Pluff mud or “plough mud,” depending on the century of your birth, is an oozy, viscous, dark-brown miasma.  The origin and the accompanying smell is the rare confluence of abundant life and death.  According to legend, the mud was used to fertilize cotton fields that had become depleted of nutrients.  This garnered the alternate spelling of “plough.”  Others contend that the name was born of onomatopoeia, imitating the sound it emits when stepped into.  Regardless of the true etymology, it is one of those words that just feels good coming off the tongue.  It’s plain fun to say.  You can’t really call yourself a Charlestonian until you have sacrificed a shoe or two to its gooey, vise-like clutch.  Buff Ross http://charlestonmag.com/features/pluff_mud

Benne wafers have been a Lowcountry favorite in the Charleston area for over a hundred years.  These tiny cookies, or wafers, are each made by hand with the same care used in the plantation kitchens of the past.  West African slaves introduced sesame seeds to America, and the Nigerian name for them, “benne,” stuck in the South Carolina Lowcountry.   Find recipe for benne wafers and link to other recipes at http://charlestongateway.com/benne-wafers/  See also Benne Seeds in the Lowcountry by Nic Butler from a Charleston County Public Library website at https://charlestontimemachine.org/2015/04/24/benne-seeds-in-the-lowcountry/

PARAPHRASES from The Trust, a novel by Norb Vonnegut   Flying insects enjoy air supremacy over Charleston. * Try to defuse the threat with "How can we help?" 

January 29, 2013  I met--and heard about--Norb Vonnegut for the first time this month through the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library.  What a nice guy (besides being a best-selling author).  He’s also fourth cousin to Kurt Vonnegut.  “Unlike Kurt, I didn’t set out to be a writer,” he told those of us who gathered to listen to him on the library’s second anniversary.  “I grew up in a modest home, with a modest family income.  My goal was to live a life that wasn’t so modest, frankly.  I went into finance for that reason.”  Norb worked for five years as a commercial banker and 15 years managing wealth for “really wealthy individuals” on Wall Street.  On his website, his bio reads:  When money talks . . . I listen.  Always have.  I’m fascinated by what can go wrong and spent years on Wall Street dealing with the problems of wealth. Morgan Stanley, Paine Webber, and Kidder Peabody’ve been around the block.  Back then, my job was to protect clients from market disasters.  And boy, did they need protection.  Norb saw even more of the bad side of hedge fund managers--“hedgies,” he calls them--than the rest of us will likely ever hear about.  Now, he turns what he observed into pretty thrilling novels, with characters based on those real-life Wall Street people he came across.  He’s published Top Producer, The Trust, The Gods of Greenwich and Mr. President.  In a stroke of monumental bad luck, his first book, Top Producer, was released on the same day as Dan Brown’s sequel to The DaVinci Code.   And it didn’t help that Norb hadn’t told anyone he was writing a book.  One Saturday afternoon, his wife Mary snuck into Norb’s basement office with a thumb drive and downloaded files from his computer.  The next night, he heard her laughing boisterously, something she rarely did.  “After our usual Sunday night spaghetti dinner, when the kids left the table, she said those four words no husband wants to hear:  ‘We need to talk.’  My heart sank.  But then she pulled out this flash drive and says, ‘I stole your book.  I read your book.  I love your book.  Finish your book.’  Today, Norb remains on something of a mission.  “In 2010, if you looked at the top 25 hedge fund managers in the U.S. and how much money they made, you’d find out they earned $22 billion.  That’s not right.”  It angers him because these “hedgies”  aren’t creating anything.  “Bill Gates created a real company.  He’s hired a lot of people, given a lot of money to other people.  He did a real thing.  These hedgies don’t.”  Norb plans to continue telling these people’s stories.  He says there’s a lot of good stuff on Wall Street, but there’s a lot of bad stuff, too.  “My hope is to become the John Grisham of Wall Street, hopefully with a little of Kurt Vonnegut’s  snarkiness,” he laughed.  http://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/when-money-talks-norb-vonnegut-listens/

A kipper is a fat, juicy herring that has been split, gutted, salted and smoked.  One of the sad things in the history of kippering (a curing process invented in the 1840s by a man called John Woodger) is that since World War II--when some foods were required by weight rather than number--most kippers have been under-cured, because curing removes moisture and therefore weight.  Most kippers today are also dyed:  this is done to compensate for what would otherwise be their anaemic under-cured appearance.  Some undyed kippers are still available from parts of Scotland and the Isle of Man, but they’re mainly available only in the north-west.  Look for plumpness, oiliness, a silvery golden colour and a good smoky smell in a kipper.  All fish (and meat) tastes better cooked on the bone, and kippers are no exception.  They are excellent baked in a hot oven, but line the baking tray with foil to avoid any fishy flavours.  I also think grilling is the best way to cook them. ‘But what about the smell?’ you’re thinking.  No problem if you cook them the very best way of all and that’s on the barbecue.  If you have an aversion to bones, you can of course buy kipper fillets:  treat them in just the same way.  http://www.deliaonline.com/ingredient/kippers  See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/search

"Flexibility is the hallmark of maturity."  "A deal implies reciprocity."  Therapy, #18 in the Alex Delaware series of psychological thrillers, by Jonathan Kellerman

mogul (noun 1)  "powerful person," 1670s, from Great Mogul, Mongol emperor of India after the conquest of 1520s, from Persian and Arabic mughal, mughul, alteration of Mongol (q.v.), the Asiatic people.  mogul (noun 2)  "elevation on a ski slope," 1961, probably [Barnhart] from Scandinavian (compare dialectal Norwegian mugje, fem. muga, "a heap, a mound"), or [OED] from southern German dialect mugel in the same sense.  http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mogul

See also http://www.memidex.com/mogul+ruler

June 16, 2007  Amazon Patents Tech to Block In-Store Comparison Shopping by Matthew Humphries   If you visit an Amazon Store, don't expect to be able to compare prices using your smartphone.  Amazon's patent describes blocking such checks and sending a sales rep over to see you.  Amazon dominates online shopping, and is now looking offline for further expansion, with Amazon bookstores and even an AI-enhanced grocery store popping up in the real world.  But while Amazon stores can hook you up with the latest best-seller or ingredients for avocado toast, you might not be able to comparison shop while there.  Squawker brought to our attention a new patent granted to Amazon carrying the rather sinister title of "Physical Store Online Shopping Control."  Retailers are well-aware that when shopping in their physical stores, many consumers pull out their phone and start comparing prices.  If a product is cheaper elsewhere, chances are the store they are standing in loses a sale. Amazon doesn't want shoppers doing that in its own stores, and the technology described in this patent ensures they cannot.  Smartphones are typically set up to use the best signal they can find in an area, which includes freely accessible Wi-Fi. Amazon knows this and will happily offer you free Wi-Fi access when walking around its physical stores.  But when accessing their Wi-Fi, Amazon intends to monitor what you are doing.  If its monitoring system detects you are attempting to compare prices, it will take action.  http://www.pcmag.com/news/354373/amazon-patents-blocking-price-comparisons-in-its-stores

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1726  June 19, 2017  On this date in 1910, the first Father's Day was celebrated in Spokane, Washington.  On this day in 1943, the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL merged for one season due to player shortages caused by World War II.