Friday, May 12, 2017

The first Roman amphitheaters were built in the 1st century BC from wood and were designed by rotating and joining two theaters built back-to-back so that they formed an oval.  Amphitheatre in fact means “double theatre”.  Located in every corner of the Roman Empire, more than 230 amphitheaters have been found, from the mighty Colosseum (construction was started by emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty in 72 AD and was finished by his son Titus in 80 AD.) in Rome to the arena ruins of Chester, England.  See pictures and descriptions of ten famous Roman ampitheatres at http://www.touropia.com/roman-amphitheaters/  For a list of contemporary ampitheatres, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contemporary_amphitheatres

The Latin word ambi means 'on both sides' or 'both ways'.  The Greek word amphi means the same thing.  Some words beginning with ambi:  ambidextrous (adj) - able to use either hand equally well.  ambiguous (adj) - having an obscure or double meaning; difficult to classify.  ambivalence (n) - coexistence in one person of opposing feelings towards a thing or person.  amphibian (n) - an animal that can live on land as well as water, for example, a frog.  http://prefixpower.blogspot.com/2008/08/ambi-amphi-both-around.html

Florence Nightingale was born May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy and was named after the city of her birth.  She died on August 13, 1910, at the age of 90 after living a long, productive life in which her ideas and contributions helped to shape the way nursing is practiced in the western world.  In the Victorian era, nursing was considered a lowly and menial profession in England, and Florence Nightingale’s refusal to marry at age 17 to pursue it disappointed her parents.  In July 1850 Nightingale enrolled for 2 weeks of training and enrolled again in July 1851 for 3 more months at the Institution of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserswerth, Germany.  There she learned basic nursing skills such as the value of patient observation and good hospital organization.  This training and later experiences helped Nightingale form her revolutionary theories.  These theories were further enhanced at Middlesex hospital for governesses, where Nightingale worked as a superintendent.  She struggled there to control a cholera outbreak and the unsanitary conditions that aided in the rapid spread of the disease.  She made it her mission to improve the hygiene practices of the facility, which ended up significantly reducing mortality at the hospital.  After the Crimean War of 1853 she returned home to a hero’s welcome and was awarded the “Nightingale Jewel,” a brooch with an engraved dedication from Queen Victoria, for her service in the Crimea.  She was also granted a prize of $250,000 from the British government and used the money to establish St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses.  In 1859 Florence Nightingale published a 136 book page entitled Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is Not.  The book was meant to give hints for thought on how to nurse a sick patient rather than to serve as a comprehensive manual on how to become a nurse.  The book covers topics vital to nurses today such as confidentiality, cleanliness, observation (assessment), quality and safety.  The P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library owns a copy of this book.  See graphics at http://library.uthscsa.edu/2015/02/the-lady-with-the-lamp-and-her-contributions-to-modern-nursing/

The P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio houses approximately 6,000 rare and classic texts in the history of medicine, nursing, dentistry, and other health care disciplines, dating from the 15th to early 20th centuries. The Nixon Library also houses the University Archives and a small collection of local historical documents.  http://library.uthscsa.edu/2011/11/nixon-library/

“We don’t have a culture for using spices” in America, says Lior Lev Sercarz, chef and owner of New York spice store La Boite, “but, at the same time, everybody uses them, so there is hope.”  If you take his suggestion to blend the spices in your pantry into new combinations, he says, those blends can be used endlessly—in scrambled eggs, stir-fries, stews and soups, sprinkled onto toast, or even infused into sparkling water.  When creating blends, add varying amounts of ingredients to a bowl, tasting every so often to adjust to your palate.  Some spices— such as cumin, caraway and mustard seeds— do well when they’ve been lightly toasted in a dry pan over low heat or in the oven, to help release their oils.  Remember to play with textures as well, which creates layers of flavor:  keep some seeds whole; finely chop dried citrus peel, and lightly crush dried herbs.  For grinding, a standard coffee grinder (it’s best to have one dedicated for spices) will do the job well; as Sercarz notes, a mortar and pestle looks pretty on the countertop, but it’ll take a lot longer to grind those spices to the right consistency.  Which spices are essential to keep on hand?  He suggests chile powder, paprika (he favors smoked), cinnamon, fennel or anise, and cumin or caraway.  “Add some good salt and pepper, and you’re on your way,” he says.    Kristen Hartke  Find five blend suggestions from Sercarz’s book, “The Spice Companion: A Guide to the World of Spices” (Clarkson Potter, 2016) at

Pump priming is the action taken to stimulate an economy, usually during a recessionary period, through government spending, and interest rate and tax reductions.  The term pump priming is derived from the operation of older pumps; a suction valve had to be primed with water so that the pump would function properly.  Pump priming involves introducing relatively small amounts of government funds into a depressed economy in order to spur growth.  This is accomplished through the increase in purchasing power experienced by those affected by the injection of funds, with the goal of prompting higher demand for goods and services.  The increase in demand experienced through pump priming can lead to increased profitability within the private sector, which assists with overall economic recovery.  Pump priming relates to the Keynesian economic theory, named after noted economist John Maynard Keynes, which states that government intervention within the economy, aimed at increasing aggregate demand, can result in a positive shift within the economy.  This is based on the cyclic nature of money within an economy, in which one person’s spending directly relates to another person’s earnings, and that increase in earnings leads to a subsequent increase in spending.  The phrase originated with President Hoover's creation of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932, which was designed to make loans to banks and industry.  This was taken one step further by 1933, when President Roosevelt felt that pump-priming would be the only way for the economy to recover from the Great Depression.  Read more at  

"'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" comes from the 1976 movie Network.  Peter Finch, is a network news anchor who is going insane—or, alternatively, the only one seeing the world clearly.  This frustration is what the Spirit Airlines passengers were feeling on May 9, 2017.  This rant is even more apropos today with people not only watching TV but spending their lives melded into their cell phones and immersed in Facebook.  Martha, I thought you would enjoy remembering Network in this context.  What a terrific movie.  A friend  lives in Bristol in the UK.  I teased her when the Scots were voting on secession, telling her that if the resolution passed, you couldn’t call England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the United Kingdom, as it was the union of England and Scotland that produced that name.  But you could easily rename the country by simply reversing two letters:  the Untied Kingdom.  Thank you, Muse reader!

May 9, 2017  Brouhaha Breaks Out At Spirit Airlines' Ticket Counter.  Here's The Back Story  http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/09/527578187/brouhaha-breaks-out-at-spirit-airlines-ticket-counter-heres-the-backstory

May 10, 2017  Southwest flight 2530 had traveled Sunday from Dallas and was on a short layover at Hollywood Burbank Airport before continuing on to Oakland, California.  As the plane taxied to the gate, a fistfight broke out between two men, Burbank police said.  The altercation worsened as fellow passengers tried to get off the plane at the gate, the airline said.  Cell phone video that surfaced on social media shows two men apparently jostling for position near a row of seats.  Then one man forces the other over the backs of the seats in front of them.  He then leans over his fallen foe and unleashes a series of punches before fellow passengers rush in to stop the pummeling.  "What is wrong with you?" a female passenger asks. 


http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1708  May 12, 2017  On this date in 1551, National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas, was founded in Lima, Peru.  On this date in 1926, the Italian-built airship Norge became the first vessel to fly over the North Pole.

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