Horror Express, also known as Pánico en el Transiberiano (Panic on the Trans-Siberian Express), is a 1972 Spanish-British horror film produced by Bernard Gordon and Gregorio Sacristan, directed by Eugenio Martín, that stars Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Alberto de Mendoza and Telly Savalas.  It was written by Arnaud d'Usseau and Julian Zimet (credited as Julian Halevy).  The film was loosely based on the 1938 science fiction novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell.  (The novella was also the basis for three film adaptations titled The Thing).  Read more and link to information on composer John Cacavas at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_Express

Rio Douro roughly translates from Portuguese as "river of gold."  When the setting sun catches it right, you can see why.  The waters gleam like liquid bullion bars.  The Douro cuts across northern Portugal, snaking 200 miles from rugged wilderness on the Spanish frontier to the old city of Oporto and the Atlantic beyond.  Grapes grown on its steeply rising banks have been sending forth legendary port wines for centuries.  It may be the world's most beautiful wine region.  Not enough?  It's also got spectacular landscapes and a scattering of World Heritage sites.  Read more and see pictures at

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/02/travel/portugal-douro/

In Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll parodies well-known poems.  Examples: *  Against Idleness and Mischief by Isaac Watts (How doth the little busy bee) became How Doth the Little Crocodile (How doth the little crocodile).  *  The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them by Robert Southey ("You are old, father William," the young man cried) became You are Old, Father William  ("You are old, father William," the young man said).  *  Speak Gently, by David Bates (Speak gently!  It is better far)  became Speak Roughly (Speak roughly to your little boy). *  The Star by Jane Taylor (Twinkle, twinkle, little star) became The Mad Hatter's Song (Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!).  * The Spider And The Fly by Mary Howitt ("Will you walk into my parlor?" said the spider to the fly) became The Lobster Quadrille ("Will you walk a little faster?" said a whiting to a snail).  *  The Sluggard by Isaac Watts ('Tis the voice of the sluggard; I heard him complain) became 'Tis the Voice of the Lobster ('Tis the voice of the Lobster:  I heard him declare).  *  Star of the Evening by James M. Sayles (Beautiful star in heav'n so bright) became Turtle Soup (Beautiful Soup, so rich and green).  Jonathan Klassen  Read entire poems at http://english.scu.edu.tw/jmklassen/scu102/102a-ChLit/chlit-alicepoem.htm 

STATE TRIVIA  Q.  What two state capitals rhyme?  A.  Austin and Boston.   Q.  How do you pronounce Pierre, the capital of South Dakota?  A.  Peer.

The common button or white mushroom, the crimini or brown mushroom, and the portobello mushroom are all the same species of mushroom.  Agaricus bisporus has increased in popularity in North America with the introduction of two brown strains, Portabella (sometimes also spelled portobello, portabello, or portobella) and Crimini.  Portabella is a marketing name the mushroom industry came up with for more flavorful brown strains of Agaricus bisporus that are allowed to open to expose the mature gills with brown spores; crimini is actually the same brown strain that is not allowed to open before it is harvested.  http://kottke.org/16/03/button-crimini-and-portobello-are-all-the-same-mushroom  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agaricus_bisporus

August 12, 2008  Octopuses use two of their long tentacle-like limbs as legs.  A study by scientists at Sea Life centres across Europe found that the invertebrates move across the sea bed using their two rearmost limbs, leaving the other six free for the important business of feeding.  Researchers who observed the creatures in action found they push off with the "legs" and then employ the other tentacles to pump themselves along.  David Thomas  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2547597/Octopuses-have-two-legs-and-six-arms.html

Words in octo- are usually of Latin origin, ones in octa- from Greek.  See Affixes:  the building blocks of English at http://www.affixes.org/o/octo-.html  See also Numbers Prefixes at http://www.sightwordsgame.com/spelling/prefixes/numbers/

Vermillion Falls is located in downtown Hastings Minnesota.  This is an urban waterfall, and apparently was once a working waterfall.  A large factory is located right next to the falls.  The falls is located in Vermillion Falls Park, which is located on 26th Street just off of Vermillion St (aka US 61).  There is another Vermillion Falls located in Minnesota far to the north near Crane Lake.  The northern Vermillion Falls is smaller, perhaps being better described as a rapids, but much, much wilder.  http://www.gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/vermillion.shtml  See also Great Lakes Waterfalls and Beyond at http://www.gowaterfalling.com/index.shtml

The First Ladies National Historic Site, in Canton, Ohio, operated and managed by the National First Ladies' Library, is housed in two buildings.  One is the Ida Saxton McKinley Historic Home and the other building, just a block north, is the Education & Research Center where the museum is housed.  Read about tours and link to other information at http://www.firstladies.org/mapdirections.aspx

Butter is a solid dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk, to separate the butterfat from the buttermilk.  It is generally used as a spread on plain or toasted bread products and a condiment on cooked vegetables, as well as in cooking, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying.  Butter consists of butterfat, milk proteins and water.  Most frequently made from cows' milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks.  Salt such as dairy salt, flavorings and preservatives are sometimes added to butter.  Rendering butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.  Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream; in a water-in-oil emulsion, the milk proteins are the emulsifiers.  Butter remains a solid when refrigerated, but softens to a spreadable consistency at room temperature, and melts to a thin liquid consistency at 32–35 °C (90–95 °F).  It generally has a pale yellow color, but varies from deep yellow to nearly white.  Its unmodified color is dependent on the animals' feed and is commonly manipulated with food colorings in the commercial manufacturing process, most commonly annatto or carotene.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter

Moby-Dick (1851) is a whaling novel by Herman Melville. While some characters only appear in the shore-chapters at the beginning of the book, and others are captains and crewmembers of other ships, the majority of the characters are crewmembers of the Pequod.  Starbuck, the young chief mate of the Pequod, is a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker from Nantucket.  He is married with a son. Such is his desire to return to them, that when nearly reaching the last leg of their quest for Moby Dick, he  considers arresting or even killing Ahab with a loaded musket, and turning the ship back, straight for home.  Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal, which lacks reason; such a desire is blasphemous to his Quaker religion.  Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil.  But he lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back.  Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain.  Starbuck was an important Quaker family name on Nantucket, and there were several actual whalemen of this period named Starbuck, as evidenced by the name of Starbuck Island in the South Pacific whaling grounds.  The multinational coffee chain Starbucks was named after Starbuck, not due to any affinity for coffee, but because the name "Pequod" was first rejected by one of the co-founders.  Find all characters described at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Moby-Dick_characters

Paraphrases from Bullseye, book #9 in the Michael Bennett series, by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge  The family that watches soccer together stays together.  The bass hum of the craft's turboshaft engine suddenly became molar-loosening.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1552  November 18, 2016  On this date in 1865, Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published in the New York Saturday Press.  On this date in 1878, soprano Marie Selika Williams ("Queen of Staccato") became the first black artist to perform at the White House.