Oxford’s Library Once Branded Its Sauciest Books With a Greek Letter--How James Joyce, Madonna, and Monty Python ended up on the same restricted shelf  by Matthew Taub   For more than a hundred years, deep in a dusty enclave of the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries, there sat a restricted collection—2,100 books deemed too subversive, too toxic, too scandalous for eager minds.  These books, principally concerned with sex, made up the “Phi” collection, bearing the Greek “Φ” on their spines like a mark of sin.  But things are different now, and these books are proudly on display at the Bodleian, in the Story of Phi: Restricted Books exhibit that opened on November 15, 2018.  Built in 1602 and home to more than 13 million items, the Bodleian is the second-largest among British libraries behind only, well, the British Library.  It’s a point of pride for the university, but keeping it all running smoothly can be “a bit of a ‘mare,” says Lloyd (Meadhbh) Houston, an Oxford graduate student who published a 2015 history of the Phi collection in the Bodleian Library Record.  In 1882, head librarian E.W.B. Nicholson set out to make things more orderly, by schematizing some 7,000 different classifications.  One stood out among the traditional numbers and letters used in the classification system:  a lone Greek symbol chosen, most likely, as a pun on “Fie!” (As in, “Fie on you for such prurient proclivities!”).  Read more at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oxford-obscene-book-collection

In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote a poem later set to music and in 1931 becoming America’s national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  The poem, originally titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry,” was written after Key witnessed the Maryland fort being bombarded by the British during the War of 1812.   Key was inspired by the sight of a lone U.S. flag still flying over Fort McHenry at daybreak, as reflected in the now-famous words of the “Star-Spangled Banner”:  “And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.”  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/key-pens-star-spangled-banner   

Anatolia may be defined in geographic terms as the area bounded to the north by the Black Sea, to the east and south by the Southeastern Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, and to the west by the Aegean Sea and Sea of Marmara; culturally the area also includes the islands of the eastern Aegean Sea.  In most prehistoric periods the regions to the south and west of Anatolia were under the influence of, respectively, Syria and the Balkans.  Much visible evidence of the earliest cultures of Anatolia may have been lost owing to the large rise in sea levels that followed the end of the last Ice Age (about 10,000 years ago) and to deposition of deep alluvium in many coastal and inland valleys.  Nevertheless, there are widespread—though little studied—signs of human occupation in cave sites from at least the Upper Paleolithic Period, and earlier Lower Paleolithic remains are evident in Yarımburgaz Cave near Istanbul.  Rock engravings of animals on the walls of caves near Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, suggest a relationship with the Upper Paleolithic art of western Europe.  Associated with these are rock shelters, the stratified occupational debris of which has the potential finally to clarify the transitional phases between cave-dwelling society and the Neolithic economy of the first agricultural communities.  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://www.britannica.com/place/Anatolia

Perfect Poached Eggs  Bring 6 cups water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat.  Add 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar and 1 teaspoon salt to boiling water.  With lip of measuring cup just above surface of water, gently tip eggs into water, one at a time, leaving space between them.  Cover pot, remove from heat, and let stand until whites closest to yolks are just set and opaque, about 3 minutes.  Using slotted spoon, carefully lift and drain each egg over Dutch oven.  Get more details at

https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/perfect-poached-eggs

Set during the American Civil War, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek" is Bierce's most famous short story. It was first published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1890.  It then appeared in Bierce's 1891 collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians.  Read the story and see graphics at https://americanliterature.com/author/ambrose-bierce/short-story/an-occurrence-at-owl-creek-bridge  Read THE MILLENNIUM FULCRUM EDITION, 1988 of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/375

The American Dialect Society (ADS) puts out a buffet of candidate words and phrases in a variety of categories--see full press release at https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2018-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf.  It’s almost always a good read, although some times it feels like they’re too thorough, if that’s possible.  Their overall winner this year:  tender-age shelter (with variants tender-age facility and tender-age camp).  The phrase is especially interesting, from a vocabulary perspective, because it seems to have sprung into existence on June 19th of last year.  There are, as usual, a number of other interesting nuggets on the ADS list.  “X strong” reaches the list late:  I’ve been watching the use (and overuse) of this formulation since at least 2011 when it was popularized in my region (New England) through the use of “Vermont Strong” in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Irene.  It reached cliché status a couple of years later with “Boston Strong.”  “Individual 1” is another choice that hits the mark, as is “white-caller crime.”  Christopher Daly  https://thebettereditor.wordpress.com/2019/01/29/woty-word-of-the-year-2018-edition-part-2/

The Old Man and the Sea starring Anthony Crivello, based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway and adapted by A.E. Hotchner and Tim Hotchner will preview January 31, 2019 at Highmark Theatre at Pittsburgh Playhouse and run from February 1-17.  http://www.pittsburghplayhouse.com/current-season/tba  A.E. Hotchner--who fished with Hemingway in Cuba, went to bullfights with him in Spain, hunted with him in Idaho, and wrote the biography Papa Hemingway--is 101 years old.  Hemingway urged Hotchner to adapt The Old Man and the Sea, and more than 60 years later, he did so.

PERSON OF THE DAY  Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era.  When the Dodgers signed Robinson, they heralded the end of racial segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s.   Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.  In 1997, MLB retired his uniform number 42 across all major league teams; he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored.  MLB also adopted a new annual tradition, "Jackie Robinson Day", for the first time on April 15, 2004, on which every player on every team wears No. 42.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

THOUGHT FOR TODAY  To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is.  Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged. - Norman Mailer, author (31 Jan 1923-2007)

WORD OF THE DAY  Tiggerish  adjective  (Excessively) cheerful and exuberant; bouncy.

The English author A. A. Milne, who created the character Tigger in his works about Winnie-the-Pooh, died on this day in 1956.   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Tiggerish#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 31, 2019  Issue 2033

The Small Island Where 500 People Speak Nine Different Languages by Michael Erard   On South Goulburn Island, a small, forested isle off Australia’s northern coast, a settlement called Warruwi Community consists of some 500 people who speak among themselves around nine different languages.  This is one of the last places in Australia—and probably the world—where so many indigenous languages exist together.  There’s the Mawng language, but also one called Bininj Kunwok and another called Yolngu-Matha, and Burarra, Ndjébbana and Na-kara, Kunbarlang, Iwaidja, Torres Strait Creole, and English.  Read extensive article at https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/11/receptive-multilingualism-small-languages/576649/

It was not the French who first thought of what we call French toast.  The Romans did as early as the 4th century.  The term “French horn” was coined around the early 18th century when French horn-makers were quite prominent; however, what is known as the French horn is actually German in origin.  Technically, the horn has French roots as it was the French who were credited for creating the circular horn shape.  But later on, the French-made designs were already replaced by that of the German horns.  To avoid confusion, the International Horn Society has recommended since the 1970s that the term French be dropped, and the instrument to simply be called the “horn”.  The phrase “French braid” first appeared in a short fiction story published in an 1871 issue of a magazine.  It was described as a new hairstyle, when in fact, this type of braided hairstyle has been around for ages.  Early art by the ancient Greek, Sung Dynasty as well as Celtic tribes has depicted this hairstyle, as did some rock art in Algeria that dates back to 6000 years ago.  While people have been saying that French fries are actually Belgian, new research on the history of French fries have shown that they are, in fact, French.   https://www.talkinfrench.com/french-or-not/ 

Brussels Sprouts are a member of the cabbage family, Brassica.  Another name you hear is Cruciferous.  There are hundreds of varieties in this family including mustard and horseradish.  One interesting characteristic of Brussels Sprouts is the way they grow.  Although they resemble the structure of a head of cabbage, the sprouts grow on are produced in the leaf axils, starting at the base of the stem and working upward.  Brussels Sprouts has a reputation sometimes as a very strong flavored vegetable.  This is only true if they are over cooked.  Cruciferous:  In Latin this means cross-bearing, which gets its name from the 4 petal flower that resembles a cross.  The origin of the cultivar (selectively bred as opposed to wild) Brussels Sprouts is not exact, but the French coined the name in the 18th century.  It was common to put a landmark on a food.  Whether they actually were developed in Brussels in Belgium is not certain.  There are records of Brussels Sprouts around where Brussels is as far back as the 13th century.  https://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Brussels-Sprouts/

Brussels Sprouts with Bacon by Karly Campbell  Find recipe and pictures at https://thatlowcarblife.com/brussel-sprouts-and

The German Shepherd is a breed of medium to large-sized working dog that originated in Germany.  In the English language, the breed's officially recognized name is German Shepherd Dog (sometimes abbreviated as GSD).  The breed is known as the Alsatian in Britain and Ireland.  The German Shepherd is a relatively new breed of dog, with their origin dating to 1899.  As part of the Herding Group, German Shepherds are working dogs developed originally for herding sheep.  Since that time however, because of their strength, intelligence, trainability, and obedience, German Shepherds around the world are often the preferred breed for many types of work, including disability assistance, search-and-rescue, police and military roles, and even acting.  The German Shepherd is the second-most registered breed by the American Kennel Club and seventh-most registered breed by The Kennel Club in the United Kingdom.   Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd

Giardiniera, pronounced “jar-din-air-ah”, is one condiment you don’t want to be without.  And once you’ve tried it you’ll understand why.  Have you been to New Orleans?   Giardiniera is the magical ingredient in those mouthwatering muffuletta sandwiches.  Kimberly Killebrew  See pictures and learn how to make The ULTIMATE pickled vegetable relish at https://www.daringgourmet.com/homemade-giardiniera/

The history of the Karen people, the second largest ethnic minority in Burma, is often told in words whose meanings are lost on most Burmese.  "Meiktila," for instance, is to most people simply the name of a township in central Burma.  But according to Karen oral tradition, as expressed in the hta song-poems that have for centuries preserved the history and culture of the Karens, "Meiktila" is derived from the Sgaw Karen words "meh ti lawn," meaning "falling tears."  This refers to an episode in the distant past, when the Burman rulers of the Karens forced them to dig the deep Meiktila Lake, causing them immense suffering.  This experience was, in fact, typical of Karen history under Burman domination a history that continues to shape Karen perceptions of their situation today.  The Karens live throughout much of Lower Burma, from the Arakan Yoma and the Delta region to the edge of the Shan State, as well as along the Thai border region as far south as Tenasserim Division.  Although there are numerous Karen sub-groups, over 70% of Karens belong to just two:  the Sgaw and the Pwo.  The Pwo Karens developed dong dancing, which is performed with htas set to music.  Dong, or dou as it is actually pronounced in Pwo Karen, means to be in unison or in agreement.  It comes from the fact that originally the dong master would write a song about someone in the village either an ordinary villager or the head of the village who had committed some misdeed.  Hta singers would describe the person’s immoral behavior while dancers would dance to this song.  Read much more at http://www2.irrawaddy.com/article.php?art_id=2054&page=1

You can’t beat a good Belgian waffle and these waffles are the very best.  To make Belgian waffles, you need a Belgian waffle maker, with a deeper, larger grid pattern.  You want the waffles to be nice and thick.  Belgian waffles are crispy on the outside and soft and tender in the inside.  The deep squares can hold lots of syrup and toppings.  Regular waffles are thinner and tend to be more fluffy and not crisp on the outside.  Belgian waffles are fluffy AND crisp.  Buttermilk is a must.  Buttermilk creates a thick batter which is important so the inside of the waffles stay soft and the outside can become crisp.  Make sure the buttermilk, melted butter, and eggs are at room temperature before mixing together.  Belgian waffles are the king of all waffles.  See pictures and recipe by Maria and Josh at https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/belgian-waffles/

THOUGHT FOR TODAY  The power to command frequently causes failure to think. - Barbara Tuchman, author and historian (30 Jan 1912-1989)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 30, 2019  Issue 2032

Celery Forever:  Where America's Weirdest Soda Came From and How It's Stuck Around by CHRIS E. CROWLEY   At the time of Cel-Ray's invention, celery was just gaining a foothold in this country, thanks to seeds brought over by immigrant farmers.  Like an agricultural Silicon Valley, the celery market was ripe for innovation:  celery soap, celery chewing gum . . . you get the idea.  Several manufacturers made celery sodas or tonics, like Lake's Celery, invented in 1887, and Celery-Cola, produced by a Coca-Cola partner, but they all perished as America's great celery fascination wore off around the 1930s.  "In Eastern European cuisine, there is a tradition of taking traditionally savory ingredients and fermenting them to make beverages," said Jeffrey Yoskowitz, a young don in the new Jewish food movement and one of the people behind New York's Gefilteria.  "You have bread kvass, which tastes kind of like a rye loaf with an added oomph, and beet kvass, which tastes a lot like beet borscht."  Still, Cel-Ray, was very much a product of its time:  a confluence of health trends, emerging industry, and Old World history.  More remarkable is its persistence today.  Today, Cel-Ray is far from Dr. Brown's best-selling product; the company also sells flavors like black cherry, ginger gale, cream, and orange soda.  LA Bottleworks, which purchased J&R Bottling in December of 2013, packages about 5,000 cases of glass bottles a year.  Celery soda enjoys a cult following, one whose sphere of influence is spreading across America with and beyond the New York Jewish diaspora.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/10/dr-browns-cel-ray-celery-soda-history.html

Books by James Weldon Johnson  Lift Every Voice and Sing  /  The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man   / God’s Trombones / Black Manhattan / Along This Way The Creation / The Books of the American Negro Spirituals.  Read review of God's Trombones by Amin Sharif at  http://www.nathanielturner.com/godstrombones.htm

God's Trombone/Seven Negro Sermons In Verse by James Weldon Johnson  http://www.freetravellink.com/god_39_s_trombone_seven_negro_sermons_in_verse_english_download.pdf

Aaron Douglas artwork:  God's Trombone  See related artworks at

https://www.wikiart.org/en/aaron-douglas/gods-trombone-1927

John Albert Bauer (1882–1918) was a Swedish painter and illustrator.  His work is concerned with landscape and mythology, but he also composed portraits.  He is best known for his illustrations of early editions of Bland tomtar och trol0l (Among Gnomes and Trolls), an anthology of Swedish folklore and fairy tales.  Bauer was born and raised in Jönköping.  At 16 he moved to Stockholm to study at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts.  While there he received his first commissions to illustrate stories in books and magazines, and met the artist Ester Ellqvist, whom he married in 1906.  He traveled throughout Lappland, Germany and Italy early in his career, and these cultures deeply informed his work.  He painted and illustrated in a romantic nationalistic style, in part influenced by the Italian Renaissance and Sami cultures.  Most of his works are watercolors or prints in monochrome or muted colours; he also produced oil paintings and frescos.  His illustrations and paintings broadened the understanding and appreciation of Swedish folklore, fairy tales and landscape.  Bauer had a time-consuming technique when painting:  he would start with a small sketch, no bigger than a stamp, with just the basic shapes.  Then he would make another, slightly bigger, sketch with more details. The sketches grew progressively in size and detail until the work reached its final size.  Most of the originals for About Gnomes and Trolls are square pictures about 20 to 25 centimetres (7.9 to 9.8 inches).  He doodled on anything at hand, from used stationery to the back of an envelope.  Many of his sketches resemble cartoon strips where the pictures get bigger and more detailed.  He would also do several versions of the same finished picture, such as one where the motif is depicted in a summer and winter scene.  He did not observe the traditional hierarchy in the mediums or techniques at that time.  He could make a complete work in pencil or charcoal just as well as a sketch in oil.  From an early age Bauer had to adapt his illustrations to contemporary printing technique.  Full-colour was expensive, so the illustrations were made in one colour plus black.  As the process developed and his works became in greater demand, his pictures were eventually printed in full colour.  Read more and see graphics at

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bauer_(illustrator)

25 things people think the U.P. is shaped like by Jessica Shepherd    posted September 01, 2017  We asked readers to tell us what Michigan's Upper Peninsula is shaped like.  Since we all know the Lower Peninsula is a mitten, it only seemed fair we settle the debate on the shape of its counterpart.  Perhaps not surprisingly, readers told us they think the U.P. just looks like the U.P.  It isn't shaped like anything else, said 35 percent of respondents.  Coming in second in our poll, with about 30 percent of the vote was the rabbit jumping over the mitten. You can see it.  The Keweenaw Peninsula is the ears, the western point of the U.P. is the bunny's face and there are two legs.  Keep jumping, you fine rabbit.  You have two hands.  We have two peninsulas.  More than 21 percent of poll respondents think that is just perfect because the U.P., in their eyes, is shaped like the mitten's partner turned sideways.  Make sure your thumb is properly angled to represent the Keweenaw Peninsula.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.mlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/09/here_are_the_12_things_people.htmlhttps://www.mlive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2017/09/here_are_the_12_things_people.html

An artisan lodge is taking form in a 139-year-old former Grand Ledge church  The lodge’s identify, Rabbit & Mitten, is a nod to what number of Michiganders describe the state as a rabbit leaping over a mitten.  Located at 205 W. Scott St., it dates  to 1879, and is a part of the neighborhood’s historic panorama.  It will be reworked into a contemporary and “cozy” 12-room artisan lodge.  The exterior will not change a lot, however its proprietor Ann Duchene is laying the groundwork to spend an estimated $500,000 to utterly rework the inside.  She purchased it out of foreclosures for $130,000 after it had housed the places of work for a home-schooling companies firm.  Work in the church itself is poised to start in January 2019.  The rooms will range in measurement from roughly 350 to 500 sq. ft, and 5 of the 12 will embrace small kitchens.  The biggest room, at 500 sq. ft, might be constructed within the attic.  Duchene is planning to associate with native eating places and bakeries to supply meals that may be delivered to the lodge by visitor request.  http://cheapkneebraces.com/an-artisan-lodge-is-taking-form-in-a-139-year-old-former-grand-ledge-church/

Grand Ledge, Michigan is located about 10 miles west of Lansing.  Situated along Michigan's longest river, this picturesque city got its name from the Grand River and the 500-million-year-old sandstone ledges that tower along its banks.  https://www.michigan.org/city/grand-ledge#?c=44.4299:-85.1166:6&tid=986&page=0&pagesize=20&pagetitle=Grand%20Ledge

Word of the Day for January 29  Rafflesian adjective  Of or relating to Sir Stamford Raffles, a British colonial statesman known for his founding of modern Singapore and British Malaya.

(Singapore)  Of or relating to an educational institution named after Sir Stamford Raffles.  Rafflesian noun (Singapore) A current or former student of an educational institution named after Sir Stamford Raffles.  Today is the bicentennial of the day in 1819 when Sir Stamford Raffles sailed up the Singapore River and landed on the main island of Singapore, having visited Saint John’s Island the previous day.  Wiktionary

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 29, 2019  Issue 2031

A maverick war correspondent, Hemingway's third wife was the only woman at D-Day and saw the liberation of Dachau by Paula McClain   I hired a car to take me from beautifully ruinous Old Havana, through ravaged parts of the city most tourists never see, to the nearby village of San Francisco de Paula, a dusty speck of a place that was once home to Cuba’s most famous American expat, Ernest Hemingway.  Having painted him into two historical novels and become an accidental aficionado of his life, I have made it a point to visit all of Hemingway’s residences—from Oak Park to Paris, from Key West to Ketchum—but this time I actually came looking for someone else:  his third wife, Martha Gellhorn.  It was she who found the 19th-century estate Finca Vigía (Watchtower Farm) in the want ads of a local paper in 1939, and she who undertook extensive renovations, at her own expense.  The Finca has been a museum (Museo Hemingway Finca Vigía) since just after the writer committed suicide, in 1961.  Each year between 80,000 and 120,000 visitors come up the lane to pay about $5 to look in the open windows, for while the grounds are accessible and all the entrances are flung wide, the house itself is permanently cordoned off to preserve its contents.  Just 28 when she took on her first war and in her early 80s when she took on her last (the U.S. invasion of Panama), Gellhorn covered virtually every major conflict of the 20th century.  After the Spanish Civil War she reported on the Japanese invasion of China, the Czech Crisis, the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland, and all significant theaters of World War II (including the liberation of Dachau).  Later she covered the Six-Day War in the Middle East and the conflicts in Vietnam and Nicaragua.  She had a chance introduction to social worker Harry Hopkins, at a 1931 party in Washington, DC, and she began to write for him, along with a small team of reporters, when Hopkins started the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.  The team would travel to parts of the country hit hardest by the Depression and report back to Hopkins, who would pass on a narrative portrait of what Americans were enduring to President Roosevelt—not facts and statistics but the human story, the view from the ground.  At 25 the youngest reporter on Hopkins’s team, Gellhorn received travel vouchers and $5 a day to go from town to dejected town, beginning in Gaston County, North Carolina, where she interviewed the families of mill workers and sharecroppers.  She saw more poverty, syphilis, slow starvation, and utter despair than anything her life up to then could have prepared her for.  Her reports are sharply drawn and moving portraits of people who were buckling, swinging free of all hope and yet too proud to go on relief.  She admired their grit, and wept for them, and shook with rage.  All of this comes through in the writing, which was being sent by Hopkins, without Gellhorn’s knowledge, to Eleanor Roosevelt as well as FDR.  She was invited to dinner at the White House to share stories of what she had seen.  Nearly a year into her post Gellhorn was fired for inciting a riot among unemployed workers in rural Idaho, and Eleanor wrote to say that she was welcome to live at the White House until she could find her feet again.  For two months Gellhorn stayed in what would later be named the Lincoln Bedroom, helping Eleanor answer sheaves of mail from people in dire straits.  Gellhorn claimed Eleanor as a private hero and became galvanized during her time at the White House to use her voice and considerable energy to expose the suffering she had seen and give it a broad, loud platform.  She would write fiction, using real life models.  The resulting book, thrown off in a few short, burning months, became The Trouble I’ve Seen, a collection of four novellas that was praised far and wide.  According to the Saturday Review of Literature, it seemed to be “woven not out of words but out of the tissues of human beings.”  It made Gellhorn the literary discovery of 1936.  Read extensive article and see pictures at https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a22109842/martha-gellhorn-career-ernest-hemingway/

           

Ten miles east of Havana is Ernest Hemingway's Cuba house--Finca Vigia, meaning "lookout house".  Built in 1886 by a Spanish Architect Miguel Pascual y Baguer, Finca Vigia was purchased by Hemingway in 1940 for a cost of $12,500.  There, Hemingway wrote two of his most celebrated novels:  For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea.  A Movable Feast was written there as well.  See pictures at http://www.hemingwaycuba.com/finca-la-vigia.html

Ernest Hemingway was a master using bullfighting terms and described a corrida as “the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor” in Death in the Afternoon.  Find a glossary of bullfighting terms at https://www.madrid-traveller.com/bullfighting-terms/

There is some persistent confusion about lead and led.  Lead is both a noun and a verb.  There are several unrelated nouns spelled lead:  one most commonly refers to a metal (as in, "The paint was made with lead"), and the other most commonly refers to a position of advantage (as in, "Our team was in the lead").  The verb lead is pronounced /LEED/, with a long e; the noun that refers to a position or advantage is also pronounced /LEED/, with a long e; the noun that refers to the metal, however, is pronounced /LED/, with a short e.  To this moderately convoluted situation, add the past tense and past participle of the verb lead, which is led and pronounced like the metal noun lead with a short e.  If you aren’t sure whether to use led or lead as the verb in your sentence, try reading it aloud to yourself.  If the verb is pronounced /LED/, use led.   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/led

Lede is the introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story.  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lede

Constance Fenimore Woolson, (1840-1894), American writer whose stories and novels are particularly notable for the sense of place they evoke.  Woolson, a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.  During the Civil War she engaged in hospital work.  After her father’s death in 1869, Woolson accompanied her mother on travels through the East and South, and in 1870 she began submitting travel sketches and stories to Harper’s, Putnam’s, Lippincott’s, Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines.  Castle Nowhere:  Lake-Country Sketches (1875) collected several of Woolson’s local-colour stories.  During the later 1870s she spent much of her time in Florida and the Carolinas, which became the scenes of her best stories.  In 1879 Woolson traveled to Europe, where she remained for the rest of her life.  Her novels, serialized in Harper’s before publication in book form, include Anne (1882), For the Major (1883), East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889), and Horace Chase (1894).  All are set in faithfully detailed locales, and they exhibit a psychological subtlety suggestive of the writing of Woolson’s close friend Henry James.  She also published a collection of short stories as Rodman the Keeper:  Southern Sketches (1886).  After a lengthy period of illness, Woolson died in 1894 following a fall (perhaps intentional) from a window in her apartment in Venice.  The Front Yard, and Other Italian Stories (1895), Dorothy, and Other Italian Stories (1896), and a volume of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (1896), appeared posthumously.  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constance-Fenimore-Woolson

After taking his dog for a walk one day in the late 1940s (1948), George de Mestral, a Swiss inventor, became curious about the seeds of the burdock plant that had attached themselves to his clothes and to the dog's fur.  Under a microscope, he looked closely at the hook system that the seeds use to hitchhike on passing animals aiding seed dispersal, and he realized that the same approach could be used to join other things together.  His work led to the development of the hook and loop fastener, which was initially sold under the Velcro brand name.  Serbo-Croatian uses the same word, čičak, for burdock and velcro; Turkish does the same with the name pitrak, while in the Polish language rzep means both "burr" and "velcro".  The German word for burdock is Klette and velcro is Klettverschluss (= burdock fastener).  In Norwegian burdock is borre and velcro borrelås, which translates to "burdock lock".  The taproot of young burdock plants can be harvested and eaten as a root vegetable.  While generally out of favour in modern European cuisine, it remains popular in Asia.  Arctium lappa is known as niúbàng (牛蒡) in Chinese, which was borrowed into Japanese as gobō, and is still eaten in both countries.  In Korean burdock root is called u-eong (우엉) and sold as tong u-eong (통우엉), or "whole burdock".  Plants are cultivated for their slender roots, which can grow about one metre long and two centimetres across.  Burdock root is very crisp and has a sweet, mild, and pungent flavour with a little muddy harshness that can be reduced by soaking julienned or shredded roots in water for five to ten minutes.  Burdock is a traditional medicinal herb used for many ailments.  Burdock root oil extract, also called bur oil, is used in Europe as a scalp treatment.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctium

Composer Michel Legrand died in Paris January 26, 2019 at the age of 86.  His most recent film score was “The Other Side of the Wind,” composed for Orson Welles’ last film, which was finally completed and released in 2018.  His approximately 150 scores include Jacques Demy’s 1964 classic “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” a landmark film in which all of the dialogue is sung and which is believed to mark the only instance in Oscar history in which a composer was nominated in all three music categories for the same film (best song, best original score, best musical adaptation).  The songs “I Will Wait for You” and “Watch What Happens,” both of which became standards, emerged from the “Cherbourg” score.  Jon Burlingame

https://variety.com/2019/film/news/michel-legrand-dies-dead-oscar-winning-composer-1203119247/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 28, 2019  Issue 2030

Henry James (1843-1916) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language.  He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.  He is best known for a number of novels dealing with the social and marital interplay between emigre Americans, English people, and continental Europeans--examples of such novels include The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove.  His later works were increasingly experimental.  In describing the internal states of mind and social dynamics of his characters, James often made use of a style in which ambiguous or contradictory motives and impressions were overlaid or juxtaposed in the discussion of a character's psyche.  For their unique ambiguity, as well as for other aspects of their composition, his late works have been compared to impressionist painting.  James also published articles and books of criticism, travel, biography, autobiography and plays.  Born in the United States, James largely relocated to Europe as a young man and eventually settled in England, becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death.  James was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911, 1912 and 1916. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_James

First published as "Daisy Miller:  A Study"; title later shortened to "Daisy Miller".  For Henry James' reworking of this story into a play, see Daisy Miller: A Comedy.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Daisy_Miller:_A_Study

Daisy Miller:  A Study in Two Parts (version 2 dramatic reading)  Henry JAMES (1843 - 1916)  Daisy Miller is an 1878 novella by Henry James first appearing in Cornhill Magazine in June–July 1879, and in book form the following year.  It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Frederick Winterbourne, a sophisticated compatriot of hers.  His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates when they meet in Switzerland and Italy.  https://librivox.org/daisy-miller-dramatic-reading-by-henry-james/  "Acoustical liberation of books in the public domain”

                                                                                         

Daisy Miller set readers on both sides of the Atlantic debating its heroine’s morals.  James told her story through the jaded eyes of an American expatriate named Winterbourne, who does not know how to interpret Daisy’s flirtatious behavior any more than readers do.  Readers fell into opposing camps:  the “Daisy Millerites,” who thought her virginal, and the “anti-Daisy Millerites,” who knew her to be lost.  The argument soon extended to the manners of American girls generally.  https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/julyaugust/feature/henry-james-and-the-american-idea

What's the meaning of the phrase 'As fit as a fiddle'?  Very fit and well.  Of course the 'fiddle' here is the colloquial name for violin.  'Fit' didn't originally mean healthy and energetic, in the sense it is often used nowadays to describe the inhabitants of gyms.  When this phrase was coined 'fit' was used to mean 'suitable, seemly', in the way we now might say 'fit for purpose'.  Thomas Dekker, in The batchelars banquet, 1603 referred to 'as fine as a fiddle':  "Then comes downe mistresse Nurse as fine as a farthing fiddle, in her petticoate and kertle."  Not long afterwards, in 1616, there's W. Haughton's English-men for my Money, which includes:  "This is excellent ynfayth [in faith], as fit as a fiddle.   https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/40250.html

Fit as a Fiddle (Track 02) from the 2012 London Cast recording of "Singin' in the Rain" featuring Adam Cooper & Daniel Crossley    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8chqAEF2mg  1:50 
0:02 / 2:20

Fit as a Fiddle CIHS Sweet Adelines  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot7cNEVxb4Q  2:20

Fit as a Fiddle arr. David Wright  performed live at Bridgestone Arena 2016 Barbershop Harmony Society International Convention  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvYq2dht34U  2:50

Your Brain on Books:  10 Things That Happen to Our Minds When We Read  Any book lover can tell you:  diving into a great novel is an immersive experience that can make your brain come alive with imagery and emotions and even turn on your senses.  It sounds romantic, but there’s real, hard evidence that supports these things happening to your brain when you read books.  In reading, we can actually physically change our brain structure, become more empathetic, and even trick our brains into thinking we’ve experienced what we’ve only read in novels.  Read about the ten experiences at https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/your-brain-on-books-10-things-that-happen-to-our-minds-when-we-read/

10 Fictional Libraries I’d Love to Visit  See pictures and descriptions of 1.) Sunnydale High School Library. 2.) The Jedi Temple Library, 3.) The Breakfast Club Library, 4.) Egyptian Museum of Antiquities Library, 5.) Hogwarts Library, 6.) Metropolitan Public Library, 7.) Unseen University Library, 8.) The Library at Miskatonic University, 9.) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Libraries, and 10.) The Library  Link to more information at https://oedb.org/ilibrarian/10-fictional-libraries-id-love-to-visit/

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quotes  “The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books”   “Music is the universal language of mankind.”  “I heard the bells on Christmas Day Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet The words repeat Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”  “In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity”  “The human voice is the organ of the soul.”  “One if by land, two if by sea.” 
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2697.Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

The first documented candy corn was created in the 1880s with the specific goal of appealing to farmers, who at the time made up a whopping half of the entire American workforce.  While candy companies also attempted to market similar candies in other agrarian-inspired shapes, like turnips and chestnuts, the corn kernels resembling chicken feed were a runaway success with the American public, due partly to their eye-catching multicolored design.  While the question of who gets the credit for candy corn’s rise to fame is the subject of debate, the National Confectioners Association gives the credit for candy corn’s invention to a man named George Renninger of the Philadelphia-based Wunderle Candy Company.  However, the candy’s popularity didn’t take off significantly until the Jelly Belly Candy Company began producing and selling the candies in 1898 under the name “chicken feed.”  More than a century later, these small, simple candies are still a hit, with about 35 million pounds of candy corn sold per year.  Gillie Houston  https://www.myrecipes.com/holidays-and-occasions/halloween-recipes/history-of-candy-corn

Word of the Day  Cullen skink  noun  A thick soup made of smoked finnan haddock, milk, onions, and potatoes, a local speciality of Cullen in Moray, Scotland.  Burns night is held on this date in celebration of the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (born 260 years ago on 25 January 1759), and usually involves Scottish foods and recitals of his poetry.  Wiktionary

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  January 25, 2019  Issue 2029