Some New Jersey women voted as early as 1776.  Historians argue about just what Thomas Jefferson and his colleagues meant when they declared "that all men are created equal."  Did the founders mean males only or were there some situations when "men" could mean all humans?  What natural or political rights, in their view, did women possess?  The unique case of women voters in New Jersey offers some clues.  The framers of New Jersey's first constitution in 1776 gave the vote to "all inhabitants of this colony, of full age, who are worth fifty pounds . . .  and have resided within the county . . . for twelve months."  The other twelve new states restricted voting to men.  Although some have argued that this gender-neutral language was a mistake, most historians agree that the clear intention was to allow some women to vote.  Because married women had no property in their own names and were assumed to be represented by their husbands' votes, only single women voted in New Jersey.  But, in the 1790s and 1800s, large numbers of unmarried New Jersey women regularly participated in elections and spoke out on political issues.  In 1807, the state's legislature ignored the constitution and restricted suffrage to white male citizens who paid taxes.  This was largely a result of the Democratic-Republican Party's attempt to unify its factions for the 1808 presidential election.  A faction within the party wanted to deny the vote to aliens and the non-tax-paying poor.  The liberal faction within the party gave way on this, but also took the vote from women, who tended to vote for the Federalist Party.  In this way, New Jersey's 30-year experiment with female suffrage ended-not mainly because of opposition to the idea of women voting, but for reasons of party politics  Bob Blythe    http://www.nps.gov/revwar/about_the_revolution/voting_rights.html

The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) launched an updated and redesigned version of Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government.  The educational website is named after one of our Nation’s most influential Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin.  The site is full of educational content on the workings of the U.S. Government and U.S. history.  GPO partnered with the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to ensure educational content is easy to comprehend and age appropriate.  Ben’s Guide to the U.S. Government:  http://bensguide.gpo.gov/”

http://www.bespacific.com/gpo-launches-next-generation-of-guide-to-us-government/

A group of community members gather every month at Woods Hole (Mass.) Public Library, they try to stay within the lines—quite literally.  “We purchase a couple of coloring books and I print out some free coloring pages that are available online, and we just get together and color,” says librarian Kellie Porter, who started the library’s Coloring Club in May 2015.  The club has seen about 15–20 members a month, ranging from tweens to 70-year-olds.  “I really try to play up the whole relaxation aspect of it,” she says, “so I put on relaxing bird songs and try to make a soothing environment.”  Adult coloring books have become popular in recent years, with the release of Scottish illustrator Johanna Basford’s 2013 Secret Garden:  An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book and Dover Publications’ 2012 Creative Haven coloring book series.  Alison Marcotte  

Read more and see pictures at http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/coloring-book-clubs-cross-the-line-into-libraries/

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home Thanksgiving PT1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afdh_i3Kmy0  11:45

Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home Thanksgiving PT2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDHiS5ivkN8  10:12

At the height of Julia Child’s fame in the 1970s and ‘80s, Thanksgiving guests often felt the need to tell her she should get her home number removed from the public directory.  (This was an analog tool called a “telephone book.”)  The phone would ring all day said Sheryl Julian, now the food editor for The Boston Globe, who celebrated Thanksgiving dinner in the Childs’ home in 1976 and 1977.  “Every time she hung up, it would ring again, and it would be another total stranger with a turkey problem.”  No matter how busy, Child would hand off whatever kitchen task she was doing, take the phone and talk the nervous cook down from the ledge.  But Child refused to unlist her number or turn off the phone; instead, she embraced the role of national Thanksgiving commander-in-chief.  “Whatever they seemed to be saying, she usually just told the callers not to worry,” Julian said.  “I even heard her tell people that turkey wasn’t meant to be served hot.  She just wanted them to relax.”  Julia Moskin  Read more at http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article45304674.html

See the suit worn by TV’s Superman, George Reeves at the Ohio History Center on exhibit through January 3, 2016.  On special loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., the super suit was worn by Reeves, who portrayed mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent and his heroic alter ego, Superman, in the TV series The Adventures of Superman.  The series aired nationally from 1952–1958.  Superman was created in the 1930s by Cleveland high school students Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.  The duo was inspired by pulp magazines of the day, specifically the science–fiction publication Amazing Stories.  They wrote the first comic strips from their homes in the Glenville neighborhood on the east side of the city.  Superman first graced the cover of Action Comics No. 1 in 1938.  The famous red, blue and yellow suit is joined by an array of newly added comic books, records, TV memorabilia, radios and more items of mid-century pop culture in the exhibit 1950s:  Building the American Dream.  See Superman’s signature suit at the Ohio History Center museum at 800 E. 17^th Ave. in Columbus.  For more information about the exhibit, call 800.686.6124 or visit ohiohistory.org/superman.  https://www.ohiohistory.org/about-us/newsroom/september/superman-suit-at-ohio-history-center

The earliest known depiction of the merry-go-round is in 500 A.D. in the Byzantine Empire, which depicts baskets, carrying riders, suspended from a central pole.  The first merry-go-round created in the United States was in Hessville, Ohio.  It was created by Franz Wiesenhoffer during the 1840s.  https://allweatherseal.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/national-merry-go-round-day/  See also http://www.richlandcarrousel.com/ (Mansfield, OH) and http://www.merrygoroundmuseum.org/ (Sandusky, OH) 

The Food and Drug Administration on November 19, 2015 approved the nation's first genetically altered animal--a salmon genetically engineered to grow twice as fast as its natural counterpart.  AquAdvantage, produced by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty, is an Atlantic salmon that contains a growth hormone from a Chinook salmon and has been given a gene from the ocean pout, an eel-like fish.  The result is a fish that grows larger and faster than traditional salmon.  Food-safety activists, environmental groups and traditional salmon fishing industries, not to mention lawmakers from Alaska, have long opposed the approval of the fish--which they derisively refer to as "Frankenfish"--and have argued that its existence could open the door to a broad range of potentially unsafe genetically modified animal foods. Knowing an FDA approval was likely, critics have in recent years won commitments from some of the nation's most recognizable chains— including Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Target—to not sell the fish.  The FDA said that its decision, two decades in the making, was "based on sound science and a comprehensive review," and that regulators are confident "that food from the fish is safe to eat."  The agency will require that the AquaBounty salmon be raised only in land-based, contained tanks in two specific facilities in Canada and Panama.  Brady Dennis   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/11/19/the-fda-just-approved-the-nations-first-genetically-engineered-animal-a-salmon-that-grows-twice-as-fast/

See also FDA November 19, 2015 news release at http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm473249.htm

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1381  November 20, 2015  On this date in 1789, New Jersey became the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.  On this date in 1805, Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio premiered in Vienna.