Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie:  The danger of a single story  filmed July 2009 at TEDGlobal 2009  https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story  18:49  The New York Times Book Review asked novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to write a short story about the American election.  Titled The Arrangements, a work of fiction, it is due to be published July 3, 2016.

Seth Meyers doesn’t mind if you call him bookish.  One of the first things you notice about the Emmy-nominated Saturday Night Live head writer who became the host of NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers in 2014, is how much he loves doing a deep dive into anything literary.  He grew up loving to read and spent many an hour in his Bedford, N.H., hometown library.  “Both of my parents were huge readers,” says Meyers of his “pretty chatty family,” made up of his mom, Hilary, a French teacher, his dad, Laurence, who worked in finance, and his younger brother, Josh, an actor.  “When we went on vacation, everyone was responsible for having enough books to make it through without bothering the others.  That was a big jumping-off point. I’ve never wanted to go anywhere without a book.”  On the job at NBC, Meyers says authors are among his favorite guests. Si ce the show’s inception in 2014, he’s featured 52—and counting—including one of his favorites, Junot Díaz, whose 2007 novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, received widespread acclaim and numerous awards.  “Many authors on our show have never been on a talk show before, but the reality is that whatever fears they have about being on TV are trumped by their natural abilities as story- tellers,” he says.  Or maybe it’s just that Meyers puts them at ease.  “I think authors are the people you want to end up next to at a dinner party,” he says.  Lambeth Hochwald  http://parade.com/486454/lhochwald/seth-meyers-loves-books-and-late-nights/

The idea of "mansplaining"—explaining without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer, often done by a man to a woman—has exploded into mainstream political commentary.  In the Sept. 1903 issue of The Atlantic, New England theologian Lyman Abbott wrote an article called "Why Women Do Not Wish the Suffrage."  http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/03sep/0309suffrage.htm   Abbott writes:  I believe it is because woman feels, if she does not clearly see, that the question of woman suffrage is more than merely political; that it concerns the nature and structure of society,—the home, the church, the industrial organism, the state, the social fabric.  And to a change which involves a revolution in all of these she interposes an inflexible though generally a silent opposition.  It is for these silent women—whose voices are not heard in conventions, who write no leaders, deliver no lectures, and visit no legislative assemblies—that I speak.  The commonly cited birthday of the idea is 2008.  That year, a portion of an essay by Rebecca Solnit, called "Men Explain Things To Me," appeared in the Los Angeles Times.  http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/13/opinion/op-solnit13  Solnit didn't use the word "mansplain"; she merely, well, explained it, describing the time a man explained a book to her without acknowledging that she herself wrote it.  Lily Rothman  Find amusing cartoon at  http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2012/11/a-cultural-history-of-mansplaining/264380/

Offspring of mansplain:  womansplain coined in 2013(?)  taxsplain coined in 2014(? )

Stationary or stationery?  This pair of confusable homophones (words that sound the same) and near-homographs (words that are spelled the same) causes no end of spelling-related fails: 

Stationary  This word is an adjective, and in general use, it means ‘not moving, or not meant to move’.  There are two specialized meanings of stationary, related to stability or lack of movement:  (1)  not changing in quantity or condition and (2) having no apparent motion or longitude.  Stationery  This is a noun, with two meanings, both related to paper goods:  (1) items such as paper, pens, folders, notebooks used in an office and (2) specially designed and printed notepaper, envelopes, invitations, etc.  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/04/stationary-or-stationery/  MEMORY AID  Think of the a in stationary as an anchor.

Compliment or complement?  If you compliment someone, you are expressing admiration for them, or praising them for something.  If one thing complements another, each of the two separate items function or look better because they are together--they both contribute something that enhances or improves the overall effect.  http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/04/compliment-or-complement/

MEMORY AID  Think of the first e in complement as enhance or effect.

Ronald (Ron) Chernow (born 1949) is an American writer, journalist, historian, and biographer.  Historian Andrew Cayton said, "Chernow is no ordinary writer.  Like his popular biographies of John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton, his Washington while long, is vivid and well paced.  If Chernow's sense of historical context is sometimes superficial, his understanding of psychology is acute and his portraits of individuals memorable."  He won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the 2011 American History Book Prize for his book, Washington: A Life.  He is also the recipient of the National Book Award for Nonfiction for his 1990 book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance.   His biographies of Alexander Hamilton and John D. Rockefeller Sr. were both nominated for National Book Critics Circle Awards, while The Warburgs:  The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family was honored with the 1993 George S. Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing.  As a freelance journalist, he has written over 60 articles in national publications.  Find Chernow's honors and awards, published works, and filmography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Chernow

"History Makers:  A Conversation" An interview with Ron Chernow by Kenneth T. Jackson and Valerie Paley   See 65-page document at http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibition.org/about/Ron%20Chernow%20Interview.pdf

Who owns the minerals under Ohio Township Section 16? by Porter Wright   In the Federal Land Ordinance of 1785, Ohio was required to reserve one section of land (i.e., one square mile, usually section 16), in every Ohio township for the support of public education.  Extending that federal mandate, in 1917, the Ohio Legislature passed a law that, among other provisions, provided, “It is declared to be the policy of the state to conserve . . .  mineral resources of the [school lands held in trust] . . .  and to this end the state reserves all gas, oil, coal, iron and other minerals that may be upon or under the said school lands . . . . ” H.B. No. 192, passed March, 20, 1917 (107 Ohio Laws 357).  Read part one of the report at http://www.oilandgaslawreport.com/2013/07/12/who-owns-the-minerals-under-ohio-township-section-16/  followed by part two at http://www.oilandgaslawreport.com/2013/07/26/part-2-who-owns-the-minerals-under-ohio-township-section-16/ and part 3 at http://www.oilandgaslawreport.com/2013/07/26/part-2-who-owns-the-minerals-under-ohio-township-section-16/  Thank you, Muse reader!

Why do commentators rank basketball players over or under others in their playing ability?  See an example at http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/charles-barkley-still-refuses-to-put-lebron-among-the-greatest/  I don't recall this "listing" happening in other sports, or in other fields--such as music and art.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1490  June 29, 2016  On this date in 1858, George Washington Goethals, American general and engineer, co-designer of the Panama Canal, was born.  On this date in 1898, Yvonne Lefébure, French pianist and educator, was born.