Waldorf salad  Created at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 not by a chef but by the maître d'hôtel, (dining room manager) Oscar Tschirky, the Waldorf salad was an instant success.  The original version of this salad contained only apples, celery and mayonnaise.  Chopped walnuts later became an integral part of the dish.  Waldorf salad is usually served on top of a bed of lettuce.  Find four recipes for Waldorf Salad and link to the histories of Cobb Salad and Caesar Salad at http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Waldorf_Salad.htm

The case of the disappearing determiners  January 3, 2016  filed by Mark Liberman   For the past century or so, the commonest word in English has gradually been getting less common.  Depending on data source and counting method, the frequency of the definite article THE has fallen substantially—in some cases at a rate as high as 50% per 100 years.  At every stage, writing that's less formal has fewer THEs, and speech generally has fewer still, so to some extent the decline of THE is part of a more general long-term trend towards greater informality.  But THE is apparently getting rarer even in speech, so the change is more than just the (normal) shift of writing style towards the norms of speech.  Read more and see graphics at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=23277

The vineyards of Aragón have their origins in the Celtíbera region, the location of the Roman villa of Caræ (now known as Cariñena)--it is known that the inhabitants of Caræ drank wine mixed with honey from before the 3^rd century B.C.  Cariñena wine was referred to in the chronicles of several Spanish and foreign travelers who made their way around the peninsula.  Enrique Cock tells of how, in 1585, Philip II, King of Spain, was received in Cariñena with two fountains of wine, "one white and the other red, from which whoever drank who wished to.”  In 1696, the town of Cariñena was the setting for approval of the Statute of the Vine, which aimed at limiting plantations on the basis of the quality of the land on which the vineyards were sited.  "If this wine is yours, it must be acknowledged that the Promised Land is near."  Those were the words that were used by the French thinker Voltaire to thank the Count of Aranda for his gift of flavorful wines from the area.  That was in 1773, and it was not the first time that illustrious and well-known figures allowed themselves to be seduced by Cariñena wines.  In 1786, Joseph Townsend said:  "The wine produced in this district is of the best quality, and I do not doubt that it would be greatly sought after in England as soon as communication by sea can be established."

The last great battle fought by Cariñena wines took place at the end of the 19^th century.  Phylloxera had destroyed French vineyards, and several French wine-growing families settled in the Cariñena area of Aragon, which from then on developed a significant level of commercial and scientific activity that led to--amongst other things--the building of a narrow-gauge railway line between Cariñena and Zaragoza.  The line was inaugurated in 1887, and was used to export production from the area.  In 1932 the "Denomination of Origin" system was established as well as the Estación Enológica de Cariñena (Cariñena Œnological Station), which boosts the development of new cultivation and manufacturing techniques.  However, the Civil War and its consequences meant that the focus on quality was held back until the 1970s, shortly after the wines began to be bottled.  http://www.docarinena.com/do-carinena/history/?idioma=2

Mapped:  The 7,000 languages across the world by Ashley Kirk   There are thought to be more than 7,000 languages around the world, shared between almost seven billion speakers.  These languages are spread unevenly across the globe, with Asia and Africa being home to higher levels of linguistic diversity.  Some languages could be spoken by fewer than 36 people--with Pitcaim, the country with the fewest speakers per language, having two languages for a population of just 36 speakers.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/12066200/Mapped-The-7000-languages-across-the-world.html

Cracking the code to speak Cherokee by Dale Neal   How you talk is how you conceptualize the world.  To speak Cherokee is to see the world around you as a verb.  Where English focuses on the world of things, or noun as objects and subjects, separate from verbs.  Cherokee words are more complex, building root verbs to convey meanings that it takes a whole phrase or even sentence to convey in English.  Once he found the root verbs, John Standingdeer Jr. could see how to conjugate Cherokee words through the 17 verb tenses and the 10 persons compared to the six used in English.  Standingdeer's discovery led to an algorithm and a nifty piece of computer software.  In October 2015, the U.S. Patent Office issued Standingdeer a patent for his idea for “Deconstruction and Construction of Polysynthetic Words for Translation Purposes.”  He has launched a company Flying Lizard Languages LLC, offering online classes at the learning site, Your Grandmother’s Cherokee.  http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/12/30/cracking-code-speak-cherokee/77744120/

The Du Pont family is an American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817).  Since the 19th century the Du Pont family has been one of the richest families in America.  Many former Du Pont family estates have been opened to the public as museums, gardens, or parks, such as Nemours Mansion and Gardens, Longwood Gardens, and Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.  The family's first American estate, located at Hagley Museum and Library, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.  The usual spelling of the family name is du Pont when quoting an individual's full name and Du Pont when speaking of the family as a whole; some individual Du Ponts have chosen to spell it differently, perhaps most notably Samuel Francis Du Pont.  However, the name of the chemical company founded by the family is commonly referred to as DuPont, or, in the long form, E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Pont_family 

E.I. du Pont moved to the United States after the French Revolution.  In 1802, he started a gunpowder mill on the Brandywine River in Delaware.  His profits exploded when the U.S. government placed orders with him for the troops fighting in the War of 1812.  E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company lives on as DuPont, with headquarters in Delaware and offices around the world.  E.I. du Pont was born Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours on June 24, 1771, in Paris.  His father, Pierre Du Pont de Nemours, was a watchmaker by trade and later a publisher.  In the years before the French Revolution, Pierre advised the monarchy on economic matters and was connected to Louis XVI.  As a youth, du Pont was not interested in academics, but showed a fascination with explosives, engaging in his own independent research.  See a video at http://www.biography.com/people/eleuthere-irenee-du-pont-9281759

From a dangerous beginning manufacturing gun powder along the banks of the Brandywine River to the company's world-wide operations today, the DuPont family has fueled the growth and development of Wilmington and the Brandywine Valley over the course of centuries.  HAGLEY MUSEUM AND LIBRARY  Set on 235-acres along the Brandywine, Hagley Museum and Library includes the original DuPont Company gunpowder mills and the first DuPont family home in America.  WINTERTHUR MUSEUM, GARDEN & LIBRARY  Founded by Henry Francis du Pont, Winterthur is the premier museum of American decorative arts.  Its 60-acre naturalistic garden is among the country's best, and its research library serves scholars from around the world.  NEMOURS MANSION AND GARDENS  Nemours is the grandest residence ever constructed in Delaware, a full one-acre of space under a roof.  It is furnished with an eclectic collection of rare furniture and great art.  Nemours is also arguably North America's finest formal French garden and includes a centerpiece reflecting pool with 157 jets at the center shooting water 12 feet into the air.  LONGWOOD GARDENS  Known to many as the world's premier horticultural showplace, Pierre Samuel Du Pont's Longwood Gardens, set on 1,077 acres, offer breathtaking displays year-round.  http://www.visitwilmingtonde.com/media/story-ideas/dupont-legacy/

From Muse reader:  "My favorite elision is fo’c’s’le, a shortened form of forecastle, which was the living quarters of the crew on the upper deck forward of the fore mast on sailing ships." 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1413  January 22, 2016  On this date in 1849,  Johan August Strindberg, a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter, was born.  He wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and politics.  He is considered the "father" of modern Swedish literature and his The Red Room (1879) has frequently been described as the first modern Swedish novel.   On this date in 1858, Martha Beatrice Webb, an English sociologist, economist, socialist, labour historian and social reformer, was born.  It was Webb who coined the term "collective bargaining".  She was among the founders of the London School of Economics and played a crucial role in forming the Fabian Society.