Friday, July 20, 2018


HAPPY FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY  The National Trails System Act of 1968, as amended, calls for establishing trails in both urban and rural settings for people of all ages, interests, skills, and physical abilities. The act promotes the enjoyment and appreciation of trails while encouraging greater public access. It establishes four classes of trails:  national scenic trails, national historic trails, national recreation trails, and side and connecting trails.  National scenic trails are to be continuous, extended routes of outdoor recreation within protected corridors.  The first two established under the National Trails System Act were the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest trails.  They wind through some of the nation’s most striking natural beauty.  National historic trails recognize original trails or routes of travel of national historic significance including past routes of exploration, migration, and military action.  The term national recreation trail is given to an existing local or regional trail when recognized by the federal government, with the consent of any federal, state, local, nonprofit, or private entity having jurisdiction over these lands.  Today almost 1,300 of these trails have been designated throughout the country.  They are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.  Side and connecting trails provide additional access to and between components of the National Trails System.  To date, seven have been designated.  Since 1968, 45 long-distance trails have been studied for inclusion in the system, and 30 have been designated. The National Park Service administers 21; the Bureau of Land Management administers one; and the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management jointly administer two.  The U.S. Forest Service administers six.

Gabriël Metsu (1629–1667) was a Dutch painter of history paintingsstill lifesportraits, and genre works.  Only 14 of his 133 works are dated.  Gabriel Metsu was the son of Jacques Metsu (c. 1588– March 1629) a tapestry worker and painter, originally from Hainault, who lived most of his days at Leiden.  In 1625 he married Jacomijntje Garniers (c. 1590–1651), the widow of a painter with three children of her own.  In 1648 Metsu was registered among the first members of the painters' guild at Leiden.  In 1650 he ceased to subscribe.  In 1658 he married Isabella de Wolff, whose father was a potter and mother the painter Maria de Grebber.  At the onset of the 1660s Metsu turned for inspiration to the art of the "fijnschilders" from his native Leiden.  Metsu died at the age of 38 and was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk.  Three bells were tolled; a habit in use with Dutch Catholics at that time.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabri%C3%ABl_Metsu

Cured bacon is preserved with a commercial preparation of salt and sodium nitrites.  Nitrites are additives that are responsible for giving bacon its pink color, among many other things.  There are two methods of curing—pumping and dry-curing.  The concentration of nitrites cannot exceed 200 parts per million (ppm) in dry-cured bacon and 120 ppm in pumped bacon, according to the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).  “Uncured” bacon is bacon that hasn’t been cured with sodium nitrites.  Usually, it’s cured with a form of celery, which contains natural nitrites, and plain old sea salt, as well as other flavorings like parsley and beet extracts.  Uncured bacon has to be labeled:  “Uncured bacon.  No nitrates or nitrites added.”  However, that does not mean that it does not contain nitrites.  https://www.healthline.com/health/cured-vs-uncured-bacon#2

Age is a terrible thief--just when you're getting the hang of life, it knocks your legs out from under you and stoops your back.  *  I threatened to cut off my children without a cent until I remembered they already controlled my money.  Water for Elephants, a novel by Sara Greun 

The Burt Theater in Toledo opened in 1898 as a copy of a 15th century Venetian palace complete with a row of ornate gothic columns and balconies.  The 1565-seat theater also featured an extra wide row called a "fat man's row".  Patrons were offered a variety of daily shows of early vaudeville performances and melodramas, but like many "live" theaters of its era, the popularity was eclipsed by the growth of moving picture houses.  Frank Burt was by most measure, a master showman and creative and enterprising amusement park manager and his reputation became legendary across the nation.  By 1912, he was managing the popular Lakeside Amusement Park in the bustling city of Denver, and a few years later, he began dividing his time between Denver and California when he took the role as concessions manager of the Pan American Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915.  After the Exposition, Burt moved south to the coastal town of Seal Beach California where he developed and managed the Seal Beach Amusement Park, or "Joy Zone" in California which opened in 1916.  Some of his projects still live to this day as a legacy to his talents and vision, Cedar Point, The Lakeside Amusement Park near Denver and the still standing theater building that bears his name in Toledo, the Burt Theater.  Frank Burt died in 1924.  The Burt Theater went through many iterations through the years; the Peppermint Lounge, the Country Palace, the Club and Caesar's Showbar are businesses that people might remember.  The building sits empty today and its ornate architectural features were most recently saved from demolition when it became a part of the Lucas County Land Bank in 2013.  Lou Hebert  posted by Frank Bickle  http://www.wtol.com/story/35481478/this-day-in-toledo-history-iconic-theater-cedar-point-owner-shot-in-face-by-wife-in-downtown-toledo

In an ironic twist of geography, Colorado, a state known for the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, is flat as a pancake on its eastern side, while adjacent western Nebraska has scenic hills, cliffs, buttes and badlands.  Just looking at the eroded spires, chiseled hills and mushroom-shaped formations, you know this ancient land is full of surprises. any of the surprises hidden in this rugged landscape are exposed along the 160-mile Fossil Freeway, which runs along Highways 29/71 between Scottsbluff in the panhandle of western Nebraska and Hot Springs in South Dakota.  The freeway connects a series of amazing discoveries that spans the time from the formation of the Rockies millions of years ago to the paleo-Indians who roamed the Great Plains 10,000 years ago.  Erosion has exposed beds with thousands of jumbled bones, skeletons and artifacts that show us how radically the landscape and the creatures that lived here have changed.  In fact, you can see fossils still in place in the ground where they were discovere d.  When the Rockies began inching toward the sky 80 million years ago, the moisture streaming inland from the Pacific Ocean could no longer reach the center of the continent.  As the climate dried, the vast forests turned to Serengeti-like grasslands with herds of pony-rhinos, gazelle-camels, long-necked horses, voracious bear-dogs and saber-toothed cats.  Great droughts forced animals to congregate around the remaining waterholes where they died en masse of dehydration and starvation.  Layers of ash from mountain volcanoes and wind-blown sand eventually covered the prairies with hundreds of feet of sediment.  Eons later, mammoths and giant bison dominated the plains, along with a new predator:  paleo-Indian hunters.  Much later, the Sioux, Arapaho and Cheyenne stalked vast herds of the smaller American bison.  Now a cattle culture dominates the mixed-grass prairies, but in some places, ancient bones litter the ground like autumn leaves.  They reveal a world filled with strange creatures unlike any you can probably imagine.  At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, on Highway 29 south of Harrison, Nebraska, the Niobrara River meanders across rolling plains.  The stream creates a life-giving source of water surrounded by endless prairie, much like the wetlands that existed 19 million years ago.  Here, it’s easy to imagine a savanna teeming with thousands of grazing animals as well as stealthy predators.  Two hat-shaped hills rise a short distance from the visitor center and museum.  It was in those hills that in the 1880s rancher James Cook discovered a two-foot-thick layer of exposed bones.  Major Eastern universities flocked to excavate the site, one of the largest and most diverse bonebeds ever discovered.  The Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota, 30 miles north on Highway 71, preserves a massive bonebed in a 26,000-year-old sinkhole.  Archaeologists have identified the remains of 61 mammoths as well as short-faced bears, camels, llamas and birds.  A climate-controlled exhibit hall covers the exposed bonebed, and a museum exhibits full-sized mammoth replicas.  In the summer, the Mammoth Site offers Jr. Paleontology programs for children ages 4 to 12.  Four times daily, kids can get their hands dirty in the dig box searching for replica mammoth and short-faced bear bones.  Two other museums on the Fossil Freeway display replicas of animals excavated in the area.  Besides pioneer and Indian history, the Trailside Museum of Natural History at Fort Robinson State Park in Crawford, Nebraska, displays a full-sized mammoth as well as the fossil remains of two mammoths with tusks locked in deadly combat and 18 other extinct animals.  At the visitor center at the Wildcat Hills State Recreation Area and Nature Center south of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, you can see a pair of saber-toothed cats from 25 million years ago found in a death struggle.  George Oxford Miller  Read more and see pictures at https://nwohio.aaa.com/aaaworld/article/?Id={7E6FFB74-7A5C-4884-907B-E8B8E7BC1EC5}&et_cid=JA18_BonebedsBadlands   See also https://nature.nps.gov/geology/inventory_embed/publications/reports/badl_gre_rpt_view.pdf

Lentil and Chicken Soup Recipes from Sidon Lebanese Grille & Bakery  http://www.sidongrille.com/blog/lentil-and-chicken-soup-recipes/

July 18, 2018  First, the good news:  At nearly two hours long, next week's lunar eclipse will be the longest of the century.  The bad news: North America is the only continent on Earth where it won't be visible.  The best views will be in Africa and Asia, but folks in Europe, South America and Australia will still get partial views.  The eclipse will occur on the night of July 27 into the early hours of July 28.  According to EarthSky, it's the longest total lunar eclipse of the 21st century.  "The total phase of the eclipse--called the totality--spans 1 hour 42 minutes and 57 seconds," said EarthSky's Bruce McClure.  During the eclipse, the moon will appear red, giving it the nickname "blood moon."  A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of Earth, according to NASA.  When this happens, Earth blocks the sunlight that normally reaches the moon. Instead of that sunlight hitting the moon’s surface, Earth's shadow falls on it.  Although the moon is in Earth's shadow, some sunlight still reaches the moon.  The sunlight passes through Earth's atmosphere, which causes Earth’s atmosphere to filter out most of the blue light.  This makes the moon appear red to people on Earth. The next lunar eclipse that will be visible in North America will be next winter:  Jan. 21, 2019.   Doyle Rice  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/07/18/blood-moon-longest-lunar-eclipse-century-coming-next-week/795779002/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1921  July 20, 2018

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