Frank Lloyd Wright at 150:  Unpacking the Archive  June 12–October 1, 2017  The Museum of Modern Art   Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the most prolific and renowned architects of the 20th century, a radical designer and intellectual who embraced new technologies and materials, pioneered do-it-yourself construction systems as well as avant-garde experimentation, and advanced original theories with regards to nature, urban planning, and social politics.  Marking the 150th anniversary of the American architect’s birth on June 8, 1867, MoMA presents Frank Lloyd Wright at 150:  Unpacking the Archive, a major exhibition that critically engages his multifaceted practice.  The exhibition comprises approximately 450 works made from the 1890s through the 1950s, including architectural drawings, models, building fragments, films, television broadcasts, print media, furniture, tableware, textiles, paintings, photographs, and scrapbooks, along with a number of works that have rarely or never been publicly exhibited.  https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1660

In 1947, Bell Labs succeeded in putting together a tiny contraption they had concocted from some strips of gold foil . . . when wiggled just right, it could amplify an electric current and switch it on and off.  The transistor, as the device was soon named, became to the digital age what the steam engine was to the Industrial Revolution.  The transistor radio became the first major example of a defining theme of the digital age:  technology making devices personal.  To perform quickly, machines needed not just hardware, but software.  In 1948, Alan Turing wrote:  The engineering problem of producing various machines for various jobs is replaced by the office work of 'programming' the universal machine to do these jobs.  In 1965, J.C.R. Licklider said that digital information would not completely replace print:  "As a medium for the display of information, the printed page is superb."   In 1995, Stewart Brand wrote in an essay We Owe It All to the Hippies:  “The counterculture's scorn for centralized authority provided the philosophical foundations of the entire personal-computer revolution.”  The Innovators by Walter Isaacson

Check out the newly renovated Sanger Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and see the prolific best-selling author Karen Robards at the same time:  Wednesday, June 14 at 7 p.m.  She's visiting to discuss her brand new book and series The Ultimatum.  The event is free and open to the public.  Her presentation will be followed by Q and A, and copies of her books will be available for purchase and to have signed.  Karen Robards is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly best-selling author of more than fifty books and one novella.  Karen published her first novel at age 24 and has won multiple awards throughout her career, including six Silver Pens for favorite author. 

Feedback to A.Word.A.Day  PALINDROMES

From:  Eric F Plumlee  One of my favorite songs by the band They Might Be Giants, released on their “Apollo 18” album, is the song I Palindrome I.  It contains several palindromes of different types including letters, words, concepts, and the music itself.  A puzzle in a song, I love it!

From:  Michael Klossner  Robert Trebor was the actor who played Salmoneus, a comic relief character in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena:  Warrior Princess.  Because of his name, his online fans called themselves “The Palindrome Pals”.

From:  Jac Dittmar  Here in Adelaide (South Australia), we have the seaside suburb Glenelg.

June 8, 2017  Sweden's new Museum of Failure shows innovations whose creators risked, but which ultimately failed.  More than 60 innovations from around the world which were not successful are now on show at the museum in the Swedish town of Helsingborg.  But one shouldn't be misguided that the name of exhibition is meant sarcastically--quite the contrary.  "Failure is necessary for innovations; it's an important part of the development process," museum director Samuel West recently told US news channel CNN.  Learning from mistakes is essential, so they should not be demonized.  That wisdom is what sparked the idea for the museum.  Max Hunger  http://www.dw.com/en/top-of-the-flops-highlights-of-the-museum-of-failure-in-sweden/a-39158523

TOLEDO BOTANICAL GARDEN 2017

Hort Walk  second Mondays June 12-October 9

52nd Crosby Festival of the Arts  June 24-25

Hops & Crops  June 28, July 26, August 30

Jazz in the Garden  Thursdays July 13-August 31

Harvest Market Dinner  September 25

Weed & Wine  third Wednesdays through October 18

A Garden of Wonders:  Stone Sculptures of Zimbabwe  September 1-October 30  100 garden-size stone sculptures located throughout TBG's 66-acre Elmer Drive campus.

Heralding the Holidays  December 1-2

NAME CHANGES  American actress and coloratura soprano Kathryn Grayson  (born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick 1922, died 2010)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Grayson  American film and television actor Peter Graves (born Peter Duesler Aurness 1926, died 2010)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Graves  American actor Adam West (born William West Anderson 1928, died June 9, 2017) http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/adam-west-dead-dies-batman-1202461532/

Them! is a 1954 American black-and-white science fiction monster film from Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by David Weisbart, directed by Gordon Douglas, that stars James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, and James Arness*.  The film is based on an original story treatment by George Worthing Yates, which was then developed into a screenplay by Ted Sherdeman and Russell Hughes.  Them! is one of the first of the 1950s "nuclear monster" films, and the first "big bug" feature.  A nest of gigantic irradiated ants is discovered in the New Mexico desert; they quickly become a national threat when it is discovered a young queen ant and her consorts have escaped to establish a new nest.  The national search that follows finally culminates in a battle with Them in the concrete spillways and sewers of Los Angeles.  Leonard Nimoy has a small, uncredited part as a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant in the communications room.  John Wayne saw the film and, impressed with Arness' performance, recommended him for the role of Marshal Matt Dillon in the new Gunsmoke TV series, a role that Arness went on to play from 1955 to 1975.  Van Morrison's band Them was named after this film.  New Jersey punk band the Misfits has a song titled "Them!", with lyrics directly inspired by the film, on their 1999 release Famous Monsters.  The video game series It Came From the Desert was inspired by Them!  Eight Legged Freaks features a scene in which sequences from the film are included.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them!  *James Arness was born James King Aurness.  Three books have Them in the title:  Them (novel), by Joyce Carol Oates (1969), Them: A Novel, by Nathan McCall (2007) and Them: Adventures with Extremists, by Jon Ronson (2003).  Find more uses of Them as a title at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them

Belmont Stakes results  Tapwrit outlasted Irish War Cry, who finished second, and Patch finished third in the 1 ½-mile Test of Champions on June 10, 2017.  See order of finish, prize winnings, and link to replay of race at http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2715004-belmont-stakes-2017-payout-triple-crown-field-times-and-prize-money-earnings

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1722  June 12, 2017  On this date in 1939, the Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York.  On this date in 1942, Anne Frank received a diary for her thirteenth birthday.