“Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000,” a show at the Museum of Modern Art, examines the intersection of Modernist design and modern thinking about children.  It is loaded with intriguing things to look at — some 500 items, including furniture, toys, games, posters, books and much more.  Juliet Kinchin, a curator in MoMA’s architecture and design department who organized the show along with Aidan O’Connor, a curatorial assistant, observes in her catalog introduction that no period in human history was as invested in concern for children as the 20th century.  Yet contradictions abound:  “Elastic and powerful,” Ms. Kinchin writes, “the symbolic figure of the child has masked paradoxical aspects of the human predicament in the modern world.”  How much freedom to allow and how much control to impose are questions not only about children but also about people everywhere in a time of declining traditional values and expanding possibilities for new ways of being and doing.    “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000,” continues through Nov. 5 at the Museum of Modern Art, (212) 708-9400, moma.org. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/arts/design/review-century-of-the-child-at-moma.html

National Trust for Historic Preservation Congratulates the 2012 Great American Main Street Awards Winners:  Bath, Maine   Culpeper, Virginia   Jacksonville, Illinois   Valley Junction/West Des Moines, Iowa   Washington, Missouri  They were announced during the 2012 Opening Plenary Session at the 2012 National Main Streets Conference in Baltimore, Maryland.  Read the official press release.  http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/awards/gamsa/

During our recent vacation I was delighted with downtown La Grange, Kentucky.  I was not surprised to see this at:  http://discoverlagrange.org/  "In 2003, a group of citizens, city government officials and business owners, all concerned about the future of La Grange’s central historic district, decided to form a Main Street Program based on guidelines from the Kentucky Heritage Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  These organizations’ goals are to assist communities with downtown revitalization and economic development in the context of historic preservation." 

The city of La Grange, Kentucky was established in 1827 when the county seat was relocated at Major William Berry Taylor's suggestion from Westport.  It was named La Grange for the estate of General Lafayette of France who had visited the area in 1824.  For some unknown reason, the county seat once again returned to Westport in 1828 where it remained until 1838 when it was once again relocated to La Grange.  On January 23, 1840, La Grange was incorporated as a city.   La Grange is unusual in that a railroad line runs right through downtown.  Cars are forced to park on either side of the tracks when a train is passing through.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grange,_Kentucky

Several thousand place names in the United States have names of French origin, some a legacy of past French exploration and rule over much of the land and some in honor of French help during the American Revolution and the founding of the country.   Others were named after early Americans of French, especially Huguenot, ancestry (Marion, Revere, Fremont, Lanier, Sevier, Macon, Decatur, etc.).  Some places received their names as a consequence of French colonial settlement (e.g. Baton Rouge, Detroit, New Orleans, Saint Louis).  Nine state capitols are French words or of French origin (Baton Rouge, Boise, Des Moines, Juneau, Montgomery, Montpelier, Pierre, Richmond, Saint Paul).  Fifteen state names are either French words/origin (Delaware, New Jersey, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon, Vermont) or Indian words rendered by French speakers  (Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin).  Grange (barn) is used in place names in California, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._place_names_of_French_origin 

THE TOWN THAT BROUGHT YOU THE LAST PICTURE SHOW COMES NOW THE LAST BOOKSALE!   ON AUGUST 10 AND 11 BOOKED UP WILL SELL HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF BOOKS BY THE SHELF LOT OUR SHOPS WILL BE OPEN FOR BROWSING ONE WEEK BEFORE THE SALE.   INQUIRIES:  KHRISTAL R. COLLINS
JAN GRAVES   EXPERIENCE TEXAS IN AUGUST.   WATCH A GREAT RIVER OF BOOKS AS IT FLOWS ON.   To our guests:  The several hundred thousand books that we are putting in play constitute a kind of anthology of American bookshops past.  In our forty-one years as booksellers we have bought twenty six bookshops and some two hundred personal libraries, some humble, some grand.  So why push them out?   Because we believe that in the book world migration is healthy:  old pages await new eyes. Yesterday in Lubbock, Texas I found a copy of Sons and Lovers in the oil-cloth Modern Library with my bookplate in it.  Twenty eight thousand volumes have my bookplate in them; they reside in my big house in Archer City, and yet this one strayed.  How it got to Lubbock I'll likely never know.  It's home again now; but hundreds of thousands of its cousins will be flooding into the great river of books that delights and refreshes.  Good reading and good luck!  

Larry McMurtry 

Author Larry McMurtry has been gathering books around him for more than five decades.  Along the way, he has filled his four-building bookshop with 450,000 titles and turned his hometown of Archer City, Texas, into a destination "book town."  Now, at age 76, he's finally letting some of his collection go.  "I think it's time they enter back into the great river of books," he said.  On Aug. 10, the novelist and screenwriter will auction off more than 300,000 books at a two-day event he's calling "The Last Book Sale."  (Mr. McMurtry's novel "The Last Picture Show" was made into a movie of the same name.)  The books will be auctioned off from the shelves of his bookstore, Booked Up, in groups of about 200, each containing several valuable books.  Mr. McMurtry, who wrote the Pulitzer-winning "Lonesome Dove" and, more recently, co-wrote the script for "Brokeback Mountain," said that he hopes to draw young collectors and booksellers to the auction, which he called an opportunity for them "that may not come again in their lifetime."  There's also an estate-planning aspect to the sale.  "I have heirs.  They're literate, but they're not book men," he said.  "I think it would be wrong to burden them with 400,000 books.  Whereas if we have this auction, it can be fun for everybody," he said.  Mr. McMurtry plans to keep close to 100,000 books on the shelves of Booked Up, which will remain open.  He also will retain his personal "humanistic library" of 28,000 titles.  "That'll get me through my remaining years," he said.  The auction comes at a time of uncertainty in the book world, but the author says, "I'm not worried about the death of the book.  If we can move 300,000 books in two days, then the book isn't dead."  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303919504577523370919547322.html

What is the difference between Ping-Pong® and Table Tennis?

Ping-Pong® is a federally registered trademark first developed by Parker Brothers, Inc. and now owned by Escalade Sports.  The registered trademark Ping-Pong® indicates a brand of equipment used to play the sport of table tennis.  Ping-Pong® is the brand and table tennis is the sport.  Have you ever wondered why Ping-Pong® is not in the Olympics?  The Olympics Committee uses the term correctly – table tennis is the sport played in the Olympics!  All the industry associations relating to the sport are table tennis associations, again recognizing that the sport is table tennis.  http://www.pingpong.com/