ERNIE BARNES “AMERICA’S EL GRECO”–1984 & 2004 SPORT ARTIST OF THE YEAR  “Throughout my five seasons in the arena of professional football, I remained at the deepest level of my being—an artist.” ~ Ernie Barnes  Ernest Eugene Barnes Jr. was born in Durham, North Carolina on July 15, 1938.  Barnes’ mother initiated his exposure to world culture by taking Ernie to the house where she worked as a domestic to meet her employer, Frank Fuller Jr., a wealthy attorney.  In Fuller’s study, Barnes was introduced to fine art.  I enjoyed this room of polished, mahogany walls with leather chairs, shelves of leather-bound books and the sound of classical music.”  Fuller recognized Barnes’ affinity for art and would tell him “about the various schools of art, his favorite painters, the museums he visited and other things my mind couldn’t quite comprehend at the age of seven.”  By the first grade, Barnes had been exposed to the masterpieces of Toulouse-Lautrec, Delacroix, Rubens, and Michelangelo.   As he continued to search for emotional truths in his sport paintings, Barnes “began distorting and elongating the proportions, trying to relate what it felt like within the context of a certain movement,” resulting in the characteristic elongation and disproportionate space in what came to be known as Neo-Mannerism.  Read much more, see graphics, and a map showing the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama at http://www.asama.org/awards-of-sport/medallion-series/sport-artist-of-the-year/ernie-barnes/ 

An exhibition running through March 3, 2019 at the North Carolina Museum of History in Durham showcases many unpublished Ernie Barnes original paintings, as well as artifacts from his life.  After five seasons as a professional football player, he retired at age 27 to pursue art.  In his prolific body of work, Barnes chronicled his personal experiences with football, music, dance, love, sports, education, church, and the South.  Widely-known as the real painter of the artwork in the groundbreaking African-American sitcom Good Times, Barnes' style has been widely imitated.  It is best exemplified by his iconic Sugar Shack dance scene that appeared on a Marvin Gaye album cover and in the closing credits of Good Times.  This painting, "The Sugar Shack," was inspired by an actual dance at the Durham Armory.  https://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/ernie-barnes

The term “hospice” (from the same linguistic root as “hospitality”) can be traced back to medieval times when it referred to a place of shelter and rest for weary or ill travelers on a long journey.  The name was first applied to specialized care for dying patients by physician Dame Cicely Saunders, who began her work with the terminally ill in 1948 and eventually went on to create the first modern hospice in 1967—St. Christopher’s Hospice—in a residential suburb of London.  Saunders introduced the idea of specialized care for the dying to the United States during a 1963 visit with Yale University.  Her lecture, given to medical students, nurses, social workers, and chaplains about the concept of holistic hospice care, included photos of terminally ill cancer patients and their families, showing the dramatic differences before and after the symptom control care.  See timeline at https://www.nhpco.org/history-hospice-care

In 2016, there were only two bank heists in all of Sweden, compared with 110 eight years earlier.  Why the steep plunge?  The country’s bent on going cashless.  In 1661, Sweden became the first European country to print banknotes; several centuries later, it might become the first country to get rid of them.  Card readers and mobile-payment apps are now used even in situations that were once reserved for dog-eared bills and pocket change, like donating in church.  Buses in Sweden don’t accept cash.  Neither do many street vendors.  Though the government is still printing Sweden’s national currency, the krona, two-thirds of Swedes say they feel that they could live without bills and coins.  According to the Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, cold hard kronor accounted for barely 2 percent of the value of all payments made in Sweden in 2015.  The bank projects that “cash will stick around until the 2030s,” but not necessarily longer.  Already, fewer than half of Swedish banks keep any on hand.  Sweden also has the lowest rate of ATM withdrawals as a percentage of GDP in the world, at a measly 2.5 percent.  As Sweden’s supply of banknotes continues to dwindle, criminals have shown new enthusiasm for the endangered-species black market, previously cornered by reptile wranglers and orchid thieves.  Crimes involving protected species recently reached their highest level in a decade.  A single great gray owl—known as the “phantom of the north”—now goes for 1 million kronor (about $120,000) on the dark web.  Crimes against people—assault, robbery, fraud—are also on the rise.  The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention found that in 2016, 15.6 percent of the country’s citizens fell prey to at least one such offense—the highest rate since the council launched its annual crime survey, 10 years before.  According to The Guardian, electronic fraud is increasing at an especially rapid clip in Sweden, more than doubling in the past decade.  Internet scams are especially popular with thieves and range from humdrum phishing expeditions (using emails to obtain valuable information like banking passwords) to more novel and clandestine hustles like “cryptojacking” (undetected use of computing power to mine virtual currencies).  James Graham  The Atlantic  June 2018  https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/stealing-owls/559136/  Thank you, Muse reader! 

What is the origin of the name of the number puzzle "sudoku"?  The characters mean "number" (sū) and "single" (doku).  It is pronounced like "sue dock".  However, the word "sudoku" is not in common use for these puzzles in Japan, and the word sūdoku is actually an invention.  https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/sudoku.html  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

The Spice Islands (Malaku, or the Moluccas) are a small group of islands to the north-east of Indonesia, between Celebes and New Guinea.  They include Halmahera (the largest), Seram, Buru, Ambon, Ternate, and Tidore and the Aru and Kai island groups.  They were known for being the largest producers of mace, nutmeg, cloves and pepper in the world.  There was a thriving trade in spices and other goods in the Far East for centuries before European vessels arrived in the Indian Ocean in 1498.  Spices were bought with Chinese silks, Indian cottons, Arabian coffee and African ivory.  Spices had been available in Europe throughout the Middle Ages but the prices were very high because they had to be shipped expensively overland through the hands of many traders.  Each trader made a profit and by the time the spices arrived in Venice (the chief point of trade contact between Europe and the East) they were often worth 1000% more than the original price paid for them in the Spice Islands.  https://www.rmg.co.uk/discover/explore/spice-islands

The Toledo Mud Hens are a minor league baseball team located in Toledo, Ohio.  The Mud Hens play in the International League, and are affiliated with the major league baseball team the Detroit Tigers, based approximately 50 miles to the north of Toledo.  The current team is one of several professional clubs that have existed in Toledo since 1883.  The name "Mud Hens" was first used in 1896, after the team was bought by Charles Strobel.  One of the two parks where the team played that year, Bay View Park, was adjacent to marshland which was inhabited by American Coots, also known as marsh hens or mud hens, from which the team adopted their name.  Toledo was without organized baseball for nine seasons (1956–64).  That was the city's longest stretch without professional ball since the 1880s.  Toledo is a special place to baseball historians due to its early (failed) attempt to break the color/race barrier in the game. The Toledo Blue Stockings operated during 1883–1885, including an entry in 1884 with the then-major American Association.  In the 1880s, before the major leagues stabilized, it was not unusual for a minor league team to be "promoted" to major league level for awhile.  The 1884 club was the only major league team with black players (Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Walker) prior to Jackie Robinson's appearance with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.  The refusal of prominent baseball figure Cap Anson to play the Toledo team, in an exhibition game with his Chicago White Stockings, accelerated the drawing of the color line.  Several minor league teams in Toledo lasted for short durations late in the 1880s and during the 1890s.  The team also returned to the AA in 1890, as the Toledo Maumees (some sources say their nickname was the Black Pirates).  That was one of several short-lived nicknames, including, the White Stockings.  It was in 1896 that the team acquired the nicknames "Swamp Angels" and "Mud Hens" due to the ballpark's proximity to marshlands and waterfowl.  "Mud Hens" gained popularity and has stuck with most of the Toledo teams ever since.  When the American Association revived as a minor league in 1902, the Mud Hens joined as a charter member.  The team had been playing at Armory Park since 1897.  With the success and stability of the Association, a better ballpark was built. Swayne Field opened in June 1909, and would be the Mud Hens primary home through the 1955 season.  Swayne Field remains the longest-lasting venue of any of the Toledo teams.  The Mud Hens temporarily relocated to Cleveland during 1914 through 1915, to help the Cleveland Indians counter any territorial threat by the Federal League by ensuring that League Park would have a game every day.  Another team was placed in Toledo in 1914 for the South-Michigan League.  The "Soumichers" or "Little Mud Hens" drew poorly and took to the road for the second half of 1914.  There was no team in 1915.  The Fed disbanded after that year, and when the team returned from Cleveland to Toledo in 1916, they had acquired a new nickname, the "Iron Men".  The name "Mud Hens" was restored in 1919.  http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Toledo_Mud_Hens

Peanut Butter Logs recipe by Nyteglori  1/2 cup honey or 1/2 cup molasses, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1 cup powdered milk   Mix ingredients together with your hands, adding enough milk powder to form a stiff but not crumbly dough.  This may be more or less than a cup depending upon how thin your peanut butter and honey are.  Optional ingredients can be kneaded in as well.  Shape into logs about 2-3 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.  Roll in powdered milk, confectioner's sugar or coconut.  http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/peanut-butter-logs-275035

The words Lebronimoes and Lebronaliers have been around since at least 2014.  See entertaining article at https://sprinklesmellott.wordpress.com/  A Muse reader suggests LAbron after LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1914  July 5, 2018