Twelve- to 18-year-old Millennials (born 1979-1994)  are referred to as “screenagers” because of their affinity for electronic communication via computer, phone, television screens.  Screenagers are at home in instant messaging and chat environments to a degree unmatched by preceding generations.  See the 207-page paper "The Library in the Life of the User:  Engaging with People Where They Live and Learn" compiled by Lynn Silipigni Connaway at http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2015/oclcresearch-library-in-life-of-user.pdf  The six-page introduction provides a helpful abstract of the document.

PARAPHRASE from The Last Dance, the 50th novel in the 87th Precinct series by Ed McBain (pseudonym for Evan Hunter)  The company might have been forgiven for linking the singular “anyone” with the plural “theirs” because they didn't want to offend any feminist who might object to the proper but politically incorrect “his."  Easier to say "theirs" and play in ungrammatically safe, as if anyone cared.

Is “They” Acceptable as a Singular Pronoun?  by Mark Nichol  Every time I use they as a singular pronoun in one of my entries, someone posts a comment, or emails me, scolding me for my grammatical error.  Granted, multiple grammatical strategies are available for people to identify someone with a personal pronoun, each of which can be used exclusively or in combination with one or more of the others:  Use the male gender:  “Each person is entitled to his opinion.”  Use the female gender when all possible referents are women:  “Each nun is entitled to her opinion.”  Use both male and female genders:  “Each person is entitled to his or her (or his/her) opinion.”  Alternate gender references in repeated usage:  “Each person is entitled to his opinion.  However, she should also be receptive to those of others.”  (This strategy is best employed with distinct anecdotes in separate passages; it’s awkward in proximity as shown in this example.)  Use an indefinite article in place of a pronoun:  “Each person is entitled to an opinion.”  Recast the sentence to plural form:  “All people are entitled to their own opinions.”  I have used most of these strategies often.  However, there is an additional option:  “Each person is entitled to their opinion.”  This, to many people, is a controversial solution.  It’s true that style guides—which are often prescriptivist (“Do this”) rather than descriptivist (“This is what’s done”)—argue against using it, at best warning that writers who employ it may be considered to be in error.  The Chicago Manual of Style, for example, advises, “While [shouldn’t that be although?] this usage is accepted in casual contexts, it is still considered ungrammatical in formal writing.”  Many literate people who use the singular they in speech hesitate to do so in writing because of this prejudice.  As a result, too, there is a lingering resistance among many editors to allow it.  However, the singular they is widely accepted in written British English, and it is well documented in the works of many great writers, including Auden, Austen, Byron, Chaucer, Dickens, Eliot, Shakespeare, Shaw, Thackeray, and Trollope.  It was the singular pronoun of choice in English for hundreds of years before, in 1745, an otherwise-reasonable grammarian named Anne Fisher—yes, a woman—became possibly the first person to champion he as the universal pronoun of choice.  According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, “The use of they, their, them, and themselves as pronouns of indefinite gender and indefinite number is well established in speech and writing, even in literary and formal contexts.”  Meanwhile, R.W. Burchfield, editor of The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage, and Bryan A. Garner, in Garner’s Modern American Usage, predict the inevitable dominance of the singular they.  http://www.dailywritingtips.com/is-%E2%80%9Cthey%E2%80%9D-acceptable-as-a-singular-pronoun/

In a season of rich desserts, it can be refreshing to end a meal with a cheese course.  “I like the complexity of it,” says Pascal Vittu, head fromager at Daniel Boulud’s Daniel restaurant in New York City.  “And it’s always that time of the meal when everybody is resting and a little more social—I like the collegiality of sharing a cheese plate then.”  When putting together a cheese course as a finishing note, Mr. Vittu first likes to take his cues from what’s been drunk with the meal.  If diners have been drinking red wine, he’s likely to go with creamy, rich cheeses, for example.  “Avoid all fresh or goat milk cheeses--they carry a natural acidity to them that will clash with the tannins in red wine,” says Mr. Vittu, who has worked at Daniel since 1996.  “Go with a triple cream cheese or a richer, hard cheese.”  White wine, Mr. Vittu says, “to the surprise of people, often goes better with cheese.  If we’re talking about something very lean like a sauvignon blanc from California or the Loire Valley, we can go with a goat’s milk cheese.  Something creamy like a camembert or brie will go better with something more complex like a chardonnay, which is richer.”  Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan  Read more and see pictures at http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-art-of-the-cheese-plate-1447267094

The Halifax Central Library is a public library in Halifax, Nova Scotia in Canada on the corner of Spring Garden Road and Queen Street.  A new central library was discussed by library administrators for several decades and approved by the regional council in 2008.  The architects, a joint venture between local firm Fowler Bauld and Mitchell and Schmidt Hammer Lassen of Denmark, were chosen in 2010 through an international design competition.  Construction began later that year on a prominent downtown site that had been a parking lot for half a century.  The new library opened in December 2014 and has become a highly popular gathering place.  In addition to a book collection significantly larger than that of the former library, the new building houses a wide range of amenities including cafés, an auditorium, and community rooms.  The striking architecture is characterised by the fifth floor's cantilever over the entrance plaza, a central atrium criss-crossed by staircases, and the building's transparency and relationship to the urban context.  The library won a Lieutenant Governor’s Design Award in Architecture for 2014.  The library is a five-storey structure comprising about 11,000 square metres (120,000 sq ft) of space.  A skylighted atrium, criss-crossed by stairs and walkways, spans the interior height of the structure.  The main lobby and children's collection are concentrated on the lower floors, while much of the upper floors are designated as quiet areas.  A rooftop terrace with seating offers a broad view of Downtown, the South End, and Halifax Harbour.  The design, said to resemble a stack of books, has garnered international attention and was featured by CNN as one of ten "eye-popping" new buildings of 2014.  The building topped a list of "high-design libraries" compiled by enRoute and was covered on numerous architecture websites.  In the 2014 "Best of Halifax" awards, ranked annually by readers of The Coast, the library was voted the "Best Thing To Happen In Halifax In The Past Year" and the "Best Effort To Improve Halifax".  The library was also shortlisted for the World Building of the Year Award in the Civic and Community category at the 2015 World Architecture Festival in Singapore.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Central_Library

“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”  “The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend.  When I read a book over I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.”  Oliver Goldsmith, writer and physician (1730-1774)   https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/65124.Oliver_Goldsmith

What word contains the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in the right order?  There are several of which the best known are abstemious and facetious.  Others include the rare botanical words acheilous, anemious and caesious.  The rare zoological word is annelidous.   And the chemical term is arsenious. http://www.english-for-students.com/Five-Vowels-1.html

The shortest word containing all five vowels exactly once is the six-letter EUNOIA, meaning alertness of mind an will (and also the title of a book by Canadian poet Christian Bok).  However, it is not included in any major English dictionary.  There are several seven-letter words containing all the vowels, including SEQUOIA, EULOGIA, MIAOUED, ADOULIE, EUCOSIA, EUNOMIA, EUTOPIA, MOINEAU, and DOULEIA.  The relatively common French word OISEAU (meaning bird) contains all five vowels, once each.  The shortest word with the five vowels occurring in alphabetical order is AERIOUS(airy), which has seven letters.  The longest such word is PHRAGELLIORHYNCHUS (a protozoan) with 18 letters.  There are two seven-letter words in Portuguese that contain the five vowels in alphabetical order:  ACEITOUand ALEIJOU.  SUOIDEA (the taxonomic group to which pigs belong) is the shortest word with the five vowels in reverse alphabetical order.  The longest such word is PUNCTOSCHMIDTELLA (a crustacean).  http://www.fun-with-words.com/word_vowels.html

November 27 and 28, 2015, viewers can see a northern minimum moonrise, the least-northern moonrise in the moon’s cycle.  This particular alignment won’t occur again for another 18.6 years.  Built about 2,000 years ago by people of the Hopewell culture, the Newark (Ohio) Earthworks and others like it are thought to have been some kind of astronomical observatory designed to align with certain points in the lunar cycle.  The earthen structure is thought to have been created on such a massive scale for better astronomical accuracy.  The Newark Earthworks feature an octagon that encloses about 50 acres.  Each of the eight sides is made of earthen mounds about 6 feet tall and 550 feet long.  The octagon joins with a circle encompassing an additional 20 acres.  The octagon marks certain points in the moon’s 18.6-year cycle.  Throughout the cycle are eight “ standstill points” where, as the moon rises or sets, it appears to stop going in one direction and begins going in another.  There are eight different alignments with the earthworks throughout the lunar cycle.  The Newark Earthworks site is a national historic landmark and was named in 2006 as the official prehistoric monument of the state.  A statewide committee also is working to get the Newark site and other Hopewell earthworks in Ohio listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.  Jennifer Smola  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/11/27/moon-to-align-with-ancient-earthworks.html

100 Notable Books of 2015   Notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2015.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1385  November 30, 2015  On this date in 1982, Michael Jackson's second solo album, Thriller was released worldwide, and would become the best-selling record album in history.  On this date in 1993, the NFL awarded its 30th franchise to the Jacksonville Jaguars.  On this date in 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.