Sassafras, sometimes called white sassafras, is well known for its aromatic properties.  The leaves and bark both have a slightly citrus scent, while the roots have a strong root-beer odor.  It is from these roots that root beer was historically produced by early colonists.  The roots were boiled with molasses, and then allowed to ferment, until a distinctive soft drink was produced.  Sassafras tea is another popular drink that is steeped from the bark of the tree and served as a "soothing drink", or a "spring tonic".  In England, the tea is mixed with milk and sugar to make saloop, a popular morning beverage.  Herbalists use sassafras for a variety of medicinal uses.  It is said to have value as a stimulant, pain reliever, astringent and treatment for rheumatism.  In addition to medicinal uses, sassafras wood, bark and roots produce an extract (oil of sassafras) that is useful in flavorings, or in perfumes and scented soaps.  A yellow dye is also extracted from the trees.  The crushed leaves were used by colonists to thicken soups and stews.  Sassafras wood is very durable and is used to make buckets, barrels, poles, posts, and crossties.  It is also used in interior cabinetry.  Sassafras is found throughout the eastern and southern United States and into Mexico. It
ranges as far west as Texas and Iowa.   The leaves are simple, alternately arranged and may be of three types, mitten-shaped, lobed, or obovate-elliptical.  See pictures at:  http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Sassafras/sassafra.htm

Dec. 27, 2012  The American Folk Art Museum  in New York , in addition to having to sell its showcase building— and move back into its smaller space--apparently agreed yesterday to forfeit some 210 objects it had been promised by longtime benefactor Ralph Esmerian, “the former jewelry dealer who last year was sentenced to a six-year prison term on wire fraud and other charges.”  The works, not yet in the museum’s legal possession (though some seem to have been on view), would be lost as part of a deal to settle bankruptcy claims.  The Wall Street Journal says that “the trustee for the case and the museum negotiated a settlement in which the museum would keep 53 of the 263 promised gifts.  On Dec. 26, the trustee filed a motion in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to approve the settlement.  A call to the trustee was not returned.”  But the WSJ says that museum officials chose the 53 items they were able to keep, with the rest likely going up for sale at auction.  “These 53 were the most important to the museum because they would enhance the collection,” said Ms. [Barbara] Livenstein, [the spokeswoman].  “We were eager to arrive at this compromise and get it behind us.”  If the settlement is approved, the museum will be able to keep items like the 1848 painting “Situation of America,” which is currently on view in the museum’s exhibition at the South Street Seaport Museum.  High-quality examples of folk art genres such as needlework, fraktur (handwritten manuscripts) and scrimshaw, as well as portraits and sculptures, will also be retained.  http://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/2012/12/glad-to-leave-2012-behind-the-american-folk-art-museum.html

Revelers began celebrating New Year's Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year's Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square.  Seven versions of the Ball have been designed to signal the New Year.  The first New Year's Eve Ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds.  The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime "dimout" of lights in New York City.  Nevertheless,
the crowds still gathered in Times Square in those years and greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked at the base of the tower - a harkening-back to the earlier celebrations at Trinity Church, where crowds would gather to "ring out the old, ring in the new."  In 1920, a 400 pound ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original.  In 1955, the iron ball was replaced with an aluminum ball weighing a mere 200 pounds.  This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the "I Love New York" marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988.  After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square.  In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.  For Times Square 2000, the millennium celebration at the Crossroads of the World, the New Year's Eve Ball was completely redesigned by Waterford Crystal.  The crystal Ball combined the latest in technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.  The ball is now on display at the Times Square Museum & Visitor Center.  On November 11th, 2008, the co-organizers of New Year’s Eve in Times Square, Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, unveiled a new Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball.  The Ball is now a year-round attraction above Times Square in full public view January through December. 
http://www.timessquarenyc.org/events/new-years-eve/about-the-new-years-eve-ball/history-of-the-new-years-eve-ball/index.aspx

Central America (Spanish: América Central or Centroamérica) is the central geographic region of the Americas.  It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast.  Central America consists of seven countries:  Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.  It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, the North Pacific Ocean to the west, and Colombia to the south-east.  Central America is an area of 524,000 square kilometers (202,000 sq mi), or almost 0.1% of the Earth's surface.  
As of 2009, its population was estimated at 41,739,000.  It has a density of 77 people per square kilometer.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America

The population density (people per sq. km) in the United States was last reported at 33.82 in 2010, according to a World Bank report published in 2012.  Population density is midyear population divided by land area in square kilometers.  Population is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin.  Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones.  In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.  http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/population-density-people-per-sq-km-wb-data.html

A Lingua Ignota (Latin for "unknown language") was described by the 12th century abbess of Rupertsberg, Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes.  To write it, she used an alphabet of 23 letters, the litterae ignotae.  She partially described the language in a work titled Lingua Ignota per simplicem hominem Hildegardem prolata, which survived in two manuscripts, both dating to ca. 1200, the Wiesbaden Codex and a Berlin MS.  The text is a glossary of 1011 words in Lingua Ignota, with glosses mostly in Latin, sometimes in German; the words appear to be a priori coinages, mostly nouns with a few adjectives.  Grammatically it appears to be a partial relexification of Latin, that is, a language formed by substituting new vocabulary into an existing grammar.  The purpose of Lingua Ignota is unknown; nor do we know who besides its creator was familiar with it. 
See image of Hildegard's alphabet at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_Ignota

"More than nine hundred languages have been invented since Lingua Ignota, and almost all have foundered."  In 2004, John Quijada published "Ithkuil:  A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language, a fourteen-page Web site. 
Read the story, Utopian for Beginners, in The New Yorker, Dec. 24 & 31, 2012

Abbreviation	Latin	English
cf.	confer	compare
e.g.	exempli gratia	for example
et al.	et alii	and others
etc.	et cetera	and so forth, and so on
i.e.	id est	that is
N.B.	nota bene	note well
P.S.	post scriptum	postscript

Latin abbreviations are appropriate in footnotes, bibliographies, and informal writing.  In formal writing, use the English equivalent of the abbreviation.  http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipsep99b.htm   NOTE: 

I recommend you always use English equivalents except use the abbreviation P.S. for postscript.  

Dennis Lehane (born 1965) is an American author.  He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.  Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy Award-nominated film.  His novel Shutter Island was adapted into a film by Martin Scorsese in 2010.   He occasionally makes guest appearances as himself in the ABC comedy/drama TV series Castle.  See his awards and his works at:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane

Philip M. Parker, Professor of Marketing at INSEAD Business School, has had a side project for over 10 years.  He’s created a computer system that can write books about specific subjects in about 20 minutes.  The patented algorithm has so far generated hundreds of thousands of books.  In fact, Amazon lists over 100,000 books attributed to Parker, and over 700,000 works listed for his company, ICON Group International, Inc.  This doesn’t include the private works, such as internal reports, created for companies or licensing of the system itself through a separate entity called EdgeMaven Media.  Parker is not so much an author as a compiler, but the end result is the same:  boatloads of written works.  Now these books aren’t your typical reading material.  Common categories include specialized technical and business reports, language dictionaries bearing the “Webster’s” moniker (which is in the public domain), rare disease overviews, and even crossword puzzle books for learning foreign languages, but they all have the same thing in common:  they are automatically generated by software.  Because digital ebooks and print-on-demand services have become commonplace, topics can be listed in Amazon without even being “written” yet.  See abstract for the U.S. patent issued in 2007 at:  http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/

Airplane manufacturer Boeing builds some of the most complicated machines on Earth, but in its efforts to make wireless signals on airplanes better it turned to the produce aisle for help.  Dec. 19 the company announced a "breakthrough" in the procedures it uses to evaluate wireless signals in cabins, saying in a news release the tests make "it possible for passengers to enjoy more reliable connectivity when using networked personal electronic devices in the air."  The new procedures come, in part, thanks to 20,000 pounds of potatoes that were piled in the seats of a decommissioned plane used for the tests.  The tubers mimic the way the human body responds to electronic signals, so engineers at Boeing's Test & Evaluation Laboratory used the spud-filled plane to try out the new methods without requiring hundreds of people to sit in the aircraft.  Once the engineers had the methods down, they were able to replace the starchy veggies and validate the data with humans.  Boeing says the procedures it developed can reduce the time it takes to test wireless signals from two weeks to just 10 hours.  As for the potatoes that were used in the tests, Boeing says they were donated to a food bank.  http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/19/travel/potatoes-wireless/

William the Conquerer's descendants are still doing well out of a land grab that created the unequal England we know today  by Paul Kingsnorth 

Nearly four years ago, I began writing a novel, set in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of 1066. Before I began to write, I spent six months sitting in the Bodleian library poring over books and journals to familiarise myself with the period.  I soon realised that, apart from the story of the Battle of Hastings that everyone learns at school, I knew hardly anything about the impact of the conquest.  I began to understand, too, how much of that impact is still with us.  By the end of the process, I had come to a slightly disquieting conclusion:  we are still being governed by Normans.  Take house prices. According to the author Kevin Cahill, the main driver behind the absurd expense of owning land and property in Britain is that so much of the nation's land is locked up by a tiny elite.  Just 0.3% of the population – 160,000 families – own two thirds of the country.  Less than 1% of the population owns 70% of the land, running Britain a close second to Brazil for the title of the country with the most unequal land distribution on Earth.  Much of this can be traced back to 1066.  The first act of William the Conqueror, in 1067, was to declare that every acre of land in England now belonged to the monarch.  This was unprecedented:  Anglo-Saxon England had been a mosaic of landowners.  Now there was just one.  William then proceeded to parcel much of that land out to those who had fought with him at Hastings.  This was the beginning of feudalism; it was also the beginning of the landowning culture that has plagued England – and Britain – ever since. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/17/high-house-prices-inequality-normans

A non sequitur (Latin for It does not follow) is a conversational and literary device, often used for comedic purposes.  It is something said that, because of its apparent lack of meaning relative to what preceded it, seems absurd to the point of being humorous or confusing.  This use of the term is distinct from the non sequitur in logic, where it is a fallacy. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_(literary_device)

The Holm Oak is native to Spain where it is called the "Encina".  Another name for this tree in English is "Holly Oak" in reference to the fact that its leaves resemble those of the Holly.  It is also called "Evergreen Oak" because this tree does not drop its leaves like most other oaks.  It is always green with the old leaves falling off shortly after the new ones emerge.   In Spain the "Encina" has several important uses.  One of these is the value of its acorns as a source of food for the "Iberian" pigs that are used to make the famed "Jamon Serrano" (cured ham).  The cured ham from an Iberian pig that has been allowed to graze in the open fields and that has eaten mostly acorns from the Encina has a special flavour that is highly prized in Spain.  Sometimes this ham is referred to as "jamon de bellota" which means "acorn ham".  See pictures of the holm oak at:  http://tree-species.blogspot.com/2008/01/holm-oak-quercus-ilex.html

The full moon on Dec. 28, 2012 is the 13th full moon of the year.  (There were two full moons in August.)  http://www.calendar-365.com/moon/moon-phases.html

Uh-oh by John McIntyre, a mild-mannered editor for a great metropolitan newspaper, who has fussed over writers’ work, to sporadic expressions of gratitude, for thirty years.  The editorial page in this morning’s Baltimore Sun quotes a line of “The Star-Spangled Banner” thus:  “Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave.”  But Francis Scott Key wrote “O say.”  Oh is an exclamation by which a number of emotional reactions—surprise, disappointment, anger, excitement—can be expressed.  O is used in direct address, as in a prayer.  “The Star-Spangled Banner,” in addressing the listener, uses the latter form.   To keep the distinction in mind, think how “O God” differs from “Oh God”:  “O God, give me strength to endure these minor frustrations calmly.”  “Oh God, I’ve locked my keys in the car again.” 

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/mcintyre/blog/2011/03/uhoh.html

The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) is very proud to present the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a free online digitized virtual library of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Hundreds of manuscripts made up of thousands of fragments - discovered from 1947 and until the early 1960's in the Judean Desert along the western shore of the Dead Sea - are now available to the public online.  http://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/

Definition of APOTHEGM

a short, pithy, and instructive saying or formulation
Origin of APOTHEGM  Greek apophthegmat-, apophthegma, from apophthengesthai to speak out, from apo- + phthengesthai to utter  First known use:  circa 1587
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apothegm

The Library of Congress holds the largest rare-book collection in North America (more than 700,000 volumes), including the largest collection of 15th-century books in the Western Hemisphere.  The collection also includes the first extant book printed in North America, “The Bay Psalm Book” (1640).  The collections contain materials in some 470 languages.  The oldest written material in the Library is a cuneiform tablet dating from 2040 B.C.  The Library’s collection includes more than 50,000 genealogies.  Approximately half of the Library’s book and serial collections are in languages other than English.  The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 138 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves.  The Library’s Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature contains recordings of more than 2,000 poets reading their own work.   http://myloc.gov/pages/default.aspx

The song "Happy Birthday to You" is an example of just how interesting the world of licensing is.  Think about this song -- it is only 6 notes.  Yet it is one of the best known songs in the world.  It was written in 1893 by Mildred and Patty Hill and first published with the words, "Good Morning to You".  The words "Happy Birthday to You" were first seen in print in 1924*, although the author is unknown.  Copyright was registered in 1934 in a court case involving a musical called "As Thousands Cheer" by Irving Berlin.  The Clayton F. Summy Company became the song's publisher in 1935.  Through a series of purchases and acquisitions, the song now belongs to AOL Time Warner.  ASCAP represents the song for public performance licensing.  The copyright to "Happy Birthday to You" should have expired in 1991, but the Copyright Act of 1976 extended it, and the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended it again, so the song is protected until 2030 at least.  "Happy Birthday to You" brings in about $2 million per year in licensing fees according to this article at http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp   If you ever hear the song in a movie, TV show or commercial, a licensing fee has been paid.  Any manufacturer making a toy that plays the song pays a licensing fee.  The manufacturer of any musical card playing the song pays a licensing fee.  And so on... This 6-note song** is big business!  http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-licensing5.htm

* published as a second stanza to Good Morning to You
**  only six different words are used in Happy Birthday to You if you use Happy Birthday, dear (name) as the third phrase.  Only four different words are used if you use Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday as the third phrase.   

To anyone who was seriously interested in design in postwar Britain, Typographica magazine was essential reading.  Take the issue published in December 1963, which included essays on the work of the German typography designer Joshua Reichert and the Dutch graphic designer Paul Schuitema, as well as a review of an exhibition of British typography and one of the first articles to be published on the emerging concrete poetry movement.  The concrete poetry piece was written by an author who was new to Typographica, Dom Sylvester Houédard, known as “dsh” or “the Dom” to his fellow artists and activists in 1960s London.  His avant-garde credentials were impeccable.  Not only was he a pioneer of concrete poetry, in which the typographic style of the letters is as important as the meaning and rhythm of the words, Houédard also wrote extensively on new approaches to art, spirituality and philosophy as well as collaborating with artists including Gustav Metzger and Yoko Ono, and the composer John Cage.  Since his death in 1992, Houédard has appeared as an enigmatic figure in accounts of 1960s counter culture, until the publication of a new book, “Notes from the Cosmic Typewriter: The Life and Work of Dom Sylvester Houédard,” by Occasional Papers, a nonprofit publishing house in London.  “There is such a lot of interest in Houédard’s work, which so many artists, designers and poets know so well,” said Nicola Simpson, a specialist in 20th-century poetry who edited the book.  “But his work is difficult to find because it is scattered in private and institutional collections. Even to this day, we don’t know where all of it is.”  Alice Rawsthorn  See an image of "George." a 1964 typestract by Houédard at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/arts/design/the-eccentric-monk-and-his-typewriter.html?_r=0

scot-free

adjective  completely free from harm, restraint, punishment, or obligation
Origin  1200–50; Middle English; see scot, free
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scot-free
'Scot' is a Scandinavian word for tax or payment.  It came to the UK as a form of redistributive taxation which was levied as early the 13th century as a form of municipal poor relief.  The term is a contraction of 'scot and lot'.  Scot was the tax and lot, or allotment, was the share given to the poor.   Scot as a term for tax has been used since then to mean many different types of tax.  Whatever the tax, the phrase 'scot free' just refers to not paying one's taxes.  No one likes paying tax and people have been getting off scot free since at least the 11th century.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot%20free.html

Music has organized sounds and silences.

Spoken language has organized sounds and silences.
Written language has organized characters and blank space.

Q:  Where did the word "Xmas" come from?
A:  It's not a commercial creation.  It comes from old English use of "chi" (X), the first letter of "Christos," the Greek word for Christ. -- Various sources.
Q:  What city in the world has the most bridges?
A:  Pittsburgh has 446 bridges.
Q:  Was "pipe down" a nautical term?
A:  Aboard a sailing ship, "The Pipe Down" was the last signal from the bosun's pipe each day. It meant "lights out" and "silence." -- Various sources.  http://www.thecourier.com/Opinion/columns/2012/Dec/JU/ar_JU_121712.asp?d=121712,2012,Dec,17&c=c_13

Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain.  Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island.  The name for Scotland in the Celtic languages is related to Albion:  Alba in Scottish Gaelic, Albain in Irish, Nalbin in Manx and Alban in Welsh/Cornish/Breton.  These names were later Latinized as Albania and Anglicized as Albany, which were once alternative names for Scotland.  New Albion and Albionoria ("Albion of the North") were briefly suggested as possible names of Canada during the period of the Canadian Confederation.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion

demur vs. demure

Demur and demure share roots in the Anglo-Norman demurer, which means to delay, but in modern English they are unrelated.  Demur is primarily a verb meaning (1) to object, or (2) to hesitate because of doubt.  Some dictionaries also list it as a noun meaning the act of demurring, but this sense of demur usually gives way to demurral.  Demure means (1) modest and reserved, or (2) affectedly shy. It is only an adjective.  http://grammarist.com/usage/demur-demure/

Pen names of authors

Lemony Snicket Damiel Handler)
Lee Child  (Jim Grant)
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
Voltaire  (Francois-Marie Arouet)
Acton Bell  (Anne Bronte)
Currer Bell  (Charlotte Bronte)
Ellis Bell  (Emily Bronte)
Lewis Carroll  (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
Isak Dinesen  (Karen Blixen)
George Eliot  (Mary Ann Evans)
O. Henry  (William Sydney Porter)
James Herriott (James Alfred Wight)
Ellery Queen  (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)
George Sand  (Amandine Lucie Aurore Dupin)

Overused words:  iconic, actually, literally, really, arguably

The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim.  It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the bridge.  A friar who has witnessed the tragic accident then goes about inquiring into the lives of the victims, seeking some sort of cosmic answer to the question of why each had to die.  In 1998, the book was rated #37 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library on the list of the 100 best 20th-Century novels. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.  This book was cited by John Hersey as a direct inspiration for his nonfiction work Hiroshima (1946).  Three films have been based on the novel--in 1929, 1944 and 2004.   An opera by German composer Hermann Reutter was based on the novel:  Die Brücke von San Luis Rey: Szenen nach der Novelle von Thornton Wilder (1954).  A play for puppets and actors was based on the novel, adapted by Greg Carter and directed by Sheila Daniels:  The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2006)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bridge_of_San_Luis_Rey

Dec. 21, 2012  Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt Hummel on Glee, wrote and stars in the film “Struck by Lightning.”  After having its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, it was released on video on demand last week and opens in theaters Jan. 11.  Mr. Colfer plays Carson Phillips, a high-school outcast who, in the hope of getting into Northwestern University, blackmails classmates into contributing to his literary magazine.  The film is told in flashback:  in the first scene, Carson is, indeed, struck by lightning and dies.  Mr. Colfer conceived the story when he was 16, well before landing on TV.  He first performed it in high school, as a monologue for his speech and debate team.  But the movie isn’t just deferred juvenilia.  It’s part of Mr. Colfer’s bid to become a multi-platform showbiz hyphenate.  In 2011, he signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown.  The first book, “The Land of Stories,” which came out this summer, is a young-adult adventure novel that upends classic fairy tales, in the manner of Gregory Maguire.  (He’s at work on a sequel.)  He also published a companion book to “Struck by Lightning,” written as Carson’s journal.  Much more at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/fashion/the-many-hats-of-chris-colfer.html?ref=fashion&_r=0

Recipes for Cranberry Conserve--good at holidays or any time of the year

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/cranberry-conserve-recipe/index.html

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cranberry-fruit-conserve-recipe/index.html
http://www.chow.com/recipes/10455-cranberry-conserve
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Cranberry-Apple-and-Walnut-Conserve-236412
Eat as is--or use as a spread.

Dec. 22, 2012  The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum  http://www.hemingwayhome.com/ teems with six-toed cats — the so-called Hemingway cats — who for generations have stretched out on Hemingway’s couch, curled up on his pillow and mugged for the Papa-razzi.  Tour guides recount over and over how the gypsy cats descend from Snowball, a fluffy white cat who was a gift to the Hemingways.  Seafaring legend has it that polydactyl cats (those with extra toes) bring a bounty of luck, which certainly explains their own pampered good fortune.  But it seems the charms of even 45 celebrated six-toed cats have proved powerless against one implacable foe:  federal regulators.  The museum’s nine-year bid to keep the cats beyond the reach of the Department of Agriculture ended in failure this month.  The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that the agency has the power to regulate the cats under the Animal Welfare Act, which applies to zoo and traveling circus animals, because the museum uses them in advertisements, sells cat-related merchandise online and makes them available to paying tourists.  In other words, the cats are a living, breathing exhibit and require a federal license. 

Read extensive article at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/us/cats-at-hemingway-museum-draw-a-legal-battle.html?ref=us&_r=0

A longstanding theory suggests that artichokes actually originated in Sicily.  That would be a unique distinction in a land whose culture and cuisine is an amalgamation of foreign ones.  In any event, we know that the globe artichoke, cynara scolymus, cultivated in some fifty varieties, evolved in the western or central Mediterranean.  The purplish wild spiny artichoke, featuring tough leaves ending in thorns, is the most popular form in Sicily, where one town, Cerda (in Palermo province) has erected a tall sculptural monument to this most singular vegetable in the main square.  They're not the foundation of any diet, but artichokes are a good source of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), niacin, magnesium, potassium, iron, copper, phosphorus, calcium and fiber.  An artichoke liqueur bearing the trade name Cynar is made in Sicily.  Most of the world's artichokes are produced in Italy, where Sardinia rivals Sicily for quantity.  http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art86.htm 

Selection of favorite quotes about writing by Maria V. Snyder

Talent is long patience.  Gustave Flaubert

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware off, no shortcut.  Stephen King, On Writing

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.  E.L. Doctorow

http://www.mariavsnyder.com/advice/quotes.php 

Sir Henry Tate (1819-1899) was an English merchant and founder of the National Gallery of British Art (Tate Gallery).ire, in 1819.  He became a prosperous sugar broker, and about 1874 removed to London, where he greatly increased the operations of his firm and made "Tate's Cube Sugar" known all over the world.  He had early in his career begun to devote large sums of money to philanthropic and educational purposes.  He gave £42,000 to the Liverpool University College, founded in 1881; and a still larger sum to the Liverpool hospitals.  Then, when he came to London, he presented four free public libraries to the parish of Lambeth.  His interest in art came with later years.  He was at first merely a regular buyer of pictures, for which he built a large private gallery in his house at Streatham.  Gradually his gallery came to contain one of the best private collections of modern pictures in England, and the owner naturally began to consider what should be done with it after his death.  A new gallery, controlled by the Trustees of the National Gallery, was built on the site of Millbank Prison. The gallery was opened on 21st July 1897, and a large addition to it was completed just before the donor died.  It contained sixty-five pictures presented by him; nearly all the English pictures from the National Gallery painted within the previous eighty years; the pictures purchased by the Royal Academy under the Chantrey Bequest, which had previously hung in South Kensington Museum; and seventeen large works given to the nation by Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A.   http://www.nndb.com/people/449/000098155/ 

Sugar cube sculptures  http://www.brendanjamison.com/sugarcube.html 

Tate sold its Australian sugar business, Bundaberg, in 2000 and its US sugar refineries to American Sugar in 2001.  Chief executive  Javed Ahmed handed the keys to Tate's famous Thames Refinery in East London to American Sugar Refining in 2012, after  trying to get out of sugar for 15 years.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7866374/Tate-and-Lyle-cuts-its-ties-with-the-sugar-cube-its-founder-brought-to-Britain.html

The Alterran Legacy Series (Colony Earth, Khamlok, Resurrection, Redemption) is Regina Joseph's first work of fiction.  As a practicing attorney in Toledo, Ohio, she has published legal articles on securities law and mergers and acquisition topics.

Paperback: 346 pages Publisher: Colony Earth (October 18, 2012) Language: English  ISBN-10: 0615659969  ISBN-13: 978-0615659961 http://www.amazon.com/Colony-Earth-ALTERRAN-LEGACY-SERIES/dp/0615659969

Review by Martha Esbin

The Alterran Legacy Series, Book 1:  Colony Earth by Regina M. Joseph

Alterrans travel through the skies to planet Earth, establishing  a colony for research and mining.  Alterrans have sensors implanted at birth, and their arranged lives mean a choiceless destiny.  Obedience and discipline are required to maintain harmony and stability.  "No one can be disconnected" in their world and learning, some of it misleading, is provided depending on status.  Rejuvenation chambers mean no permanent death.  Control is evident everywhere:  animals hunt by command; Alterrans wear self-cleaning clothes that can change shape when protection is needed.  Colony Earth is a compelling story of survival and conflicting codes of conduct.  An extraordinary plot and a page-turner.

Clarion ForeWord Review by Emily Asad  (extract)  FANTASY

Colony Earth:  Book 1 of the Alterran Legacy Series by Regina M. Joseph

Four Stars (out of Five)

Anne MacCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern details the effects of an advanced civilization that loses its technological edge due to nature’s unstoppable force.  Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear offers rich details of the Upper Paleolithic era.  In Colony Earth, Regina M. Joseph blends the two worlds of science fiction and anthropology in an enjoyable tale that attempts to explain how humankind exploded in knowledge after the last Ice Age.  Lil has been groomed for centuries to become the next supreme leader of Alterran society.  As part of his training—and his punishment—he is sent to the far colony of Earth.  Inculcated with the strict rules and regulations of “the Party of Harmony and Stability,” he is almost too proper to make the necessary changes that will allow his band of men to survive on primitive Earth after Alterra collapses.  What begins as a minor crisis turns into a major disaster,  however, after a comet destroys their technology and forces them to turn to the Earth for survival.  Colony Earth is a worthwhile read for anyone who enjoys thinking about the challenges to be faced in rebuilding a new society. 

"ForeWord, one of the few remaining wholly independent review sources, capably reviews two-thousand-plus books a year from the country’s top small presses.  Whether you choose to read our award winning magazine, newly-launched website, or our digital newsletter, the information you need to find the best books in publishing is at your fingertips."  https://www.forewordreviews.com/