Founded in 1904 by seven leading polar explorers of the era, the Explorers Club fosters the scientific exploration of land, sea, air and space.  The 1910 Jacobean revival mansion was originally built for Stephen Clark, grandson of the co-founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company.  The Explorers Club purchased the building from the Clark family in 1960 after Stephen’s death.  It became the international headquarters in 1965.  Prior to this, they had several locations in New York City.  It is known as the Lowell Thomas building, named after the famed writer, broadcaster and Explorers Club member best known for making Lawrence of Arabia famous.  A century’s worth of exploration treasures fill the floors.  The ground floor member lounge houses a few of their polar artifacts.  On your way up to the second floor, you won’t be able to miss the giant globe used by Thor Heyerdahl to plan his famous Kon-Tiki expedition.  The uppermost floor is home to the research archives, holding the club’s impressive collection of 13,000 books, 1,000 museum objects, 5,000 maps and 500 films.  The Gallery on the top floor is the room everyone wants to see.  In the early days of the Explorers Club when travel was difficult and field photography was relatively new, hunting and taxidermy were thought to be the best way to preserve animals for education and research.  Here you will see taxidermied animals from many decades past.  Objects from the far corners of the world, including a narwhal tusk, wooly mammoth tusk (ask about the famous 1951 Explorers Club dinner) and the famous yeti scalp.  Scaffolding was recently removed, revealing the results of a five-year long refurbishment of the building’s facade, but work continues to preserve the building.  Visitors are welcome during opening hours.  Group tours can be scheduled by contacting reservations. Regular talks with exploration greats are held in the Clark Room from September-June.   https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/explorers-club-headquarters

Every year people from all walks of life consult our Research Collections of the Explorers Club.  These include writers, genealogists, filmmakers, and curators.  We are also consulted by journalists and photo researchers, independent enthusiasts, staff members, club members and students.  While we truly welcome all individuals, the Club’s resources are limited and our collections geared to the specialist.  We encourage all potential researchers to make full use of their local libraries, archives and museums before exploring what the Club has to offer.  Priority among researchers will be given to those who are seeking information unique to our collections.  The Curator will endeavour to direct all researchers to appropriate sources, but cannot do research on behalf of users or duplicate and send large amounts of information. Those wishing to consult the collections should contact the Curator at the address below for general guidance and to make an appointment.  The Explorers Club  46 E. 70th Street  New York, NY 10021  (212) 628-8383 x28  researchcollections@explorers.org  Please note that research appointments must be made in advance. Appointments may be made between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday.  Those planning a visit should consult a copy of our Research Rules.  All of those visiting the collections will need to sign a copy of these rules, as well as presenting a photo ID to the Curator.  https://www.explorers.org/about/research/research_visit_us

A Night at the Library by Andrew Schwartz   It was the winter of 2019, and the Brooklyn Public Library had, once again, determined to give the public access to its Central Building for a “Night of Philosophy and Ideas.”  New School philosophy PhD student Zenon Marko, who studies the “problem of beginnings,” began a dusk-to-dawn DJ set in the Grand Lobby, ambient and inconspicuous, prepared, he said, for all paths the night may take.  He presided like a minor deity behind his turntables, themselves behind the circulation desk, next to a sign that read “Check Out.”  The vast hall filled with revelers, energized perhaps, as the U.S. French embassy’s cultural counselor Bénédicte de Montlaur described it, by the power of “resistance, of occupying a place.”  By the preliminary designs, this lobby was to be the library basement.  But after three decades with little headway on the structure, the abiding powers replaced the old architect and brought in new ones with new plans—a sleeker, cheaper structure in the art-deco mode popular in contemporary fashion.  Limestone replaced marble.  Designers kept the foundations but removed the neo-classical facade of the partially constructed wing on Flatbush Avenue.  The layout was made to resemble an open book.  From the hilly park behind it, built atop the old reservoir, vestiges can be seen of the original design, left uncovered even after the modernist revision.  https://thebaffler.com/latest/a-night-at-the-library-schwartz

One of the most popular, well-known and touristic ferry services in the world is certainly the Staten Island Ferry that runs a service between Battery Park in New York City and the town of St. George at Staten Island.  During the 25 minute sailings, passengers can enjoy great views of the skyline of New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  And all of this is free.  It is the fastest way for commuters from Staten Island to the city of New York.  Everyday, around 75.000 passengers are transported on 104 trips sailing 24 hours a day.  The largest ferries on the route can now sail with up to 6000 passengers so they come close to the capacity of the worlds largest cruiseships.  Sailings between New York and Staten Island were already offered by local boatsmen sailing with small, two-masted sailingboats from the 18th century onwards.  But in 1817, the Richmond Turnpike Company started a motorized and official service with the steamboat Nautilus.  Captain of this first Staten Island Ferry was John De Forest, the brother-in-law of a man named Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest men of one of the wealthiest families in the history of the United States.  This family originally came from The Netherlands.  They used to be farmers in a small town named De Bilt.  This is also where their family name comes from, they are 'From De Bilt', or in Dutch 'Van De Bilt'.  Cornelius Vanderbilt eventually bought the ferry service of the Richmond Turnpike Company in 1838 after he had made his fortunes in the steamboat business.  He remained the owner untill the early 1860's when the American civil war broke out and he sold the service to the Staten Island Railway company, that was owned by his brother Jacob Vanderbilt.  Read more and see many pictures at http://www.castlesoftheseas.nl/staten-island-ferry.html

of course  adverb  From literal meaning "of the ordinary course of events".  The oldest attestation as "of course" is from the 1540s; the form "by course" (then spelled "bi cours") dates to about 1300.   

(not comparable)  Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see of,‎ course.  (idiomatic) Indicates enthusiastic agreement.

 (idiomatic) Acknowledges the validity of the associated phrase. quotations ▼

Synonyms:  admittedly, confessedly  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/of_course

Filler Words:  and then, even, fairly, just, much, only, pretty, quite, rather, really, simply, so that, there, totally, very.   At the beginning of sentences:  and, but, however, so, yet.  That list is definitely not exhaustive (there’s another word to watch out for: definitely), but it’s a good start.  These, and other words, often function exactly (there’s another: exactly) as described:  they serve as filler, taking up unneeded space on the page.  The majority of the time—85%?  I’ve never measured—they can be cut with little or no consequence or rewriting.  Christopher Daly 

https://thebettereditor.wordpress.com/2019/10/31/filler-words-and-filter-words

Mary Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist.  She wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.  She was a Southern writer who often wrote in a sardonic Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and supposedly grotesque characters, often in violent situations.  The unsentimental acceptance or rejection of the limitations or imperfection or difference of these characters (whether attributed to disability, race, crime, religion or sanity) typically underpins the drama.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O%27Connor

In her short lifetime, Flannery O’Connor wrote more than 600 letters to her mother.  To read them, you must travel to the 10th floor of Emory University’s Woodruff Library, where they’re filed in a manuscript collection measuring almost 19 feet.  If you make this journey, as I have, you will discover, among details of a more literary nature, the vigor of the author’s appetite.  In her first year as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, she wrote of sampling Triscuits at the local A&P and dining on ham—baked and boiled—at the school’s cafeteria.  She reported eating a couple of eggs each day and declared her preference for Vienna sausages, vanilla pudding, and prunes costing a mere 27 cents.  By spring of 1946, six months into her Iowa career, her purple dress no longer fit.  Caroline McCoy  https://lithub.com/flannery-oconnors-two-deepest-loves-were-mayonnaise-and-her-mother/

Find biographical information on Flannery O'Conner and how to visit Andalusia, her home in Milledgeville, Georgia, at https://libguides.gcsu.edu/oconnor-bio/FAQ

A Good Hard Look, a 2011 novel by Ann Napolitano, portrays Flannery O'Connor as one character.

Turkey Skillet Casserole  With this hearty dish, the pasta cooks right in the sauce for a quick and easy one-pot meal.  Turkey, mushrooms, and spinach give it a light touch.  Instead of fresh turkey, you could use leftover turkey from a Thanksgiving feast!  For a lower-carb version, use zucchini noodles instead of linguini.  Prep time  5 min  Cook time  10 min  Servings  2  Source:  Delicious One-Pot Dishes.  Recipe Credit:  Linda Gassenheimer.

https://www.diabetesfoodhub.org/recipes/turkey-skillet-casserole.html  See also What to Do With Those Thanksgiving Leftovers?  Look to the French at https://www.ecowatch.com/thanksgiving-leftovers-2641467690.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2190  November 29, 2019 

The fashion for wigs began with the Bourbon kings of France.  Louis XIII (1601-1643) went prematurely bald and took to wearing a wig.  By the middle of the century, and especially during the reign of Louis XIV, The Sun King, wigs were virtually obligatory for all European nobility and 'persons of quality'.  At that time they were known in England as periwigs, which was shortened to wig by 1675.  Wigs were expensive to purchase and to keep in condition and were the preserve of the powerful and wealthy.  Ostentation was the order of the day in Bourbon France and over time the wigs became bigger, often to the point of absurdity and requiring of scaffolding.  It isn't difficult to imagine how the term 'big-wig' emerged to refer to the rich and powerful.  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/64775.html

The library might have been the first place I was every given autonomy.  Even when I was maybe four or five years old, I was allowed to head off on my own.  *  It was the kind of case lawyers call 'flam-bono'--do the case for no money but get lots of attention:  flamboyant and pro bono.  *  In Beijing, about a third of library books are borrowed out of vending machines.  *  In Bangkok, the Library Train for Young People serves homeless children.  -  Susan Orlean  * The library was my nesting place, my birthing place; it was my growing place. -  Ray Bradbury  The Library Book by Susan Orlean

In the library, we can live forever.  Susan Orlean

Big wig is an important person.  Now usually spelled as single word, bigwig.  The fashion for wigs began with the Bourbon kings of France. Louis XIII (1601-1643) went prematurely bald and took to wearing a wig.  By the middle of the century, and especially during the reign of Louis XIV, The Sun King, wigs were virtually obligatory for all European nobility and 'persons of quality'.  At that time they were known in England as periwigs, which was shortened to wig by 1675.  Wigs were expensive to purchase and to keep in condition and were the preserve of the powerful and wealthy.  Ostentation was the order of the day in Bourbon France and over time the wigs became bigger, often to the point of absurdity and requiring of scaffolding.  It isn't difficult to imagine how the term 'big-wig' emerged to refer to the rich and powerful.  See pictures at https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/64775.html

The Turtle signifies the ancient belief that the world was created on the back of a turtle, the “moss-back turtle,” also known as the snapping turtle.  Charles Edward “Ed” Faber, a white man and good friend of the Wyandotte Nation from Upper Sandusky, Ohio, designed our tribal turtle.  Ed spent most of his life researching and writing about our people and was very knowledgeable when it came to selecting elements that best represented the tribe throughout history.  He designed our turtle in the 1970s and it was first used in 1977.  The symbols used in his design perfectly represent the tribe.  Each has a purpose and meaning and can be verified through both traditional and historical accounts; however, the turtle was originally designed without the willow branches.  The branches were added later after an assumption was made regarding their traditional relevance.  At the request of Chief Leaford Bearskin Ed’s turtle was redesigned by Lloyd Divine in 1989 to establish a more modern presentation of the tribe.  This rendition of the turtle was initially to be used by economic development giving a common visual representation yet with a separation from the tribal division.  Chief Billy Friend has since adopted Lloyd’s design to represent the tribe in both branches.  https://www.wyandotte-nation.org/culture/about-our-turtle/

Winold Reiss (1886-1953) by Jeffrey C. Stewart   Winold Reiss was a uniquely gifted artist and designer of the twentieth century, a bold pioneer whose work included a rich variety of portraits, distinctive interiors, and a multitude of cutting-edge graphic designs that lifted the quality of color and black-and-white design in America.  Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, Winold was the son of Fritz Reiss, a painter trained at the Düsseldorf Academy, who made drawing and painting the German landscape and its peasants his life work.  Fritz Reiss was his son's first teacher, but after that tutelage, Winold went to Munich where he attended both the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Kunstakademie), studying with Franz von Stuck, and the School of Applied Arts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied with Julius Diez.  He emigrated to America in 1913 and settled in New York City, where he quickly became well known for his strong, colorful graphic designs as well as for his modern commercial interiors.  Read more and see graphics at http://winoldreiss.org/life/index.htm

NEW MUSEUM to open in Washington, DC May 2020  Many surprises about words and language await at Planet Word.  Visitors will engage in activities that make words and language exciting with delightful programming and playful, interactive exhibits.  Opportunities for self-expression and intense listening ensure that no one will leave Planet Word without finding the fun in how we joke, sing, speak, read, and write every day.  Visitors to Planet Word will realize that words really do matter, and that they can be humankind’s most powerful tools.  Innovative, playful, and immersive exhibits and experiences will beckon visitors to explore the power of words.  https://www.planetwordmuseum.org/about-planet-word  See Planet World's blog at https://www.planetwordmuseum.org/blog

Mary Ann (Ball) Bickerdyke was a nurse and health care provider to the Union Army during the American Civil War.  Bickerdyke was born on July 19, 1817, near Mount Vernon, Ohio.  She enrolled at Oberlin College, one of the few institutions of higher education open to women at this time in the United States, but she did not graduate.  Upon leaving Oberlin, Bickerdyke became a nurse.  She assisted doctors in Cincinnati, Ohio, during the cholera epidemic of 1837.  Ten years later, she married Robert Bickerdyke.  The couple moved to Galesburg, Illinois in 1856.  Robert Bickerdyke died two years later.  Mary Bickerdyke continued to work as a nurse to support her two young sons.  At the outbreak of the American Civil War, residents of Galesburg purchased medical supplies worth five hundred dollars for soldiers serving at Cairo, Illinois.  The townspeople trusted Bickerdyke to deliver these supplies.  Upon arriving in Cairo, Bickerdyke used the supplies to establish a hospital for the Union soldiers.  Bickerdyke spent the remainder of the war traveling with various Union armies, establishing more than three hundred field hospitals to assist sick and wounded soldiers.  With the Civil War's conclusion, Bickerdyke continued to assist Union veterans.  She provided legal assistance to veterans seeking pensions from the federal government.  She also helped secure pensions for more than three hundred women nurses.  Bickerdyke herself did not receive a pension until the 1880s.  It was only twenty-five dollars per month.  Bickerdyke moved to Kansas following the war, where she helped veterans to settle and begin new lives.  She secured a ten thousand dollar donation from Jonathan Burr, a banker, to help the veterans obtain land, tools, and supplies.  She also convinced the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad to provide free transportation for veterans hoping to settle in Kansas.  Due to Bickerdyke's efforts, General Sherman authorized the settlers to use government wagons and teams to transport the belongings of the veterans to their new homes.  Bickerdyke remained in Kansas for most of the rest of her life.  She settled in Salina, Kansas, where she opened a hotel.  She continued to fight for the rights of veterans.  She moved briefly to New York, before returning to Kansas with her two sons.  Bickerdyke moved later to California, hoping that a change of climate would restore her declining health.  She settled in San Francisco, where she accepted a position at the United States Mint.  Bickerdyke eventually returned to Kansas, where she died on November 8, 1901.  See a picture of "Mother Bickerdyke" at https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Mary_Ann_Bickerdyke

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.  Issue 2189  November 27, 2019 

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (1883-1945) was an Italian journalist and politician, who rose to prominence in the first half of the 20th century as the head of the National Fascist Party as well as the Prime Minister of Italy.  Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy in 1922 and continued to rule the country till 1943, during which he turned the form of governance into a dictatorship.  Find quotes by Mussolini, including "All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state." and

"We become strongest, I feel, when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look for moral guidance." at https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/benito-mussolini-817.php

To mince has, since the 1500s, meant to make light of, specifically to use polite language when making a criticism.  Shakespeare used this this in Henry V:  I know no wayes to mince it in loue, but directly to say, I loue you.  and in Antony & Cleopatra:  Speake to me home, Mince not the generall tongue, name Cleopatra as she is call'd in Rome.  For the first use in print of 'mince words' we need to wait until the 19th century. Benjamin Disraeli, who was a novellist as well as a politician, used it in his 1826 story Vivian Grey:  Your Lordship’s heart is very warm in the cause of a party, which, for I will not mince my words, has betrayed you.  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/to-mince-words.html  Copyright © Gary Martin, 2019

At the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, there's a particularly interactive exhibition involving famous American realist artist Edward Hopper.  The special exhibit runs through February 23, 2020 and includes, for a lucky number of guests, an overnight in a Hopper painting.  "Western Motel," is the painting-turned-hotel room at the center of the months-long exhibition titled "Hopper Hotel Experience."  In total, the museum is showing 60 works of art by the artist, who's known for depicting American landscapes and --and often for capturing a certain loneliness or detachment one feels in a big, bustling city.  Other notable American artists, including John Singer Sargent, David Hockney and Berenice Abbott, also have works on display, but the centerpiece is undoubtedly the three-dimensional living space.  Travis Fullerton  Read more and see pictures at https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/hopper-room-museum-richmond-virginia/index.html

TEA FOR THREE:  Lady Bird, Pat & Betty by  Eric H. Weinberger and Elaine Bromka  Full-length Play  Comedy | Drama  Cast size:  1 to 3w.  What is it like for a woman when her husband becomes the president of the United States—and she is suddenly thrust into the spotlight?  This witty, sly and deeply moving script explores the hopes, fears and loves of Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon and Betty Ford.  In three scenes taking place in the family quarters of the White House just prior to the end of living there as the wife of a president, each of the women confides alone to the audience.  Secrets are spilled about their early years, their husbands' rise to power, their romances with the men, their unique paths as wives in the White House, and their feelings about imminent retirement.  Each of the three portraits becomes intimate, by degrees, as the women wrestle with what Pat Nixon called "the hardest unpaid job in the world."  https://www.dramaticpublishing.com/browse/full-length-plays/tea-for-three-lady-bird-pat-betty

TEA FOR THREE  (2013)  A book in the Tea Shop Mysteries series by Laura Childs

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/c/laura-childs/tea-for-three.htm

TEA FOR THREE is "a small business in the Big Apple."  "You buy a tea.  We donate to the Canopy Project."  Luxury tea for every day.  Hand-blended in small batches.  https://www.facebook.com/teaforthreenyc/

 Little Women may have paid the bills, but Louisa May Alcott was far more passionate about her sensationalist thrillers.  Stephanie Sylverne has the story. | CrimeReads

Recent German theatrical adaptations of Anna Karenina and Don Quixote make the case that long literary works can, in fact, translate to the stage. | The New York Times 

 “I am in this room [semicolon] and so is my mother.”  Read Sarah Broom’s National Book Awards speech. | Vulture

A history of “the quietest room in San Francisco”—the Poetry Room at City Lights Bookstore. | SFGate   Lit Hub Daily  November 22, 2019

PULLMAN, Wash. —  November 23, 2019  The apple tree stands alone near the top of a steep hill, wind whipping through its branches as a perfect sunset paints its leaves a vibrant gold.  It has been there for more than a century, and there is no hint that the tree or its apples are anything out of the ordinary.  But this scraggly specimen produces the Arkansas Beauty, a so-called heritage fruit long believed to be extinct until amateur botanists in the Pacific Northwest tracked it down three years ago.  It’s one of 13 long-lost apple varieties rediscovered by a pair of retirees in the remote canyons, wind-swept fields and hidden ravines of what was once the Oregon Territory.  E.J. Brandt and David Benscoter, who together form the nonprofit Lost Apple Project, log countless hours and hundreds of miles in trucks, on all-terrain vehicles and on foot to find orchards planted by settlers as they pushed west more than a century ago.  The two are racing against time to preserve a slice of homesteader history:  The apple trees are old, and many are dying.  Others are being ripped out for more wheat fields or housing developments for a growing population.  “To me, this area is a goldmine,” said Brandt, who has found two lost varieties in the Idaho panhandle.  “I don’t want it lost in time.  I want to give back to the people so that they can enjoy what our forefathers did.”  Brandt and Benscoter scour old county fair records, newspaper clippings and nursery sales ledgers to figure out which varieties existed in the area.  Then they hunt them down, matching written records with old property maps, land deeds and sometimes the memories of the pioneers’ great-grandchildren.  They also get leads from people who live near old orchards.  The task is huge.  North America once had 17,000 named varieties of domesticated apples, but only about 4,000 remain.  The Lost Apple Project believes settlers planted a few hundred varieties in their corner of the Pacific Northwest alone.  The Homestead Act of 1862 gave 160 acres to families who would improve the land and pay a small fee, and these newcomers planted orchards with enough variety to get them through the long winter, with apples that ripened from early spring until the first frosts.  Then, as now, trees planted for eating apples were not raised from seeds; cuttings taken from existing trees were grafted onto a generic root stock and raised to maturity.  These cloned trees remove the genetic variation that often makes “wild” apples inedible—so-called “spitters.”  Gillian Flaccus  https://www.phillytrib.com/lifestyle/botanists-scour-aging-orchards-for-long-lost-apple-varieties/article_9b451d43-251c-539a-9cb4-bc6b336de4be.html

Today, wild turkeys are back with a vengeance.  Touted as a major restoration success story, the wild turkey began to be reintroduced to New England about half a century ago.  Suburbs now stretch in wide swaths of terrain that once supported forests and associated wildlife.  Turkeys have taken to life in the suburbs with such enthusiasm that they are now a wildlife management issue for the human residents who must share living space with them.  Emboldened problem turkeys chase and intimidate women and small children, as well as pets.  Whole flocks have gone rogue.  Gone are the turkey’s natural predators—lynxes, cougars and wolves—that had kept America’s premier game bird’s population in balance.  As Thoreau pointed out, nature is no longer perfect.  More than 170,000 wild turkeys now live in New England and they’re not always at peace with their human neighbors.  Bryan Stevens  https://www.heraldcourier.com/community/for-the-birds-success-of-wild-turkey-s-resurgence-leads/article_7a4feecc-7432-5003-bef4-029aa4f4ca93.html  Thank you, Muse reader!

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  Ideologies separate us.  Dreams and anguish bring us together. - Eugene Ionesco, playwright (26 Nov 1909-1994)  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2188  November 26, 2019 

Since 2010, Earth Day Network has planted tens of millions of trees with the Canopy Project, working worldwide to strengthen communities through tree-planting.  https://www.earthday.org/campaigns/reforestation/

A phrase is two or more words that do not contain the subject-verb pair necessary to form a clause.  Phrases can be very short or quite long.  Find examples:  noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, infinitive phrase, participle phrase, gerund phrase, and absolute phrase at https://www.chompchomp.com/terms/phrase.htm  ©1997-2019 by Robin L. Simmons

50 Fictional Librarians, Ranked by Emily Temple  Here at Literary Hub, we love librarians.  I mean, really everything about them—their knowledge, their kindness, their demon-slaying abilities.  If you love them too, then you probably feel a little jolt of extra excitement whenever they show up in pop culture.  No surprise here:  No 1. is Rupert Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Home library:  Sunnydale High library  Special talents:  Watching (obviously), traditionally English understatements, getting knocked out, taking his glasses off and rubbing the bridge of his nose, acting in loco parentis, acoustic guitar, not being a hero.  Best luddite quote:  “Smell is the most powerful trigger to the memory there is.  A certain flower, or a-a whiff of smoke can bring up experiences long forgotten.  Books smell musty and-and-and rich.  The knowledge gained from a computer is a . . . it, uh, it has no-no texture, no-no context.  It’s-it’s there and then it’s gone.  If it’s to last, then-then the getting of knowledge should be, uh, tangible.  It should be, um, smelly.”  See all 50 plus interesting comments at https://lithub.com/50-fictional-librarians-ranked/?single=true  Thank you, Muse reader!

The word “gumption” first appeared in English dialects in the early 18th century, imported from Scots, where it meant “common sense” or “shrewdness.”  The roots of “gumption” are uncertain, but it may well be connected to the Middle English “gome,” (in Scots, “gaum”) meaning “attention or notice,” perhaps based on the Old Norse “gaumr.”  In English, “gumption” thrived with the meaning you knew as a lad, “common sense” or “smarts” (“Tis small presumption To say they’re but unlearned clerks, And want the gumption,” 1719).  By the early 19th century, however, “gumption” had acquired the added sense of “drive, initiative” (“If they … show pluck and gumption they … get promoted,” 1889).  The addition of “initiative” to the meaning “common sense” wasn’t much of a leap, as the two personal characteristics often travel together.  “Gumption” gradually lost the meaning of “street smarts” in the course of the 19th century (although that usage is still heard in certain parts of England), and now is used to mean simply “initiative” or “ambition.”  Interestingly, however, another relative of that Middle English root “gome” (meaning “smarts” or “understanding”) is alive and well, albeit in a negative sense.  To be “gormless” is to be clueless, empty-headed and hopelessly dense.  http://www.word-detective.com/2008/04/gumption/

*  How the Vietnam War changed political poetry:  Daniel H. Weiss on Michael O'Donnell, Deer Hunter, and the arts that disillusioned soldiers turned to. | Lit Hub 

*  Read from National Book Award lifetime honoree Edmund White's novel-in-progress. | Lit Hub 

*  “For anyone somewhat interested in cocktails it’s pretty worthless.” In the mixed drinks world, few books are as detested as Tequila Mockingbird, a book of recipes (written by an actor) that relies on literary puns.  | Inside Hook

*  Ian Williams is the winner of this year’s $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his debut novel Reproduction.  | CBC News  Lit Hub Daily  November 20, 2019  Copyright © 2019 Literary Hub

Enquire and inquire are often just different spellings of the same word.  Where the two are used for the same purposes, inquire is the more common form.  This extends to derivative words (inquiry, inquirer, etc.), and it is the case throughout the English speaking-world.  There is one qualification to this.  Some Britons make the distinction that enquire and its derivatives apply to informal queries, and inquire and its derivatives to formal investigations.  https://grammarist.com/spelling/enquire-inquire/

Asking questions was a way to avoid answering them.  *  I love you feds.  You make doing your jobs sound like the twelve labors of Hercules.  *  A face is a map of the heart.  *  Iron River, Charlie Hood novel #3 by T. Jefferson Parker 

Grandma’s Irish Soda Bread by Sally  Irish Soda Bread is a quick bread that does not require any yeast.  Instead, all of its leavening comes from baking soda and buttermilk.  This Irish soda bread recipe is my grandmother’s and has been cherished in my family for years.  It’s dense, yet soft and has the most incredible crusty exterior.  Prep Time:  10 minutes   Cook Time:  45 minutes

https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/grandmas-irish-soda-bread/  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_bread

How to Make Perfect Scones by Sally  Prep Time:  30 minutes  Cook Time:  25 minutes   Yield:  8 large or 16 small scones  https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/scones-recipe/#tasty-recipes-70506  See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scone

Patrick Stewart’s solo version of A Christmas Carol, seen on Broadway in 2001, will return to New York for two nights only, December 11 and 13, 2019 at Theater 511.  The Olivier winner plays Scrooge, Fezziwig, Tiny Tim, the Three Ghosts, and every other Dickensian character in the production, which he created and also performed in New York in 1991, 1992, and 1994.  Proceeds from the two evenings will benefit City Harvest, New York City’s largest food rescue organization, and Ars Nova, whose mission is to discover, develop, and launch the next generation of music, comedy, and theatre artists.  “It’s been a dream of mine to return to A Christmas Carol on the New York stage,” said Stewart.  “Bringing this story’s message of greed, contempt, tenderness, compassion, and revelation to life seems more urgent today than over 30 years ago when I first attempted the adaptation; and I’m excited to get the chance to revisit these spirited—yes, some of them actual spirits—characters, whom I’ve long cherished.  That these performances will benefit two important organizations in the process makes this all the more thrilling.”  Benefit tickets are $500 and are available through OvationTix.  Andrew Gans

http://www.playbill.com/article/patrick-stewart-will-return-to-the-new-york-stage-in-solo-adaptation-of-a-christmas-carol

WORD OF THE DAY  vinous  adjective  Pertaining to or having the characteristics of wine. quotations ▼  Involving the use of wine.  quotations ▼ Synonym: vinaceous (containing wine)

Having the colour of red wine; vinaceous.  quotations ▼

Tending to drink wine excessively.  quotations ▼

Affected by the drinking of wine.  quotations ▼

Synonym  vinose  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vinous#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2187  November 25, 2019 

What Is the Difference Between Almonds and Marcona Almonds?  And what makes the Queen of Almonds so royally good? by Amanda Balagu   Marconas—also known as the Queen of Almonds—are easy to tell apart from standard California varieties.  Besides being rounder and flatter in shape, as an import from Spain, they tend to be significantly more expensive and difficult to find at the grocery store.  Aaron Brown, who runs the California Marcona Company and Almondipity with wife Norik Naraghi, explains that Marcona almonds are “a little bit softer and have a much thicker shell and skin” than those commonly grown in the U.S.  Their flavor, he says, is more buttery and earthy.  They also roast well, which gives them a satisfying crunch.  The texture is often likened to a macadamia nut.  According to Brown, approximately 85 percent of the world’s almonds are produced in California, while only about 5 percent comes from Spain.  To say that almonds are having a moment would be a bit of an understatement.  While people have been munching them for millenia, increased consumption of foods rich in protein and omega-3 fatty acids (such as almonds) has completely transformed the global nut industry.  According to Brown, approximately 85 percent of the world’s almonds are produced in California, while only about 5 percent comes from Spain.  See pictures at https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/243319/what-is-the-difference-between-almonds-and-marcona-almonds/  Thank you, Muse reader!

The Republic of Crimea, officially part of Ukraine, lies on a peninsula stretching out from the south of Ukraine between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.  It is separated from Russia to the east by the narrow Kerch Strait.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18287223

Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Europe's second largest country, Ukraine is a land of wide, fertile agricultural plains, with large pockets of heavy industry in the east.  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-18018002

European Russia is the western part of the Russian Federation, which is in Eastern Europe.  With a population of 110 million people, European Russia has about 77% of Russia's population, but covers less than 25% of Russia's territory.  European Russia includes Moscow and Saint Petersburg, the two largest cities in Russia.  The southern part of Russia has some small areas that lie geographically south of the Caucasus Mountain range, and therefore are geographically in Asia.  The other, eastern, part of the Russian Federation forms part of northern Asia, and is known as North Asia, also called Asian Russia or Siberia. Europe also forms a subcontinent within Eurasia, making all of Russia a part of the Eurasian continent.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Russia

Hendrick Avercamp (1585 (bapt.)–1634 (buried)) was a Dutch painter.  Avercamp was born in Amsterdam, where he studied with the Danish-born portrait painter Pieter Isaacks (1569–1625), and perhaps also with David Vinckboons.  In 1608 he moved from Amsterdam to Kampen in the province of Overijssel.  Avercamp was deaf and mute and was known as "de Stomme van Kampen" (the mute of Kampen).  As one of the first landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting the Netherlands in winter.  Avercamp's paintings are colorful and lively, with carefully crafted images of the people in the landscape.  Many of Avercamp's paintings feature people ice skating on frozen lakes.  The passion for painting skating characters probably came from his childhood as he practiced skating with his parents.  The last quarter of the 16th century, during which Avercamp was born, was one of the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrick_Avercamp

A villanelle, also known as villanesque, is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain.  There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately at the end of each subsequent stanza until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines.  The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form.  The word derives from Latin, then Italian, and is related to the initial subject of the form being the pastoral.  The form started as a simple ballad-like song with no fixed form; this fixed quality would only come much later, from the poem "Villanelle (J'ay perdu ma Tourterelle)" (1606) by Jean Passerat.  From this point, its evolution into the "fixed form" used in the present day is debated.  Despite its French origins, the majority of villanelles have been written in English, a trend which began in the late nineteenth century.  The villanelle has been noted as a form that frequently treats the subject of obsessions, and one which appeals to outsiders; its defining feature of repetition prevents it from having a conventional tone.  The word villanelle derives from the Italian villanella, referring to a rustic song or dance, and which comes from villano, meaning peasant or villein.  Villano derives from the Medieval Latin villanus, meaning a "farmhand".  The etymology of the word relates to the fact that the form's initial distinguishing feature was the pastoral subject.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle

Villanelle:  A French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas.  These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.  See “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art,”  and Edwin Arlington Robinson’s “The House on the Hill.”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/villanelle

Villanelle, birth name Oxana Vorontsova (in Codename Villanelle) or Oksana Astankova (in Killing Eve), is a fictional character in Luke Jennings’ novel Codename Villanelle (2018), its sequel Killing Eve: No Tomorrow (2019), and the BBC America television series adaptation Killing Eve (2018—) in which she is portrayed by English actress Jodie Comer.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle_(character)

The Congress of Manastir was an academic conference held in the city of Manastir (Bitola) from November 14 to 22, 1908, with the goal of standardizing the Albanian alphabet.  November 22 is now a commemorative day in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, as well as among the Albanian diaspora, known as Alphabet Day.  Prior to the Congress, the Albanian language was represented by a combination of six or more distinct alphabets, plus a number of sub-variants.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Manastir

WORD OF THE DAY for November 22 
grace note (plural grace notes)  (music) A musical note, indicated on a score in smaller type with or without a slash through it, played to ornament the melody rather than as part of it.  Its note value does not count as part of the total time value of the measure it appears in. quotations ▼

 (figuratively) Something that decorates, embellishes, or ornaments; a finishing touch. quotations ▼

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grace_note#English

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY  Oh, would that my mind could let fall its dead ideas, as the tree does its withered leaves! - Andre Gide, author, Nobel laureate (22 Nov 1869-1951)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2186  November  22, 2019