Curtilage is the immediate, enclosed area surrounding a house or dwelling.  The U.S. Supreme Court noted in United States v. Dunn, 480 U.S. 294 (1987), that curtilage is the area immediately surrounding a residence that "harbors the `intimate activity associated with the sanctity of a man's home and the privacies of life.''  Curtilage, like a house, is protected under the fourth amendment from "unreasonable searches and seizures.''  Determining the boundaries of curtilage is imprecise and subject to controversy.  Find four factors used in determining an area as curtilage at:  http://definitions.uslegal.com/c/curtilage/ 

A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg

hiemal  (HY-uh-muhl)  adjective:  Of or relating to winter.  From Latin hiems (winter).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghei- (winter), which is the ancestor of words such as chimera, hibernate, and the Himalayas (from Sanskrit him (snow) + alaya (abode)).   Earliest documented use:  1560.

ramify  (RAM-i-fy)  verb tr., intr.:  To divide into branches.  From Latin ramus (branch).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root wrad- (root) which also sprouted words such as root, wort, licorice, radical, radish, rutabaga, eradicate, and deracinate. Earliest documented use:  1425.

ameliorate  (a-MEL-yuh-rayt, uh-MEE-lee-)  verb tr., intr.:  To make or grow better; to improve.  From Latin melior (better).  Earliest documented use:  1767.

adhibit  (ad-HIB-it)  verb tr.:  1.  To let in; admit.  2.  To administer.  3.  To affix or attach.  

From Latin adhibere (to bring to), from ad- (to) + habere (to have, hold).  Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghabh- (to give or to receive), which is also the source of give, gift, able, habit, prohibit, due, duty, and habile.  Earliest documented use:  1528.  

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Subject:  Mendacity  Def:  1.  The quality of being untruthful: a tendency to lie.  2. A lie.

Reminded me of the lovely line in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof -- 'Big Daddy' comments that there is "a smell of mendacity" in the room.
 Subject:  marmoreal  Def:  Resembling marble or a marble statue, for example, in smoothness, whiteness, hardness, coldness, or aloofness.  What a marvelous word, and perhaps more useful in my workplace than you'd think:  I'm a musician with the tour of Mary Poppins, and there is a scene in which several marble statues come to life and dance about.  A funny moment is when the Park Keeper notes that one statue has left its plinth (another great word) and Mary replies, "So you've lost your marbles?"  The actors make themselves look marmoreal by dressing in skin-tight costumes of painted fabric and making their faces up with a gray-and-blue marble pattern.  They must put this on during every show and then remove it immediately following the park scene so that they can return a few minutes later as other -- less stony -- human characters.  Is it coining a word to say that they must be demarmorealized?  

New Guinea (also known by other names) is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km².  Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago.  Geologically it is a part of the same tectonic plate as Australia.  When world sea levels were low, the two shared shorelines (which now lie 100 to 140 metres below sea level), combining with lands now inundated into the tectonic continent of Sahul, also known as Greater Australia.  The two landmasses became separated when the area now known as the Torres Strait flooded after the end of the last glacial period.  Anthropologically, New Guinea is considered part of Melanesia.  Politically, the western half of the island comprises two Indonesian provinces:  Papua and West Papua.  The eastern half forms the mainland of the country of Papua New Guinea.  The island has a population of about 7.5 million, with a very low population density of only 8 inh/km².  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Guinea 

Guam, located approximately 3,300 miles west of Hawaii, 1,500 miles east of the Philippines and 1,550 miles south of Japan, is the westernmost territory of the United States.  Approximately 30 miles long and 4 to 9 miles wide, the northern end of Guam is a plateau of rolling hills and cliffs rising to 600 feet above sea level.  Waterfalls, rivers and bays abound throughout Guam 's central and southern areas.  The original inhabitants of Guam, the ancient Chamorro, are widely believed to have been of Indo-Malaya descent with linguistic and cultural similarities to Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.  The first known contact with the West occurred with the visit of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521.  Guam was formally claimed by Spain in 1565.   Guam was ceded to the United States following the Spanish American War in 1898 and formally purchased from Spain in 1899.  Placed under the administrative jurisdiction of the U.S. Navy, Guam experienced many improvements in the areas of agriculture, public health, sanitation, education, land management, taxes, and public works.  The U.S. Navy continued to use Guam as a refueling and communication station until 1941, when it fell to invading Japanese forces shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Guam remained under Japanese control until reclaimed by American forces in July of 1944.  In 1949, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Organic Act, making Guam an unincorporated territory of the United States with limited self-governing authority.  http://www.guam-online.com/ 

A famous Russian proverb says that the first pancake is always lumpy.  Blini, or pancakes, are an essential feature of Russian cuisine.  Served with melted butter, sour cream, berry jam, honey, or the most luxurious option - caviar, they are made and eaten in gigantic batches during the Maslenitsa week that precedes the Lent.  But they are as well eaten all year round – sweet or savoury toppings and fillings change with the seasons.  See pictures and recipe for blini with beef or musrooms at:  http://www.russianseason.net/index.php/2009/10/russian-blini-with-beef-or-mushrooms/

Gastropub or gastrolounge refers to a bar and restaurant that serves high-end beer and food   The term gastropub, a portmanteau of gastronomy and pub, originated in the United Kingdom in the late 20th century.  British pubs were drinking establishments and little emphasis was placed on the serving of food.  If pubs served meals they were usually basic cold dishes such as a ploughman's lunch.  In South East England (especially London) it was common until recent times for vendors selling cockles, whelks, mussels and other shellfish, to sell to customers during the evening and at closing time.  Many mobile shellfish stalls would set up near pubs, a practice that continues in London's East End.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropub  

Note:  Toledo's first gastropub is Bar 145.

About AD 150, Ptolemy, based his map Cosmographia on voyages and itineraries of early travelers and their fantasies as well.  His account was the first to locate places in terms of latitude and longitude.

British Acts of Parliament are still printed on vellum.

What holds Post-it notes in place holds them in place are little globules of adhesive that explode when you stick them to a page.  The adhesive is stronger than the paper, so it eats away and makes the paper translucent if left there too long.
"Your library is your portrait."
Lethal Legacy, Book 11 in the Alex Cooper series by  Linda Fairstein  
Dedication reads:  For librarians--Guardian angels of the mind and the soul, And for my favorite librarian, David Ferriero, Andrew E. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries
Acknowledgements:  Paul LeClerc, President of the New York Public Library, has the most splendid professional home in America.  He has called libraries “the memory of humankind, irreplacable repositories of documents of human thought and action,” and I agree with him that the NYPL is such an institution, par excellence.  My lifelong love affair with librarians reached a fever pitch while working on this book.  David’s enthusiasm for the world he inhabits is impressive and infectious.  He and Zelman Kisilyuk led me from the rooftop through the treacherous stacks with great care.  Isaac Gewirtz educated me about the Berg Collection; John Lundquist let me explore the Asian and Middle Eastern works; Shelly Smith and her colleagues in the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation Division helped me understand the critical nature of their work-and the incomparable gift bestowed on the NYPL by Barbara; and Alice Hudson, and her assistant chief Matthew Knutzen, thrilled me with their displays of the breathtaking and vulnerable riches of the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division.  Wherever you are, use your libraries and support them.  And when you are in New York City, come visit the great New York Public Library and behold its treasures.

Linda Fairstein (born May 5, 1947), Mt. Vernon, New York) is an American feminist author and former prosecutor focusing on crimes of violence against women and children.  She served as head of the sex crimes unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office from 1976 until 2002 and is the  internationally best-selling author of a series of crime novels featuring Manhattan prosecutor Alexandra Cooper.  The novels draw on Fairstein's legal expertise, as well as her knowledge of and affection for the rich history of the city of New York.  Find a list of her writings at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Fairstein

Vellum is a translucent material produced from the skin, often split, of a young animal.  The skin is washed with water and lime (Calcium hydroxide), but not together.  It is then soaked in lime for several days to soften and remove the hair.  Once clear, the two sides of the skin are distinct:  the side facing inside the animal and the hair side.  The “inside body side” of the skin is the usually lighter and more refined of the two.  The hair follicles may be visible on the outer side, together with any scarring, made while the animal was alive. The membrane can also show the pattern of the animal's vein network called the “veining” of the sheet.  Any remaining hair is removed (“scudding”) and the skin is dried by attaching it to a frame (a “herse”).  The skin is attached at points around the circumference with cords; to prevent tearing, the maker wraps the area of the skin to which the cord is to be attached around a pebble (a “pippin”).  The maker then uses a crescent shaped knife, (a “lunarium” or “lunellum”), to clean off any remaining hairs.  Once the skin is completely dry, it is thoroughly cleaned and processed into sheets.  The number of sheets extracted from the piece of skin depends on the size of the skin and the given dimensions requested by the order.  For example, the average calfskin can provide three and half medium sheets of writing material.  This can be doubled when it is folded into two conjoint leaves, also known as a bifolium.  Historians have found evidence of manuscripts where the scribe wrote down the medieval instructions now followed by modern membrane makers.  The membrane is then rubbed with a round flat object (“pouncing”) to ensure that the ink would adhere well.  The important distinction between vellum (or parchment) and leather is that the former is not processed using tanning techniques.  The distinction between vellum and parchment has been made in several different ways, and no one definition can be considered correct, but vellum has always denoted the better quality.  In Europe, from Roman times, the term vellum was used for the best quality of prepared skin, regardless of the animal from which the hide was obtained, calf, sheep, and goat all being commonly used (other animals, including pig, deer, donkey, horse, or camel have been used).  Although the term derives from the French for "calf", except for Muslim or Jewish use, animal vellum can include hide from virtually any other mammal.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vellum

The origins of the New York Public Library date back to the time when New York was emerging as one of the world's most important cities.  One-time governor Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886), bequeathed the bulk of his fortune -- about $2.4 million -- to "establish and maintain a free library and reading room in the city of New York."  At the time of Tilden's death, New York already had two libraries of considerable importance -- the Astor and Lenox libraries -- but neither could be termed a truly public institution in the sense that Tilden seems to have envisioned.  The Astor Library was created through the generosity of John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), a German immigrant who at his death was the wealthiest man in America.  In his will he pledged $400,000 for the establishment of a reference library in New York.  The Astor Library opened its doors in 1849, in the building which is now the home of The New York Shakespeare Festival's Joseph Papp Public Theater.  Although the books did not circulate and hours were limited, it was a major resource for reference and research.  New York's other principal library during this time was founded by James Lenox and consisted primarily of his personal collection of rare books (which included the first Gutenberg Bible to come to the New World), manuscripts, and Americana.  Located on the site of the present Frick Collection, the Lenox Library was intended primarily for bibliophiles and scholars.  While use was free of charge, tickets of admission were required.  By 1892, both the Astor and Lenox libraries were experiencing financial difficulties.  The combination of dwindling endowments and expanding collections had compelled their trustees to reconsider their mission.  At this juncture, John Bigelow, a New York attorney and Tilden trustee, devised a bold plan whereby the resources of the Astor and Lenox libraries and the Tilden Trust would be combined to form a new entity, to be known as The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.  Bigelow's plan, signed and agreed upon on May 23, 1895, was hailed as an unprecedented example of private philanthropy for the public good.  Following an open competition among scores of the city's most prominent architects, the relatively unknown firm of Carrère and Hastings was selected to design and construct the new library.  The result, regarded as the apogee of Beaux-Arts design, was the largest marble structure ever attempted in the United States.  Before construction could begin, however, some 500 workers had to spend two years dismantling the reservoir and preparing the site.  The cornerstone was finally laid in May 1902.  Work progressed slowly but steadily on the monumental Library which would eventually cost $9 million to complete.  During the summer of 1905, the huge columns were put into place and work on the roof was begun.  By the end of 1906, the roof was finished and the designers commenced five years of interior work.  In 1910, 75 miles of shelves were installed to house the immense collections.  More than one million books were set in place for the official dedication of the Library on May 23, 1911—16 years to the day since the historic agreement creating the Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations had been signed.  The ceremony was presided over by President William Howard Taft and was attended by Governor John Alden Dix and Mayor William J. Gaynor.  The following morning, New York's very public Public Library officially opened its doors.  The response was overwhelming.  Between 30,000 and 50,000 visitors streamed through the building the first day it was open.  http://www.nypl.org/help/about-nypl/history

BERLIN, Germany — July 4, 2012  Librarians in southern Germany have found a lost copy of one of the first maps to use the name "America."  They believe it is a smaller version of the famous 1507 map drawn by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, sometimes refered to as "America's birth certificate."  The A4-sized copy resurfaced in Munich University Library, where two members of staff came across it by chance in a 19th-century Viennese book on geometry.  It had probably been bound there by librarians who didn't realize its significance, the library's head of ancient books, Sven Kuttner, said in a press release.  "There hasn't been a find of this dimension since World War Two," Deutsche Welle quoted him as saying.  Around 100 copies of Waldseemüller's map are thought to have been printed, according to the library, of which only four were known to survive – until now.  There are some minor differences between this and other versions, which leads Kuttner to conclude that it was probably printed some time after the first edition in 1507.  Researchers aren't sure where the copy was made, or how it ended up where it did.  According to the US Library of Congress, which houses the original and one of the surviving copies, Waldseemüller's map was the first to portray the New World as a separate continent, and the first to name it America, in recognition of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.  Germany officially gave the original to the US in 2007.  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/120704/lost-copy-waldseemuller-map-america-birth-certificate

September 29, 2012  The Full Corn Moon corresponds with the time of harvesting corn.  It is also called the Barley Moon, because it is the time to harvest and thresh the ripened barley.  This month, we also celebrate what we call a Harvest Moon, which is the full Moon nearest the autumnal equinox.  It can occur in September or October and is bright enough to allow finishing all the harvest chores.  The Full Harvest Moon is different than all our other full Moons.  Around this date, the Moon rises at almost the same time for a number of nights in our northern latitudes.   http://www.almanac.com/content/full-corn-moon-septembers-moon-guide

The ten narrowest houses in New York City by Sara Polsky 

The narrowest at 9.5 feet wide is the former home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Margaret Mead, and Cary Grant.  See pictures and descriptions at:  http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/02/27/the_10_narrowest_residential_buildings_in_new_york_city.php

English as a strange language

Your house can burn up as it burns down, you fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm goes off by going on.  There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.  Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
Fun with English pronunciation
Close:  They were too close to the door to close it.
Dove:  The dove dove into the bushes.
Entrance:  The entrance to a mall fails to entrance me.
Evening:  I spent last evening evening out a pile of dirt.
Invalid:  The insurance for the invalid was invalid.
Number:  After a number of Novocain injections, my jaw got number.
Object:  I did not object to the object.
Polish:  We polish the Polish furniture.
Wind:  The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
Read more at:  http://www.badpets.net/Humor/Misc/EnglishSpelling.html

The names of book sizes are based on the old system, still widely used, of considering the size of a page as a fraction of the large sheet of paper on which it was printed.  This system is illustrated in Table I.  In printing books, an even number (as 4, 8, 16, 32, 64) of pages is printed on each side of a single large sheet, which is then folded so that the pages are in proper sequence and the outside edges are cut so that the book will open.  Except for the largest size, the folio, the name of the size indicates the fractional part of the sheet one page occupies (as octavo "eighth").  In this system, since the fractional name alone cannot denote an exact size, the name of the sheet size precedes the fractional name.  Thus royal octavo is understood to designate a page one-eighth the size of a royal sheet, medium octavo a page one-eighth the size of a medium sheet, and crown octavo a page one-eighth the size of a crown sheet.  But paper is cut into many sheet sizes and even the terms crown, medium, and royal do not always designate sheets of the same dimensions.  Three of the more common sheet sizes have been selected:  royal 20 x 25 inches, medium 18 x 23 inches, and crown 15 x 19 inches.  Actual page sizes run a little smaller than calculations, since the sheets, when folded to page size, are trimmed at top, outside and bottom, the inside edge becoming part of the binding.  British sheet size sometimes differs slightly from American.  Table II illustrates the size names as they are used by the American Library Association, with only the octavo sizes including the name of a sheet size. The dimensional limits given in the table remain standard for this system.  Table III gives equivalent terms and symbols for the size names.  Find the three tables at:  http://www.trussel.com/books/booksize.htm  Note:  Look below the tables to find further information; for instance about elephant folio and double elephant folio.

Miniature representations of the earth, moon, and planets are terrestrial globes, terrain models and armillary spheres.  Some sources credit Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus (611-547 B. C.) with inventing the armillary sphere, others credit Greek astronomer Hipparchus (190 - 120 BC), and some credit the Chinese.  Armillary spheres first appeared in China during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.).  One early Chinese armillary sphere can be traced to Zhang Heng, an astronomer in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 A.D.-220 A.D.).  The exact origin of armillary spheres cannot be confirmed.  However, during the Middle Ages armillary spheres became widespread and increased in sophistication.  The earliest surviving globes were produced in Germany, some were made by German map-maker Martin Behaim of Nuremberg in 1492.  See picture of armillary sphere and find links to articles at:  http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/armillarysphere.htm

The European Commission, the 27-nation European Union’s executive body in Brussels, is considering a U.S. request to drop a ban on import into Europe of American wines bearing the label “chateau” or “clos,” a similar term used mainly on wines from Burgundy in eastern France. Preservation of “chateau” on wine bottles is another chapter in France’s long struggle between tradition and globalization.  Throughout the country, peasants and craftsmen are fighting to maintain the value of expensive prestige accumulated over centuries — just the right cheese, or a perfect dress — against an onslaught of cheaper imitations sloshing in on the latest freighter from abroad.  With borders disappearing and trade increasingly ignoring origins, their voices are getting weaker every year.  The economic stakes are high.  In France alone, a country of 65 million inhabitants, people consumed an average of more than 12 gallons of wine a head in 2011; the industry employed about 50,000 workers, no small consideration in a stalled economy with 10 percent unemployment.  Exports brought in almost $9 billion, helping offset a badly negative trade balance.  Among the 27 European Union countries, exports to the United States alone totaled more than $2.2 billion last year.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/an-american-chateau-french-winemakers-say-no/2012/09/23/a4b08432-03ee-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_story.html

Google test:  uncodified ohio sb 7 produced 35 results for researcher #one.  Researcher #two got 3210 results for the same search on September 21, 2012 and 3230 results on September 25.  Apparently the searching habits of researcher #2 lead Google to conclude they want or expect more results. 

Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio is one of 40 locations in the country that will host “Manifold Greatness:  The Creation and Afterlife of the King James Bible.”  The traveling exhibit is an effort organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library and American Library Association.  It is based on an exhibition of the same name developed by the Folger Shakespeare Library and the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, with assistance from the Harry Ransom Center of the University of Texas, to mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible.  A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities helped fund the exhibit.  The Toledo Area Librarians Association was one of the entities that wrote a letter of support for Lourdes University obtaining the exhibit.  “Manifold Greatness” will be displayed from October 7 through the 31 at the Duns Scotus Library.  Find hours, and times of lectures and presentations at http://www.lourdes.edu/manifold.aspx

The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library has partnered along with The Toledo Museum of Art for this exhibit.  T-LCPL will have an exhibit of Bibles on display Oct 1-Nov 24. 

 

William McKinley (1843–1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1897, until his death.  McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals.  McKinley's administration ended with his assassination in September 1901, but his presidency marked the beginning of a period of dominance by the Republican Party that lasted for more than a third of a century.  McKinley served in the Civil War and rose from private to brevet major.  After the war, he settled in Canton, Ohio, where he practiced law and married Ida Saxton.  In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity.  His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial; which together with a Democratic redistricting aimed at gerrymandering him out of office, led to his defeat in the Democratic landslide of 1890.  He was elected Ohio's governor in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests.  With the aid of his close adviser Mark Hanna, he secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896, amid a deep economic depression.  He defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan, after a front-porch campaign in which he advocated "sound money" (the gold standard unless altered by international agreement) and promised that high tariffs would restore prosperity.  Rapid economic growth marked McKinley's presidency.  He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and in 1900, he secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act.  McKinley hoped to persuade Spain to grant independence to rebellious Cuba without conflict, but when negotiation failed, he led the nation in the Spanish–American War of 1898; the U.S. victory was quick and decisive.  As part of the peace settlement Spain was required to turn over to the United States its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; Cuba was promised independence but at that time remained under the control of the U.S. Army.  The United States annexed the independent Republic of Hawaii in 1898 and it became a U.S. territory.  McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election, in a campaign focused on imperialism, prosperity, and free silver. President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist in September 1901, and was succeeded by Vice President Theodore Roosevelt.  Historians regard McKinley's 1896 victory as a realigning election, in which the political stalemate of the post-Civil War era gave way to the Republican-dominated Fourth Party System, which began with the Progressive Era.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley

The Fourth Party System is the term used in political science and history for the period in American political history from about 1896 to 1932 that was dominated by the Republican party, excepting the 1912 split in which Democrats held the White House for eight years.  History texts usually call it the Progressive Era.  The concept was introduced under the name "System of 1896" by E.E. Schattschneider in 1960, and the numbering scheme was added by political scientists in the mid 1960s.  The period featured a transformation from the issues of the Third Party System, which had focused on the American Civil War, Reconstruction, race and monetary issues.  The era began in the severe depression of 1893 and the extraordinarily intense election of 1896.  It included the Progressive Era, World War I, and the start of the Great Depression.  The Great Depression caused a realignment that produced the Fifth Party System, dominated by the Democratic New Deal Coalition until the 1960s.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Party_System 

The excellence and ambition of The Toledo Museum of Art's collections are not wholly unprecedented.  What's special is that the museum's impressive Old Master and 19th-century paintings are not simply astute selections made during a prosperous past.  A large family portrait by Frans Hals, from the early 1620s, was acquired in 2011; a splendid Guercino, "Lot and His Daughters" (1651-52), entered the collection in 2009: and a pair of delectable little genre scenes by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779) came to Toledo in 2006.  That the Chardins are outstanding in a collection full of high points is testimony to their merit.  Small but potent, "The Washerwoman" and "The Woman Drawing Water at the Cistern" (both c. 1733-39), each less than 16 inches by 12½ inches, make their presence felt across a fairly large gallery.  In Chardin's lifetime, "The Washerwoman" and "The Woman Drawing Water at a Cistern"—among other of his works—were so admired and in demand that he made multiple versions of them, a common practice at the time.  Several variants of both paintings are known, most of them now in major European museums.  What's exciting about Toledo's pictures is not only their impeccable provenance and condition, but also that they are recent discoveries.  According to Toledo curator Lawrence Nichols, the paintings were found—not long before they were acquired—in a private collection in Lyon, France, where they had been since before the French Revolution.  That sort of thing understandably dazzles art historians and curators, as does the fact that the pair have never been relined, as evidenced by the fresh surface.  (Old-fashioned methods of relining, a process of adding a new layer of canvas to the backs of fragile paintings for support, can flatten brushstrokes.)  But it's Chardin's magic, the pure visual allure of the two little paintings, that draws us to them: a range of textures—copper, cloth, wood, stone, fur—conjured up by paint that remains paint, weighty forms, palpable light and, above all, the plain-spoken quality of it all.  Karen Wilkin   Read more and see pictures at:  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443866404577567002361534704.html

Showy moments are bursting out in a growing number of Major League Soccer stadiums in North America.  Such spectacles, called tifo, are a bit of soccer culture imported from Europe and Latin America, in which hundreds of fans put on choreographed displays in the stands.  In typical tifo, fans might unfurl massive banners, wave flags, throw confetti and sing lusty soccer songs.  The word tifo originates from the Italian tifosi, meaning fans, and the displays—often up for just a few minutes before a half or after a goal—have been fixtures in much of the world for decades.  Now U.S. and Canadian fan groups are spending thousands of dollars and countless hours designing, painting and orchestrating.  What was probably the most ambitious tifo ever in the U.S. was unveiled last season:  Before a game between the Seattle Sounders FC and Portland Timbers, hundreds of Seattle fans unfurled nine massive fabric sheets.  Festooned with the team's colors and covering nearly 26,000 square feet—an area larger than half a football field—the banners featured portraits of key Seattle players and the message: "Decades of Dominance."  But in the stands, tifo sometimes gets lost in translation.  "We've had people yelling at us," says Brian Spence, a member of the Screaming Eagles club, which cheers the D.C. United team in the nation's capital.  When his group tried to perform tifo in the past, he says fans groaned:  " 'Put that banner down. I paid good money to see the game, not to see this stupid thing.' "  "It's easier to do [tifo] somewhere where it's expected, it's part of the culture," says D.C. United fan Srdan Bastaic and a leader of the District Ultras supporters group.  But, in America, he says, "you have to explain the whole concept."   Brian Aguilar  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443696604577646143196168230.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Great Jones Street is a street in New York City's NoHo district in Manhattan, essentially another name for 3rd Street between Broadway and the Bowery.  The street was named for Samuel Jones, a lawyer who became known as "The Father of The New York Bar," due to his work on revising New York State's statutes in 1789 with Richard Varick, who also had a street named after him in SoHo.   Jones was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1796 to 1799, and also served as the state's first Comptroller.  Jones deeded the site of the street to the city with the stipulation that any street that ran through the property had to be named for him.  However, when the street was first created in 1789, the city already had a "Jones Street" in Greenwich Village, named for Doctor Gardner Jones, Samuel Jones' brother-in-law.  The confusion between two streets with the same name was broken when Samuel Jones suggested that his street be called "Great Jones Street".  An alternative theory suggests that the street was called "Great" because it was the wider of the two Jones Streets.   Great Jones Street is the title of a novel by the American author Don DeLillo.  Great Jones Street is the title of a song by the American band Luna, from their 1994 album Bewitched. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Jones_Street

Swiss chard is high in vitamin K and A.  One cup supplies 38 percent of your daily magnesium and 22 percent of iron as recommended by the US Department of Agriculture.  Besides being super-healthy, it’s a versatile vegetable.  It can be eaten raw, sautéed or steamed and is good as a substitute for spinach or other greens in soups, salads and cooked and baked dishes.  Find preparation tips at:  http://www.ehow.com/how_4523250_eat-swiss-chard.html  

September 16, 2012  Researchers on Guam, a 30-mile-long U.S. island about 3,800 miles west of Hawaii, found that arachnid populations grew as much as 40-fold in the wake of entire species of insect-eating birds eaten into oblivion by invasive brown treesnakes.  One biologist suspects spiders are multiplying also in other regions where birds are in decline.  Guam is the textbook study for what can happen to birds when an ecosystem is devastated by invasive species.  After brown treesnakes somehow made their way to island in the 1940s, it took less than half a century for them to extirpate all but two of the island’s dozen native bird species.  But as the birds slipped down the gullets of the insatiable nocturnal predators, spider populations proliferated. Did the fall of the birds lead to the rise of the spiders?  Biologists from Rice University, the University of Washington and the University of Guam found that Guam’s jungles have as many as 40 times more spiders than are found on nearby islands like Saipan, according to their research paper published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.  “You can’t walk through the jungles on Guam without a stick in your hand to knock down the spiderwebs,” says Haldre Rogers, a Huxley Fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice and the lead author of the study published last week.  http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/09/16/spiders-take-control-as-birds-fade-from-guam/

The best time to turn a pay phone into a lending library is early on a Sunday morning, said John H. Locke, an Upper West Side architectural designer who may be the world’s leading expert on the subject.   Last winter, Mr. Locke designed a lightweight set of bookshelves to fit inside the common Titan brand of New York City pay phone kiosks.  A fabricator in Brooklyn cuts the shelves, which Mr. Locke paints and assembles in his apartment.  So far he has carried out four installations, most recently at Amsterdam Avenue and West 87th Street just before 8 a.m. on a Sunday last month.  As several sleepy-eyed patrons of a 24-hour deli looked on in confusion, Mr. Locke snapped a lime green bookcase into place, stocking it with children’s books and paperback novels.  Hooks on the unit allow Mr. Locke to install it without hardware, and the entire process took less than five minutes.   He had barely rounded the corner before a man who had been standing outside the deli began browsing through titles, choosing “The Shining” by Stephen King, tucking it under his arm and heading home.  What happens to the installations after the first few minutes is a bit of a mystery to Mr. Locke.  He checks on them periodically, he said, until they disappear — after a few days or a few weeks.  Which is fine with him.  “It’s a spontaneous thing that just erupts at certain locations,” he said. “People like it, people are inspired by it, but then it disappears again.”  The libraries have endured long enough to attract their share of fans.  Publishing houses, bookstores and neighbors have approached Mr. Locke to donate books for future installations.  The project is currently being featured in Spontaneous Interventions, the United States’ contribution to the International Venice Architecture Biennale, an architecture show.  If any disused fixture of city streets cried out for repurposing, it would seem to be the pay phone.  The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications acknowledges as much.  In July, the department began soliciting ideas about what to do with the city’s remaining 13,000 sidewalk pay phones once the current contracts expire in 2014.  Not that they are completely obsolete. The city cites federal data showing that the number of pay phones nationwide declined to 872,000 in 2007, from 2.1 million in 1999.  But the average pay phone here was used to place six calls a day in 2011, not including emergency calls, according to the city.  And in a single week in December, 8,264 calls were made to 911 from sidewalk pay phones.  Perhaps more important to the city, pay phones brought in $18 million in revenue in the last fiscal year.  Of that, only about $1 million came from callers’ quarters; the rest came from advertisements displayed on the side of the phones’ cabinets.  Since the agency would be loath to give up that money, it is considering the suggestions that it turn phone booths into touch-screen neighborhood maps; convert them into charging stations for mobile devices or electric cars; or use them as dispensers for hand sanitizer.   The city is also engaged in a pilot project to use pay phones as Wi-Fi hot spots.  Eleven pay phones, including ones in every borough but the Bronx, have been providing free Wi-Fi since July.  About 2,000 people logged on to the networks in August, according to the city. Users stayed connected for an average of 38 minutes.   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/nyregion/ny-designer-puts-lending-libraries-into-pay-phone-kiosks.html?_r=2&ref=books

September 11, 2012  PATTERSON, Calif. — At the moment, it is little more than dirt and gravel.  But a sunbaked field at the edge of this farming town will play a significant role in one of the most ambitious retailing ventures of the era:  the relentless quest by the online mall Amazon.com to become all things to all shoppers.  A million-square-foot warehouse stocking razor blades and books, diapers and dog food will soon rise on this spot, less than a mile from the highway that will deliver these and just about every other product imaginable to customers 85 miles away in San Francisco.  It is hundreds of miles closer to those consumers than Amazon’s existing centers in Nevada and Arizona.  A similar distribution center is being built on the outskirts of Los Angeles.  Others are under way in Indiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.  This multibillion-dollar building frenzy comes as Amazon is about to lose perhaps its biggest competitive edge — that the vast majority of its customers do not pay sales tax.  After negotiations with lawmakers, the company is beginning to collect taxes in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and other states.  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/12/technology/amazon-forced-to-collect-sales-tax-aims-to-keep-its-competitive-edge.html?ref=technology

Kale is an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and K; it also contains impressive amounts of calcium, fiber, and antioxidants.   Kale's bold, rich flavor, chewy texture, and peppery kick taste great with robust ingredients (think dried crushed red pepper, soy sauce, strong-flavored cheeses, Sherry wine vinegar, fish sauce, bacon, or pancetta).  Find recipes at:  http://www.bonappetit.com/ideas/kale-recipes/search  Yes, you can eat kale raw.  You will find many recipes on the Web. 

Somehow, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the nation's third president, Thomas Jefferson  found spare time to meticulously document his many trials and errors, growing over 300 varieties of more than 90 different plants.  These included exotics like sesame, chickpeas, sea kale and salsify.  They're more commonly available now, but were rare for the region at the time.  So were tomatoes and eggplant.  In the nearby South Orchard, he grew 130 varieties of fruit trees like peach, apple, fig and cherry.  All the time, he carefully documented planting procedures, spacings of rows, when blossoms appeared, and when the food should come to the table.  These days, some of the Jefferson garden bounty is sold to the cafe at Monticello, some goes home with employees, and many plants in the garden are allowed to go to seed.  Jefferson's once-pioneering garden now acts as a seed bank to perpetuate rare lines and varieties like Prickly-seeded Spinach and Dutch Brown lettuce, all for sale at the gift shop.  Despite the diversity of vegetables Jefferson's garden produced, the recipes unearthed by scholars and attributed to his family were quite typical for the day:  Boil everything. Some of the recipes survived and were reprinted in The Congressional Cook Book (1933).  If you're looking for instructions for Colonial American-style Cabbage Pudding and Dried Beans, check http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924086713504;seq=49.  Graham Smith  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/10/152337154/thomas-jefferson-s-garden-a-thing-of-beauty-and-science

In the U.S., butter flavor used for microwave popcorn has been found associated with increased risk of bronchiolitis obliterans in workers makning flavored popcorn.  That was a story in 2008 that prompted the U.S. House to pass a bill to limit workers' exposure to diacetyl, a key ingredient found in artificial butter flavors commonly used in microwave popcorn.  Diacetyl can cause popcorn lung or bronchiolitis obliterans if people have been exposed to too much of it for too long.  Popcorn workers are at high risk of exposure to this chemical and more likely than the general population to develop the deadly disease.

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Nutrition/Food/butter_flavor_bronchiolitis_obliterans_0920120653.html

 

A U.S. federal court jury on September 19 awarded a Colorado man $7.2 million in damages for developing a chronic condition known as popcorn lung from a chemical used in flavouring microwave popcorn.  Jurors agreed with the claims by Wayne Watson, 59, that the popcorn manufacturer and the supermarket chain that sold it were negligent by failing to warn on labels that the butter flavouring, diacetyl, was dangerous.  The condition is a form of obstructive lung disease that makes it difficult for air to flow out of the lungs and is irreversible, according to WebMD.  http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1259742--man-wins-7-2m-lawsuit-after-developing-popcorn-lung-from-inhaling-artificial-butter-smell-of-microwave-popcorn

 

"Dickens of Detroit" is awarded The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters  Elmore Leonard says he’s thrilled to receive one of the literary world’s highest honors.  The 86-year-old crime novelist will be presented with the medal in New York on Nov. 14, the same evening this year’s National Book Awards are announced.
In taking home the National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award, Leonard joins a list of past recipient that includes Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, John Updike, Gore Vidal and Tom Wolfe.  http://elmoreleonard.com/