Tuesday, January 29, 2019


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


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

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

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

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