Italian impresa (undertaking), past participle of imprendere (to undertake), from Latin in- + prehendere (to grasp). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghend-/ghed- (to seize or to take), which is also the source of pry, prey, spree, reprise, surprise, pregnant, osprey, prison, and get. Earliest documented use: before 1586.
fugue (fyoog) noun
1. A musical form in which a theme is repeated in several voices and developed into a complex pattern.
2. A pathological state of consciousness in which someone appears to be conscious of one's actions but has no memory of them after returning to a normal state. From Italian fuga (escape, flight), from Latin fuga (flight), from fugere (to flee) which is also the source of fugitive, centrifugal, subterfuge, refuge, and fugacious. Earliest documented use: 1597. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

The Discover Great New Writers™ program is proud to have introduced the following writers to an eager reading public (just a small number of the nearly 2,000 writers we’ve discovered): T. C. Boyle, Patricia Cornwell, Junot Diaz, Jasper Fforde, Elizabeth Gilbert, Robert Goolrick, Barbara Kingsolver, Janice Y. K. Lee, Jonah Lehrer, Colum McCann, Cormac McCarthy, Audrey Niffenegger, Michael Pollan, Alice Sebold, Rebecca Skloot, Kathryn Stockett, and David Wroblewski. Annually, Barnes & Noble recognizes two of our exceptional writers with the Discover Great New Writers Award (one each for Fiction and Non-Fiction). In addition to a $10,000 prize, we promote the winning titles extensively in our stores and online. http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/for_publishers/discover_program/discover_program.html

Discover 2011 selections http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/discover-seasonal-books/379001112/

Timeline of the former Yugoslavia from 1918-2006 In 1918, as an outcome of World War I, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes is formed. Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina had been part of the fallen Austro-Hungarian empire; Serbia and Montenegro existed as an independent state (Macedonia was then part of Serbia). In 1929, the monarchy's name is changed to Yugoslavia. Read the rest of the timeline at: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/yugotimeline1.html

A planet orbiting a distant star is darker than coal, reflecting less than one percent of the starlight falling on it, according to a paper published August 11. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/hcfa-awi081111.php The strange world, TrES-2b, is a gas giant the size of Jupiter, rather than a solid, rocky body like Earth or Mars, astronomers said. It closely orbits the star GSC 03549-02811, located about 750 light years away in the direction of the constellation of Draco the Dragon. "TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world," David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a press release issued by Britain's Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). "However, it's not completely pitch black. It's so hot that it emits a faint red glow, much like a burning ember or the coils on an electric stove." More than 500 extrasolar planets have been identified since 1995. TrES-2b, like our moon, is believed to be locked by gravitational tide, presenting only one face to its star. The study, published in the RAS journal Monthly Notices, used NASA's orbiting Kepler spacecraft to make the observations. http://news.discovery.com/space/black-exoplanet-kepler-110811.html

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A deus ex machina ("god out of the machine"; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object. The Latin phrase deus ex machina comes to English usage from Horace's Ars Poetica, where he instructs poets that they must never resort to a god from the machine to solve their plots. He refers to the conventions of Greek tragedy, where a crane (mekhane) was used to lower actors playing gods onto the stage. The machine referred to in the phrase could be either the crane employed in the task, a calque from the Greek "god from the machine", or the riser that brought a god up from a trap door. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina

Coined word with the root (anni, annu, enni) changed: monthiversary See other roots here: https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx2.htm
Prefixes: https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx1.htm
Coined word with the suffix (able, ible) changed: Lunchables See other suffixes here: https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/sufx/gre_suffx.htm
Coined words: snackage, websterize, wordage Bucky Katt in Get Fuzzy comic strip August 5, 2011

IndieBound is a Web site listing recommended books and reasons for shopping at independently owned businesses. Click on find bookstores and search by zip code or address. Although when I searched by my zip code, I found that a few stores had closed down, it was still helpful to find stores, addresses and distance from my house. http://www.indiebound.org/
IndieBound was begun by the independent bookseller members of the American Booksellers Association.

Regarding the Borders liquidation, ABA CEO Oren Teicher issued the following statement: “It is jolting news for any community when a bookstore closes, and independent booksellers are saddened to hear that almost 11,000 Borders employees will be losing their jobs. However, we do not believe that the Borders closing is a bellwether for the future of bricks-and-mortar bookstores nationwide. Rather, it is, in part, an unfortunate right-sizing of a bookstore landscape that has suffered from overexpansion in certain markets. ABA is not only bullish on bricks-and-mortar bookselling, but we see opportunities for our current members to expand and for new stores to open. Indie bookstores have cultivated strong ties to the local community, curated hand-picked selections of titles, and leveraged well-designed retail spaces to serve book lovers across the country. The result has been a stable market share in an unstable economy. We are optimistic for our industry and our channel.” http://news.bookweb.org/news/borders-final-step-liquidation

Q: Someone bet me there is a way to drive to France.
A: Oui. Just drive about 2,000 miles to Fortune, Newfoundland, Canada. Then, take the ferry just 16 miles to the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. They are France's oldest, closest and smallest overseas territory. Counting several uninhabited islands, their area is about 1.5 times that of Washington, D.C. About 7,100 French citizens there are mostly descendants of fishermen from Basque, Breton and Normandy. Merchants of Saint-Malo, France, first settled Saint-Pierre in the late 17th century for a large codfish curing and salting operation. The islands bounced between French and British rule from 1713 to 1816. After Germany occupied France in 1940, a ship of Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces "liberated" the islands on Dec. 24, 1941, without resistance and without informing annoyed Canadian and American authorities. The islands were symbolically, but not militarily, significant. De Gaulle visited in 1967. Today, tourists visit the French shops, lighthouses and museum, and hike and watch birds. The language is French, the currency is the euro, and the islands have their own postage stamps. In addition to the ferry, one can sail to the islands privately, or fly Air Saint-Pierre from Montreal or Halifax. Americans must have a passport to visit France. St-Pierre-et-Miquelon.com; Peter Mattiace http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2011/Aug/JU/ar_JU_080811.asp?d=080811,2011,Aug,08&c=c_13

Summer Skewers by Brent Cox I go way back with spiedies. During my childhood days near Rochester, New York, there was a trattoria, since gone, called The Vineyard that my family would hit for a night out. Next to the meatballs on the buffet were the spiedies—tangy, tender cubes of grilled pork on skewers that tasted exotic to our suburban palates. We couldn't get enough. At the time, we did not bother to question the provenance of spiedies. Now that I am grown up and more curious, I find that Rochester is 150 miles northwest of the spiedie sphere of influence, which revolves around the tri-cities of Binghamton, Endicott, and Johnson City in New York State's Southern Tier. The story has it that spiedies, whose name is derived from spiedino or spiedo, Italian words for "skewer" and "spit," respectively, were the invention of Augustino Iacovelli, an immigrant from Abruzzo. The specialty is so popular, particularly during grilling season, that there's an August festival dedicated to it. Precubed meat is sold for spiedies in markets, and though the marinade is easy to make yourself, prepared ones are widely sold. My sister, who now lives in Virginia, has Salamadia's Original State Fair Spiedie Sauce shipped to her by the case. If you find yourself hungry near Binghamton, though, the thing to do is head straight for Sharkey's, an unassuming tavern whose reputation for spiedies is righteous and deserved.
http://www.saveur.com/article/Travels/Summer-Skewers-Spiedies

Recipe for spiedies: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Spiedies

Quotes
Courts need a certain measure of dignity--and, yes, mystique--to function at their best. The Great and Powerful Oz was never the same after the dog embarrassed him, and without his mask the Lone Ranger would be a run-of-the-mill do-gooder, just another guy on a fancy horse.
We either have consistency or we have anarchy and star chambers. Law du jour is no law at all. The Legal Limit, a novel by Martin Clark

The Star Chamber (Latin: Camera stellata) was an English court of law that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster until 1641. I t was made up of Privy Counsellors, as well as common-law judges and supplemented the activities of the common-law and equity courts in both civil and criminal matters. The court was set up to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against prominent people, those so powerful that ordinary courts could never convict them of their crimes. Court sessions were held in secret, with no indictments, no right of appeal, no juries, and no witnesses. Evidence was presented in writing. Over time it evolved into a political weapon, a symbol of the misuse and abuse of power by the English monarchy and courts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber

The Salt Museum in Liverpool, NY stands as a reminder of the great industry that once took place on the shores of Onondaga Lake. The museum itself was built in 1933 as a part of an Onondaga County work relief program during the Great Depression. The brine (salt water) came from springs around Onondaga Lake – the lake itself is a fresh water lake. In 1806, the first salt well was dug. It measured 20’ square by 30’ deep and every salt manufacturer, by common hand pump, supplied his own brine works. The manufacturers each had a Salt Boss who kept an eye on the weather. If rain threatened, he would ring the bell. Everyone, no matter what they were doing (including children), were responsible for responding quickly to push the covers over the “crop” so it wouldn’t be spoiled
http://onondagacountyparks.com/assets/Uploads/pdfs/saltmuseumbrochure.pdf Hours and contact information at: http://onondagacountyparks.com/salt-museum/

A diploma mill (also known as a degree mill) is an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The purchaser can then claim to hold an academic degree, and the organization is motivated by making a profit. These degrees are often awarded based on vaguely construed life experience. Some such organizations claim accreditation by non-recognized/unapproved accrediting bodies set up for the purposes of providing a veneer of authenticity. While the terms "degree mill" and "diploma mill" are commonly used interchangeably, within the academic community a distinction is sometimes drawn: A "degree mill" issues "real" diplomas from unaccredited "universities," which may be legal in some states but are generally illegitimate universities. A "diploma mill" issues counterfeit diplomas which bear the names of legitimate universities. The United States does not have a federal law that would unambiguously prohibit diploma mills, and the term "university" is not legally protected on a national level. The United States Department of Education lacks direct plenary authority to regulate schools and, consequently, the quality of an institution's degree. However, the Federal Trade Commission works to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices including those in the field of education and alerts United States' consumers about diploma mills by delineating some tell-tale signs in its official web page. Under the terms of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the U.S. Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies that the Secretary determines to be reliable authorities on the quality of education or training provided by the institutions of higher education that they accredit. Some degree mills have taken advantage of the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by representing themselves as seminaries, since in many jurisdictions religious institutions can legally offer degrees in religious subjects without government regulation. Although the DipScam operation in the 1980s led to a decline in diploma mill activity across the United States, the lack of further action by law enforcement, uneven state laws, and the rise of the Internet have combined to reverse many of the gains made in previous years. In 2005, the US Department of Education launched its Database of Accredited Postsecondary Institutions and Programs website to combat the spread of fraudulent degrees. A number of states have passed bills restricting the ability of organizations to award degrees without accreditation. See more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diploma_mills

Puzzles for the brain to gnaw on http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/

"The first thing that an architect must do," Louis Kahn said in a 1961 lecture at Princeton University, "is to sense that every building you build is a world of its own, and that this world of its own serves an institution." An architect who finished remarkably few buildings, Mr. Kahn (1901-1974) made almost every one of them count. His legendary reputation among architectural professionals is a testament to his distinct approach to design, which reshaped American modernism by marshaling simple, powerful forms that recall the majesty and durability of such ancient structures as the Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Accordingly, Mr. Kahn's works have won five of the American Institute of Architects' Twenty-five Year Awards—an exceedingly short list of the most renowned works of modern American architecture. Among these is Mr. Kahn's library at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., which celebrates its 40th year in use this fall. At Exeter, he created an enduring and visionary model for what a library could be, a powerful space to serve as the anchor of a community built around learning. Their questions are usually put to rest once they've stepped inside and found that they have entered an other-worldly cathedral of books. After ascending a stately double staircase of polished travertine, they encounter the dramatic heart of Mr. Kahn's celebrated design: a soaring central atrium whose smooth concrete walls are perforated by enormous portholes revealing, behind them, four floors of stacks. The warmth of the upper floors' teak facing contrasts pleasingly with the harshness of the concrete. Above, two enormous X-shaped concrete crossbeams reflect and diffuse sunlight from thin clerestory windows, filling the atrium's ample space with a cool glow. The faculty committee that commissioned the library instructed Mr. Kahn that "the emphasis should not be on housing books, but on housing readers using books." He accomplished this charge through his focus on light, as he understood light to be the essential connection between books and readers. See more plus pictures at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303406104576444352682795230.html

Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. 99 BC – ca. 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe". Very little is known about Lucretius's life; the only certain fact is that he was either a friend or a client of Gaius Memmius, to whom he dedicated De Rerum Natura. Another piece of information is found in a letter Cicero wrote to his brother Quintus in February 54 BC. Cicero writes: "The poems of Lucretius are as you write: they exhibit many flashes of genius, and yet show great mastership." Apparently, by February 54 BC both Cicero and his brother had read De Rerum Natura. However, internal evidence from the poem (such as various repetitions, and the sudden end in Book 6 in the middle of the description of the plague at Athens) suggests that it was published without a final revision, possibly due to its author's death. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucretius

Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom very little is known—Epicurus believed that pleasure is the greatest good. But the way to attain pleasure was to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one's desires. This leads one to attain a state of tranquility (ataraxia) and freedom from fear, as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia). The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form. Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism

On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, translated by William Ellery Leonard http://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.html

Third Thursday Art Walk in Toledo August 18, 2011 Each month, June through September, features an average of 20 galleries, hundreds of artists, and live entertainment. All in one block, find:
Art Supply Depo, 29 South St. Clair Street fine art and office supply store http://www.artsupplydepo.com/
Fine Things Bistro 38 South St. Clair Street "Edibles, Coffee, Collectibles" salads, soups, sandwiches, specials, homemade breads and desserts http://finethingsbistro.com/
Downtown Latte 44 South St. Clair Street "coffee and conversation" http://downtownlatte.com/

From the minute the artwork went up last spring at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, says museum director Malcolm A. Rogers, visitors have besieged him with one question. "They ask, 'Are we keeping it?' "It" is "Lime Green Icicle Tower," a 42-foot-tall, 9-foot-wide spiky column confected from 2,342 pieces of blown glass that together weigh some 10,000 pounds. The tower is so popular that the MFA recently launched a public campaign to buy it—only the third such appeal in its 135-year history. "Lime Green Icicle Tower," which was made for the MFA's soaring glass courtyard by artist Dale Chihuly, is part of an exhibition entitled "Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass." See picture at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903341404576482630261594942.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

An increase in the number of meteors at a particular time of year is called a meteor shower. Comets shed the debris that becomes most meteor showers. As comets orbit the Sun, they shed an icy, dusty debris stream along the comet's orbit. If Earth travels through this stream, we will see a meteor shower. Depending on where Earth and the stream meet, meteors appear to fall from a particular place in the sky, maybe within the neighborhood of a constellation. Meteor showers are named by the constellation from which meteors appear to fall, a spot in the sky astronomers call the radiant. For instance, the radiant for the Leonid meteor shower is located in the constellation Leo. The Perseid meteor shower is so named because meteors appear to fall from a point in the constellation Perseus. http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors The Perseid meteor shower should be at its peak the night of August 12.