Backward means the opposite way, behind, in reverse, away from the front.  Backward may also mean shy, not socially adept, or regressing instead of progressing.  While technically backwards is interchangeable with backward, the overwhelmingly preferred spelling in the United States is backward, whether it is used as an adjective or an adverb.  Backwards also means the opposite way, behind, in reverse, away from the front.  Backwards may also mean shy, not socially adept, or regressing instead of progressing.  In British English, the use of either backward or backwards is technically correct, however the overwhelming preference is to use backward when in need of an adjective and backwards when in need of an adverb.  

http://grammarist.com/usage/backward-vs-backwards/

Hummus or houmous is a Levantine and Egyptian food dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.  As an appetizer and dip, hummus is scooped with flatbread, such as pita.  It is also served as part of a meze or as an accompaniment to falafel, grilled chicken, fish or eggplant.  Garnishes include chopped tomato, cucumber, coriander, parsley, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, whole chickpeas,olive oil, hard-boiled eggs, paprika, sumac, ful, olives, pickles and pine nuts.  Outside the Middle East, it is sometimes served with tortilla chips or crackers.  Hummus is a common part of everyday meals in Israel.  A significant reason for the popularity of hummus in Israel is that it is made from ingredients that, following Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), can be combined with both meat and dairy meals.  Few other foods can be combined with a wide variety of meals consistently with the dietary laws.  It is seen as almost equally popular amongst Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs.  As a result of its popularity, Israelis elevated hummus to become a "national food symbol" and consume more than twice as much hummus as neighboring Arab countries.  Many restaurants run by Mizrahi Jews and Arab citizens of Israel are dedicated to hot hummus, which may be served as chick peas softened with baking soda along with garlic, olive oil, cumin and tahini.  One of the fancier hummus versions available is hummus masabacha, made with lemon-spiked tahini garnished with whole chick peas, a sprinkling of paprika and a drizzle of olive oil.  Hummus is sold in restaurants, supermarkets and hummus-only shops (known in Hebrew as humusiot).  For Palestinians and Jordanians, hummus has long been a staple food, often served warm, with bread for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  In Palestinian areas, hummus is usually garnished, with olive oil, "nana" mint leaves, paprika, parsley or cumin.  A related dish popular in the region of Palestine and Jordan is laban ma' hummus ("yogurt and chickpeas"), which uses yogurt in the place of tahini and butter in the place of olive oil and is topped with pieces of toasted bread.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummus  See recipes at http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/25921/classic+hommus and http://www.food.com/recipe/hommus-arabic-dip-201714

COGNATE  1 :  of the same or similar nature :  generically alike  2 :  related by blood; also :  related on the mother's side  3  a :  related by descent from the same ancestral language  b of a word or morpheme :  related by derivation, borrowing, or descent  c of a substantive :  related to a verb usually by derivation and serving as its object to reinforce the meaning  English “eat” and German “essen” are cognate.  Spanish and French are cognate languages.  From Latin cognatus, from co- + gnatus, natus, past participle of nasci to be born; akin to Latin gignereto beget.  Synonyms:  akin, analogous, alike, comparable, connate, correspondent, corresponding, ditto, like,matching, parallel, resemblant, resembling, similar, such, suchlike  Antonyms:  different, dissimilar, diverse, unakin, unlike  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cognate

Wendell Castle (born 1932 in Emporia, Kansas) is an American furniture artist and a leading figure in American craft.  He is often credited with being the father of the art furniture movement.  In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design, and in 1961, he received a Master of Fine Arts, both from the University of Kansas.  From 1962-1969, he taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Craftsmen, in Rochester, NY, and is now an Artist in Residence.  In 1980, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville, NY.  He has garnered a number of awards, including a 1994 'Visionaries of the American Craft Movement' award sponsored by the American Craft Museum, a 1997 Gold Medal from the American Craft Council and a 1998 Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.  He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Comfort Tiffany Foundation.  In 2001 he received the Award of Distinction from The Furniture Society.  See a list of his works in museums as well as public and corporate installations at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Castle  See Castle's cast-iron sculpture Unicorn Family, measuring 22 feet in diameter and consisting of a gathering area with a table and three chairs and a 13-foot LED lamp at http://mag.rochester.edu/centennial-sculpture-park/about-artists/wendell-castle/

Reindeer (rangifer tarandus) live in herds as large as 500,000 in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, northern Europe and Asia.  Both male and female reindeer grow antlers.  Reindeer and caribou are the same animal.  Caribou refers to wild animals, and reindeer is the domesticated term.  Reindeer have been used as pack animals and for food, shelter and clothing for 3,000 years.  They have a top speed of 50 mph on land, and 6.2 mph in the water.  Reindeer stand between 33-59 inches tall and can weigh 121-470 pounds.  

Safari Magazine  Winter 2015

A Plum Pudding Policy Which Might Have Ended The War, written in the trenches by Private Frederick W. Heath (extract of a letter first printed in The North Mail on 9 January 1915)   With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war:  "English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas, a merry Christmas!"  Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices:  "Come out, English soldier; come out here to us."  For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer.  Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the men to be silent.  But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the enemy.  How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other's throats immediately afterwards?  The night wore on to dawn - a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines laughter and Christmas carols.  We stood up ourselves and called benisons on the Germans.  Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.  Still cautious we hung back.  Not so the others.  They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their heads, asking us to do the same.  Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans.  Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier) that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease.  We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged all manner of things.  We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them for German ones.  We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany.  But the gift of gifts was Christmas pudding.   The sight of it made the Germans' eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and at the first bite of it they were our friends for ever.  Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.  And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice.  After we had chatted, we turned back to our respective trenches for breakfast.  http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/the-1914-christmas-truce-a-plum-pudding-policy-which-might-have-ended-the-war-2167090.html  Find many recipes for plum pudding on the Web.  Search "plum pudding" buy if you want to purchase plum pudding already made.

Interior decorator Alberto Pinto, who died in Paris in 2012 at the age of 69, left a polished, protean legacy in the design world.  The projects that came out of his 70-person Paris office were often washbucklingly dynamic, replete with overscale patterns, bold color schemes, and sumptuous appointments that found favor with Middle Eastern royals and international captains of industry.  Sleek, space-age minimalism was part of his portfolio, too, as evidenced by his designs for corporate headquarters, hotels, jets, and yachts.  Pinto, a native of Casablanca, was especially gifted at creating seraglio-style settings, whose stained-glass light fixtures and carved plaster were inspired by traditional North African interiors—and are featured in his 2004 book, Orientalism (Rizzoli, 2004), one of several volumes about his work.  Link to a slideshow of Pinto's works, including his own apartment, at http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/alberto-pinto-in-memoriam-ad100-designer-article  Thank you, Muse reader!

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1388  December 4, 2015  On this date in 1660, André Campra, French composer and conductor, was born.  On this date in 1956, the Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) got together at Sun Studio for the first and last time.