"When pigs fly" is an adynaton, a way of saying that something will never happen.  The phrase is often used for humorous effect, to scoff at over-ambition.  There are numerous variations on the theme; when an individual with a reputation for failure finally succeeds, onlookers may sarcastically claim to see a flying pig.  An example occurs in the film The Eagle Has Landed:  an Irish secret agent working for the Nazis replies to a German general speaking of Germany's shortly winning World War II, "Pigs may fly, General, but I doubt it!"  An identical phrase, used to express impossibilities, exists in Romanian, Când o zbura porcul, literally meaning "When the pig shall fly"; an equivalent also implying an animal is La Paștele cailor, literally:  "on horses' Easter".  In Finnish, the expression "kun lehmät lentävät" (when cows fly) is used because of its alliteration.  In French, the most common expression is "quand les poules auront des dents" (when hens will have teeth).  See uses in popular culture at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_pigs_fly  

The Muser has seen wallpaper picturing flying pigs.

Inside the neonatal intensive care unit, Jillana Williams and Lauren Boeke flip through bright books of nursery rhymes.  The two early literacy librarians enthusiastically share just some of the lessons parents will soon bring their children—shape recognition, the alphabet, and basic vocabulary. They are at the parent caregiver support group at ProMedica Toledo Children's Hospital.  The Toledo Lucas County Public Library started this Ready to Read program in 2014 to better prepare young children.  Personalized lessons with parents provide everyday examples and the latest research in child development.  They explain how talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing with the young ones can grow those skills.  Ready to Read leaders drive all over Lucas County—bags of toys and books in tow—to help families with their children.  Their visits are varied, such as to the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, Metroparks Toledo, and Toledo Zoo.  The bag includes board books, a paperback book on vocabulary, magnetized alphabet puzzle, child friendly scissors, and hand puppets of Old MacDonald's farm animals.  Ryan Dunn  Link to 2:59 video at http://www.toledoblade.com/Education/2018/07/11/Toledo-librarians-visit-parents-for-Ready-to-Read-program.html

What's the origin of the phrase 'Spick and span'?  The noun spick has various meanings, or rather it had various meanings, as it is now rarely used outside of spick and span.  These include:  a side of bacon, a floret of lavender, a nail or spike, a thatching spar.  Likewise span has/had several meanings, including:  the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger, a measure of butter, a fetter or chain, a chip of wood (as the Norse word spann-nyr).  Just from those meanings, and there are more, we could generate sixteen possible combinations to form spick and span.  It isn't clear which, if any, of those words were used when coining the phrase.  Some clue might come from the fact that the phrase is very old and was originally spick and span-new.  This is cited in Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's Lives of the noble Grecians and Romanes, 1579:  "They were all in goodly gilt armours, and brave purple cassocks apon them, spicke, and spanne newe."  The alliteration in the phrase suggests the possibility that that one of the two words alluded to cleanliness and freshness and that the other just followed along.  Which one is most associated with the qualities of spick and span?  The suggestions most frequently made are that spick is a variant of spike or nail.  In the 16th century nails were made of iron and soon tarnished.  It is quite plausible that new nails would have become synonymous with cleanliness.  We have the phrase as neat as a new pin, which has just that meaning.  The old Dutch word spikspeldernieuw refers to newly made ships.  The OED suggests that this is the origin of spick, although they offer no reason for that belief and none of the early citations of the phrase refer to shipping.  As for span, chips of wood also display the same fresh, sharp-edged qualities and seem to be a plausible source for the use of the word here.  Note:  the word spoon, which was originally a wooden item, derives from spon--a variant of span.  It has been suggested that the early American term for a knife and fork was spike and spon and that this relates to keeping clean by using utensils rather than fingers.  That takes no account of the use of the phrase prior to the colonization of America by English-speaking people though.  Spicke, and spanne newe later migrated into simply spick and span which is first found in Samuel Pepys' Diary, 1665:  "My Lady Batten walking through the dirty lane with new spicke and span white shoes."

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/spick-and-span.html

Hard, very hard and semi-hard cheese will freeze, although some cheeses will be crumbly after freezing (but will still taste good).  On the other hand, soft cheese does not freeze well, such as cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and cream cheese, so don't freeze these varieties.  Varieties include:   Very hard cheese:  Pecorino, Romano Parmesan   Hard cheese:  Cheddar, Swiss, Edam, Gouda and Colby  Semi-hard/soft cheese:  Havarti, Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, Provolone, Brick, Camembert, Brie  Soft cheese:  Ricotta, feta, cottage cheese, cream cheese.  Find details at https://www.wikihow.com/Freeze-Cheese

The original map of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood by artist E.H. Shepard was bought for a record-breaking 430,000 pounds ($570,137) on July 10, 2018.  The map for A.A. Milne’s children’s classic, completed in 1926, broke the record for the amount offered for any book illustration at auction.  Unseen for nearly half a century, the map easily surpassed its pre-sale estimate of 100,000 to 150,000 pounds.  Featuring on the opening end-papers of the original book, the map introduces readers to the imagination of Christopher Robin and his woodland friends Eeyore and Roo.  Forty years later, it played a starring role in the Disney film “Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Tree” where it was brought to life as an animation in the film’s opening sequence.  Four other original Pooh illustrations were sold alongside the map, with the five fetching a combined total of 917,500 pounds compared with a 310,000 to 440,000-pound estimate.  Jo Heywood  See picture at https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sky-m-a-fox/murdochs-fox-ups-sky-bid-to-32-5-billion-all-eyes-on-comcast-idUSKBN1K10KU

Ernest Shepard was born the son of a architect, in London on December 10, 1879.  As a child, Ernest had two big hobbies--watching the soldiers practice, and drawing.  He decided on a career as an artist and was encouraged by his father.  After attending a special art school, Shepard entered the Royal Academy School in 1897 as one of it's youngest students, and earned two scholarships while there.  In the First World War Shepard enlisted in the Army, rose to the rank of Major and was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in the field.  During these years, he sent jokes about the battles to Punch.  Shortly after his return from the front, he was invited to join the Punch Editorial Table.  He had finally realised his dream of working for Punch.  Here he met E.V. Lucas, who would later introduce him to Alan Milne.  E.V. Lucas named Shepard when A. A. Milne asked him to recommend someone to illustrate some children's verses he would be publishing in Punch.  At first Milne was not keen to use Shepard, but when his illustrations were a success Shepard went on to illustrate all of the Pooh books.  Throughout the rest of his career Shepard illustrated books for many leading authors of the period, including several for Kenneth Grahame.  Shepard was in fact the fourth illustrator to draw the characters for 'Wind in the Willows,' but the only one who managed to capture the essence of the animals that Grahame had in mind.  He remained busy as an illustrator his whole life and even managed to write two children's books of his own in his mid eighties.  These were titled 'Ben and Brook' (1966) and 'Betsy and Joe' (1967).   Shepard also colored his original line drawings for new editions of 'Winnie the Pooh' (1973) and 'The House at Pooh Corner' (1974).  'The Pooh Story Book', released in 1976, contained new line and color pictures by Shepard.  In his ninetieth year, Ernest Shepard donated 300 of his preliminary sketches for the Pooh drawings to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they were exhibited in 1969.  These drawings have since been exhibited in many galleries in Britain, as well as in Holland and  Australia, and have now been published as 'The Pooh Sketch Book,' edited by Brian Sibley.  Ernest Shepard died in 1976, in the fiftieth anniversary year of 'Winnie-the-Pooh'.  http://www.just-pooh.com/shepard.html

Chocolate Clusters  Melt semi-sweet chocolate.  Mix with an equal measure of nuts, corn flakes, raisins, dried currants or dried cranberries.  Spoon into bite-size pieces and let cool.

What is it?  The 2018 World Cup final between France and Croatia.  What date is the World Cup 2018 final?  This year, the 21st World Cup final will be held on Sunday, July 15, 2018.  What time does is kick-off?  The final will kick off at 4pm BST.  That's 6pm local time if you're in Russia.  Where will the final take place?  The Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow will host the finale to the 2018 World Cup. Russia's sporting Mecca has previously hosted the 1980 Olympics, 1999 Uefa Cup Final and 2008 Champions League Final.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/07/12/world-cup-final-2018-france-vs-croatia-time-kick-off-tv-channel/

Manhattanhenge 2018:  Where to watch New York's sunset show in July by Forrest Brown   Light from the sunsets on Thursday and Friday (July 12 and 13, 2018) will shoot down roads running east to west with no blockage from the borough's famous skyscrapers.  Official sunset for both evenings is 8:27 p.m. ET.  You might want to seek out a good spot about a half hour before sunset.  CNN Senior Meteorologist Brandon Miller has good news for Manhattanhenge fans:  "Weather looks near perfect for viewing the sunset both on Thursday and Friday evenings.  Temperatures will be around 80 degrees and most importantly, skies should be mostly clear, with very little cloud cover."  You can thank Manhattan's easy-to-use grid system, which dates back to the early 1800s, for the effect.  This happy alignment starts at Houston Street and runs up to just south of 155th Street.  If Manhattan's street grid was perfectly aligned along north-south lines, then Manhattanhenge would coincide with the equinoxes.  But Manhattan's layout is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, shifting the days of alignment to late May and mid-July.  The term "Manhattanhenge" is popularly attributed to astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who word-played off Britain's Stonehenge.  Tyson has some advice for the superior places to enjoy the phenomenon on the website of the American Museum of Natural History.  "For best effect, position yourself as far east in Manhattan as possible.  But ensure that when you look west across the avenues, you can still see New Jersey."  He lists the following streets as particularly good ones since they are wider:  14th Street, 23rd Street,  34th Street, 42nd Street, and 57th Street.  While this is called "Manhattanhenge," photos will attest you can also get this effect in parts of Queens, too.  https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/manhattanhenge-wxc/index.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1918  July 13, 2018