New Year’s Resolutions  Count your blessings every day.  Be comfortable with silences caused by lapses in conversation, as in the Navajo culture.  Make do with less.   Be patient.  Be kind. 

The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it. - George Marshall, US Army Chief, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel laureate (31 Dec 1880-1959) 

Candy Cane Caprese  Slices of fresh mozzarella are layered with slices of fresh tomato to form a candy cane shape on whatever rectangular display board or platter that you have available.  Serve with a garnish of fresh basil leaves, a dish of balsamic glaze, olive oil and toasted baguette slices.  A sprinkle of sea salt finishes things off.  It’s basically a caprese salad that has been whimsically shaped on a board.  Lori Lange  See picture at https://www.recipegirl.com/candy-cane-caprese-board/ 

“She’d prowl the night kitchen, taking a bite from a tomato here, a ripe peach there, a crumpet, a softening pear.”  Excerpt from Ghost Cat by Margaret Atwood  Read the entire poem at https://lithub.com/ghost-cat-a-poem-by-margaret-atwood/  See also https://lithub.com/in-which-a-cat-narrates-feline-history-in-the-age-of-european-conquest/ 

THE YEAR IN REVIEW:  Indie Booksellers Recommend Their Under-the-Radar Favorites of 2020 · Our 65 Favorite Books of the Year · The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List · The 10 Best Literary Adaptations of the Year · The 89 Best Book Covers of 2020 · Unemployed Booksellers’ Favorite Books of the Year · The Top 10 Most Totally Metal Books of 2020 · The Award-Winning Novels of 2020 · The Best Reviewed Fiction of 2020 · The Best Reviewed Nonfiction of 2020 · The 10 Best Book Reviews of 2020 · Notable Literary Deaths in 2020 · The Biggest Literary Stories of the Year · The Best Books of 2020 You Might Have Missed 

THE NIGHT WATCHMAN by Louise Erdich  In this unhurried, kaleidoscopic story, the efforts of Native Americans to save their lands from being taken away by the U.S. government in the early 1950s come intimately, vividly to life.  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/louise-erdrich/the-night-watchman-erdrich/  Recommended by author and bookstore owner Ann Patchett http://www.annpatchett.com/ on PBS December 29, 2020 

The law of defamation varies from state to state, but there are some generally accepted rules.  If you believe you are have been "defamed," to prove it you usually have to show there's been a statement that is all of the following:  published, false, injurious, and unprivileged.  In the landmark 1964 case of New York Times v. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court held that certain defamatory statements were protected by the First Amendment.  The case involved a newspaper article that said unflattering things about a public figure, a politician.  The Court pointed to "a profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open."  The Court acknowledged that in public discussions--especially about public figures like politicians--mistakes can be made.  If those mistakes are "honestly made," the Court said, they should be protected from defamation actions.  The court made a rule that public officials could sue for statements made about their public conduct only if the statements were made with "actual malice."  https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html 

Slander is a false spoken statement about someone, intended to damage the good opinion that people have of that person.  https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/slander

Libel and slander are both types of defamation.  Libel is an untrue defamatory statement that is made in writing.  Slander is an untrue defamatory statement that is spoken orally.  The difference between defamation and slander is that a defamatory statement can be made in any medium.  It could be in a blog comment or spoken in a speech or said on television.  Libelous acts only occur when a statement is made in writing (digital statements count as writing) and slanderous statements are only made orally.  https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/differences-between-defamation-slander-and-libel 

Eudora Welty:  How My Parents Built a Childhood of Books  "I live in gratitude."  I learned from the age of two or three that any room in our house, at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to.  My mother read to me.  She’d read to me in the big bedroom in the mornings, when we were in her rocker together, which ticked in rhythm as we rocked, as though we had a cricket accompanying the story.  She’d read to me in the diningroom on winter afternoons in front of the coal fire, with our cuckoo clock ending the story with “Cuckoo,” and at night when I’d got in my own bed.  I must have given her no peace.  Besides the bookcase in the living room, which was always called “the library,” there were the encyclopedia tables and dictionary stand under windows in our dining room.  Here to help us grow up arguing around the dining room table were the Unabridged Webster, the Columbia Encyclopedia, Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, the Lincoln Library of Information, and later the Book of Knowledge.  In “the library,” inside the mission-style bookcase with its three diamond-latticed glass doors, with my father’s Morris chair and the glass-shaded lamp on its table beside it, were books I could soon begin on—and I did, reading them all alike and as they came, straight down their rows, top shelf to bottom.  There was the set of Stoddard’s Lectures, in all its late nineteenth-century vocabulary and vignettes of peasant life and quaint beliefs and customs, with matching halftone illustrations:  Vesuvius erupting, Venice by moonlight, gypsies glimpsed by their campfires.  I didn’t know then the clue they were to my father’s longing to see the rest of the world.  I read straight through his other love-from-afar:  the Victrola Book of the Opera, with opera after opera in synopsis, with portraits in costume of Melba, Caruso, Galli-Curci, and Geraldine Farrar, some of whose voices we could listen to on our Red Seal records.  Read much more at https://lithub.com/eudora-welty-how-my-parents-built-a-childhood-of-books/  Excerpted from One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty. Copyright © 1983, 1984 by Eudora Welty. Copyright renewed 2020 by Eudora Welty LLC. Introduction copyright © 2020 by Natasha Trethewey.   

The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List--Reading All the Lists So You Don't Have to Since 2017 by  Emily Temple  https://lithub.com/the-ultimate-best-books-of-2020-list/  

"2020:  The Musical"  Jimmy Fallon and Andrew Rannells Recap the Year with Broadway Songs  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjbLY46Vaq8  8:20 

30 New Year’s Eve Desserts to Celebrate in Style by Hazel Wheaton  https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/new-years-eve-desserts/ 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2307  December 31, 2020

The Muser’s favorite books read in 2020

Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks  17 stories, each featuring a different antique manual typewriter (Hanks is an avid collector)  “A bagel in Manhattan is the stuff of theologians.”  “It’s a typewriter, child.  Ribbon.  Oil.  Paper.  Happy fingers.” 

In the Pond by Ha Jin  dark comedy about life in China

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce  “It was as much a gift to receive as it was to give, requiring as it did both courage and humility.”  “I’ve begun to think we sit far more than we’re supposed to.”  He smiled.  “Why else would we have feet?”

Hits & Misses by Simon Rich  18 quirky tales  “Inspired by Rich's real life experience in Hollywood, Hits and Misses chronicles all the absurdity of fame and success alongside the heartbreaking humanity of failure.  From a bitter tell-all by the horse Paul Revere rode to greatness to a gushing magazine profile of everyone's favorite World War II dictator, these stories roam across time and space to skewer our obsession with making it big—from the days of ancient Babylon to the age of TMZ.”  https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/simon-rich/hits-and-misses/9780316468879/  TMZ is a tabloid news website. 

My Brilliant Friend, part one of the four-part series Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante.  The book follows the lives of Elana ("Lenù") and Raffaella ("Lila") from childhood to adolescence.

A Passion for Books  stories, essays, lore and lists.

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline  An imagined memoir of Christina Olson, the woman in Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens  An abandoned girl raises herself in the marshes of coastal North Carolina.

The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger  The rivalries and deceptions of four families are revealed as they scheme for admission to a planned school for gifted students.

Dawn by Octavia Butler, #1 in the Lilith’s Brood trilogy   The three volumes of this science fiction series (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago) were previously collected in the now out of print volume, Xenogenesis.  Nuclear war had left the Earth uninhabitable.  The few human survivors are plucked from the dying Earth by an alien race, the Oankali.  The story begins when Lilith wakes 250 years after the war.

 

Translators the Muser has enjoyed in 2020: 

Lucia Graves  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucia_Graves

H.T. Lowe-Porter  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Tracy_Lowe-Porter 

William Weaver  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/18/william-weaver 

Archibald Colquhoun  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Colquhoun_(translator)

Lisa Dillman  https://www.catranslation.org/person/lisa-dillman/

Sam Garrett  http://worldbookshelf.englishpen.org/Writers-in-Translation-translators-Sam-Garrett

Ann Goldstein  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Goldstein_(translator)

Fulfilling the Mission:  a Conversation with Polish Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s translators by Jennifer Croft  https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/fulfilling-the-mission-a-conversation-with-olga-tokarczuks-translators/

The Neapolitan Novels are a 4-part series by the Italian author Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein and published by Europa Editions (New York).  They include the following novels:  My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015).  The series has been characterized as a bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story.  In an interview for the Harper's Magazine, Elena Ferrante stated that she considers the four books to be "a single novel", published serially for reasons of length and duration.  The series has sold over 10 million copies in 40 countries.  The series follows the lives of two perceptive and intelligent girls, Elena (sometimes called "Lenù") Greco and Raffaella ("Lila") Cerullo, from childhood to adulthood and old age, as they try to create lives for themselves amidst the violent and stultifying culture of their home--a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Italy.  The novels are narrated by Elena Greco.  The series was adapted into a two-part play by April De Angelis at the Rose Theatre, Kingston in March 2017.   The first two books in the series have been adapted into an HBO television series entitled My Brilliant Friend.  In 2019, The Guardian ranked My Brilliant Friend the 11th best book since 2000.  The overall series was also listed in Vulture as one of the 12 "New Classics" since 2000.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_Novels 

A FAVORITE AUTHOR:  Barbara Kingsolver

Novels:  The Bean Trees (1988), Animal Dreams (1990), Pigs in Heaven (1993), The Poisonwood Bible (1998), Prodigal Summer (2001), The Lacuna (2009), and Fight Behavior (2012)

Nonfiction:  Holding the Line:  Women in the Great Arizona, Mine Strike of 1983 (1989), High Tide in Tucson:  Essays from Now or Never (1995), Last Stand:  America's Virgin Lands (2002), Small Wonder:  Essays (2002), and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007)
Collections:  Another America (1992), Homeland and Other Stories (1999)  https://www.bookreporter.com/authors/barbara-kingsolver/bibliography

BARBARA KINGSOLVER REVEALED   I was born April 8, 1955, in Annapolis, Maryland, but barely remember it because my family moved to rural east-central Kentucky when I was two. I’m lucky to have grown up in the midst of pastures and woodlands, with parents who favored virtually any form of reading as educational.  This meant anything from classic comic books to the Encyclopedia Britannica and whatever we could pull down from bookshelves at home or at the library or, scariest of all, my Dad’s old medical textbooks in the basement.  At age eight I began keeping a journal, inspired by the gift of a small red diary with a tiny lock.  The lock was gratuitous, given the diary’s soporific content, but the ruled lines encouraged a habit of daily writing.  When my schoolteachers assigned a two-page theme, they would get ten pages from me, a surfeit of juvenile prose I am sure they came to dread.  I could hardly contain my adjectives.  I entered every school essay contest that presented itself, and my first published work, entitled “Why We Need a New Elementary School,” gave an exciting account of how our grade school’s ceiling plaster fell and injured my teacher.  My essay was printed in the local newspaper prior to a school-bond election, and the school bond passed.  I had no notion of ever becoming a writer then (evidence suggested that writers were old, from England, and uniformly dead), but I credit that school-bond incident for teaching me that the pencil is a mighty tool.  In 1973 I entered DePauw University, in Indiana, on a piano scholarship.  I soon changed my major to biology, in the practical hope of someday earning a living.  Beyond the expected math and science classes, my liberal-arts education included a manic cross-section of electives:  anthropology, history, French, music theory, a semester in Greece, a winter internship at the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company, and one creative writing class, which I loved.  I enjoyed playing with the Rock Bottom Remainders, an all-author rock and roll band; getting the call from Oprah, when she chose The Poisonwood Bible for her book club; having the National Humanities Medal hung around my neck on a grand red ribbon, by President Clinton; and being invited to join the usage review panel for the American Heritage Dictionary, a responsibility I enjoy to this day.  One of my kids learned early that any playground shouting match over “my-parent-is-tougher-than-yours” could be ground to a halt with:  “My Mom writes the dictionary!”  In the late 1990’s I was able to put good fortune to use by establishing the Bellwether Prize (bellwetherprize.org), which is awarded biennially to first-time novelists.  Read much more and see pictures at  http://barbarakingsolver.com/biography/Kingsolver_Biography.pdfD    

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. - L.P. Hartley, writer (30 Dec 1895-1972)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2306  December 30, 2020

Museums became less localized this year as curators, educators and scientists connected with audiences across new digital platforms.  But as the multiple crises of 2020 blurred over the months from one to the next, encompassing racial injustice, economic disparity and homelessness, classroom education inequities and the catastrophes of global climate change, Smithsonian scholars turned to the books mirroring the country's problems and anxieties.  Whether a book served as an antidote to doomscrolling, a path to enlightenment, a way to surface lost histories or biographies, or to peer deep into the future to find the footprints of our civilization in the fossil record, the books Smithsonian experts recommend this year are, in a word, relevant.  Beth Py-Lieberman   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/smithsonian-scholars-pick-their-favorite-books-2020-180976433/  One book is Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard recommended by Brian Coyle, researcher at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.  “Instead of uniform blankets of green crew cut lawns, imagine driving down a street where the yards are a medley of color, structure and floral fragrance, full of butterflies, beetles, bees and birds.  Educator and author Doug Tallamy, a leading voice for a growing movement that empowers homeowners in any location to become conservationists, advocates a societal shift in mindset about residential lifestyles and the traditional neighborhood aesthetic.  He is urging homeowners to reject their lifeless monoculture lawns made of invasive grasses and ornamentals that are dependent on toxic pesticides in favor of a biodiverse sanctuary of wildflowers and native plants.”

The most popular seeds used to grow microgreens include broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, cauliflower, chia, mustard, and sunflower.  These seedlings are the easiest to grow, which is a definite perk for gardening newbies.  Once you start to hone your harvesting skills, you can branch out and grow some of the other trendiest microgreens, including lettuce, kale, spinach, radish, beet, and watercress.  Read gardening tips from Katie Morton at https://www.wellandgood.com/how-to-grow-microgreens/ 

Architecture provides, in the words of Marcus Vitruvius, the great Roman architect and historian, “firmness, commodity and delight.”  1st Century BC Roman Architect Vitruvius is the author of the treatise De architectura.  The work is divided into 10 books dealing with city planning and architecture in general; building materials; temple construction; public buildings; private buildings; clocks; hydraulics; and civil and military engines.  His work was used as a classic text book from ancient Roman times to the Renaissance.  Firmness refers to structural integrity and durability; Commodity refers to spatial functionality or in other words, “serving its purpose” and fulfilling the function for which the building was constructed; Delight means that the building is not only aesthetically and visually pleasing, but also lifts the spirits and stimulates the senses.  https://raic.org/raic/what-architecture  See also Philosophy and the Tradition of Architectural Theory at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/architecture/tradition.html 

At his family’s Long Island retreat, Rashid Johnson conjures a magical, art-filled landscape.  The Chicago-born Johnson first drew the art world’s attention in his early 20s, when, in 2001, three of his large-format photographic portraits of homeless men were exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem.  His work has since evolved to incorporate diverse media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, film, and installation, and he has been the subject of solo exhibitions in institutions around the world.  Gay Gassmann  https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/glimpse-inside-superstar-artist-rashid-johnsons-enchanting-hamptons-oasis 

A thousand years ago, battle-hardened Vikings engaged in a brutal, often-deadly sport called Knattleikr.  Although details of the game are mostly lost to the ages, it’s known that it was played on the frozen Icleandic countryside and that the entire villages got in on the action.  Matches would begin at dawn and last until dusk, tournaments could last up to two weeks and it was not uncommon for the field to be littered with corpses when the game was over.  Today, many believe Knattleikr’s closest descendant to be broomball, a markedly less violent version of the sport.  Most would agree that our modern day broomball developed in Canada around the beginning of the 20th Century.  US broomball may have originated in Duluth, Minnesota.  https://broomball.com/history/ 

Originally from China, persimmon trees have been grown for thousands of years for their delicious fruit and beautiful wood.  Their orange-colored fruits called persimmons are known for their sweet, honey-like flavor.  While hundreds of types exist, the Hachiya and Fuyu varieties are among the most popular.  The heart-shaped Hachiya persimmons are astringent, meaning they are very high in plant chemicals called tannins that give the unripe fruit a dry, bitter taste.  This type of persimmon needs to be fully ripe before eating.  Fuyu persimmons also contain tannins, but they are considered non-astringent.  Unlike Hachiya persimmons, the crisp, tomato-shaped Fuyu variety can be enjoyed even when not completely ripe.  Persimmons can be eaten fresh, dried or cooked and are commonly used around the world in jellies, drinks, pies, curries and puddings.  Uses:  Slice persimmons onto a salad for a flavorful addition.  Top your morning yogurt or oatmeal with fresh or cooked persimmon for a burst of natural sweetness.  Roast persimmons in the oven and drizzle with honey for a tasty and healthy dessert.  Mix dried or fresh persimmon into muffin, bread or cake mix.  Combine with berries and citrus fruits for a delicious fruit salad.  Broil persimmon and serve with baked Brie for a tasty appetizer.  Bake persimmons with chicken or meat for a unique flavor combination.  Throw frozen persimmons into your favorite smoothie recipe for extra nutrients.  Slice and dry persimmons in the oven to make natural fruit strips.  https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/persimmon-nutrition-benefits#TOC_TITLE_HDR_8

To eat a Hachiya persimmon, remove the calyx (the flower-shaped stem on top) and use a spoon to scoop out the honeyed, custardlike flesh.  It's a deliciously messy affair, so have some napkins on hand.  Their creamy, sweet flesh makes Hachiyas ideal for baked goods such as muffins, breads and puddings.  They also can be pureed and used as a sauce for ice cream or pancakes, or they can be dried and eaten as a snack.  A hard Hachiya may take up to a week to fully ripen—remember, very, very soft.  To speed the ripening process, place the fruit in a paper bag with a banana, which will release ethylene, a gas that promotes ripening.  Once the fruit reaches its jellylike softness, it can be eaten right away or refrigerated for several days.  When selecting squat, tomato-shaped Fuyu persimmons, look for unblemished fruit that is heavy for its size.  The skin color ranges from pale golden-orange to rich reddish-orange.  Generally, the darker the color, the sweeter the taste.  Once the calyx is removed, a Fuyu can be eaten like an apple, skin and all, or it can be peeled.  If left at room temperature, Fuyus will gradually soften.  With their mildly sweet, cinnamon-laced flavor, they are best eaten out of hand or tossed in salads and salsas.  Susan Russo  https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97458318 

I suspect that the real attraction was a large library of fine books . . .  The dim, dusty room, with the busts staring down from the tall bookcases, the cozy chairs, the globes, and best of all, the wilderness of books in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.  Little Women, Chapter 4 by Louisa May Alcott  https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/tomsawye/alcott.html

The love of one's country is a splendid thing.  But why should love stop at the border? - Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (29 Dec 1876-1973) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2305  December 29, 2020

AudioFile's Best Audiobooks of 2020  Search by all categories or choose a category.  https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/best-audiobooks-2020/ 

Damp, dimly lit, and decorated with skulls, chandeliers, and stuffed animals, this quirky drinking establishment is part of the extensive cave system cut into the soft sandstone upon which Nottingham is built.  Accessed via a dark and uninviting alley, through a heavily disguised door with a polished brass skull as a handle, a staircase leads into a basement beneath a 200-year-old building.  Along a corridor in this basement, a further series of rock-cut steps lead into the cavernous void beneath the city.  The final descent into the Lost Caves is by escort, as they have a strict maximum occupancy.  Here, 26 feet below the venerable old George Hotel, which has accommodated guests as diverse as Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Taylor, is a most unlikely gin palace.  When, why, and by whom these deep grottoes were excavated is unknown, however, they do appear to have been adapted for the purpose of storing and brewing ale on rock-cut ledges.  Instead of holding barrels of beer, these rock ledges now make a cosy cushion-strewn perch upon which gin and cocktail aficionados can sample the bar’s latest below-ground beverage creations.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-lost-caves-nottinghamshire-england 

A cedilla (from Spanish), also known as cedilha (from Portuguese, European  or Brazilian) or cédille (from French), is a hook or tail added under certain letters as a diacritical mark to modify their pronunciation.  In Catalan, French, and Portuguese, it is used only under the c (forming ç), and the entire letter is called, respectively, c trencada (i.e. "broken C"), c cédille, and c cedilhado (or c cedilha, colloquially).  It is used to mark vowel nasalization in many languages of sub-Saharan Africa, including Vute from Cameroon.  See table of diacritics in Latin & Greek at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cedilla

"Alcohol is a word that you will not find in dictionaries of Classical Arabic.  In the final analysis, however, this word is of Arabic origin.  It is derived from the Arabic al-kuhl, which means 'kohl'.  When the Europeans became familiar with this substance in Andalusia, which was also used for medical purposes, they referred to it and gradually all other fine powders, and subsequently all kinds of volatile essences, as alcohol.  In Catalan, kohl is still called alcofoll.  Today, we thus have two Arabic words:  The one that started this development, i.e. al-kuhl, which still means 'kohl', and the loan word al-kuhul, which means 'alcohol'.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140124082656.htm 

During his leisure time, Mahinda Dasanayaka packs his motorbike with books and rides his mobile library—across mostly muddy roads running through tea-growing mountain areas—to underprivileged children in backward rural parts of Sri Lanka.  Having witnessed the hardships faced by children whose villages have no library facilities, Dasanayaka was looking for ways to help them.  Then he got the idea for his library on wheels.  He started his program called “Book and Me,” in 2017 with 150 books, and it has become very popular among the children.  “There are some kids who hadn’t seen even a children’s storybook until I went to their villages,” he said.  His collection includes about 3,000 books on a variety of subjects.  “Boys mostly like to read detective stories such as Sherlock Holmes, while girls prefer to read youth novels and biographies,” he said.  So far, he said, his program has benefited more than 1,500 children, as well as about 150 adults.  Apart from giving away books, Dasanayaka also speaks to the children for a few minutes, usually under a roadside tree, highlighting the value of reading, books and authors.  He then conducts a discussion on books the children have read, with the aim of eventually forming reading clubs.  https://tucson.com/ap/national/books-by-bike-sri-lankan-man-runs-mobile-library-for-kids/article_f60cf23e-4ab2-5026-a964-3aac579365c2.html

On December 22, 2020, the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference (SVWC) announced that American author, essayist, and fiction writer Barry Lopez has been awarded its inaugural Writer in the World Prize, which recognizes and honors a writer whose work expresses a “rare combination of literary talent and moral imagination, helping us to better understand the world and our place in it.”  The Award, established and funded anonymously by the board members of the SVWC, comes with a $20,000 cash prize.  “On every level, Barry Lopez is the ideal recipient for our first Writer in the World Prize,” said Robin Eidsmo, SVWC Executive Director.  “A writer full of curiosity and compassion, he has gifted us with words of optimism and of alarm about our planet and our need to protect it and each other.”  Over the past 50 years, Lopez has traveled the world—from the High Arctic to Antartica, from Oregon to Kenya—to bring us exquisite prose that illuminates our intense relationships and connections to the planet we inhabit.  He is the author of several books, including the now-classic Arctic Dreams, winner of the National Book Award, and Of Wolves and Men, a National Book Award finalist.  Rasheeda Saka  https://lithub.com/barry-lopez-has-won-the-inaugural-20000-writers-in-the-world-prize/ 

Steve Bannon, who frequently receives “very nasty” e-mails meant for the right-wing political operative, is a pharmacist and the chair of the select board in Great Barrington, a town of around seven thousand souls in the corner of the Berkshires where Massachusetts meets Connecticut and New York.  In October, 2020 more than three dozen epidemiologists, physicians, and statisticians, as well as a stray philosopher, published a report called the “Great Barrington Declaration.”  Sponsored by the American Institute for Economic Research, a libertarian think tank based in the town, the declaration argues against lockdowns and in favor of a strategy of herd immunity as a way to contain the coronavirus.  Ed Abrahams, another select-board member, gave an interview to the Berkshire Edge, an online newspaper, in which he pointed out that “the Paris Accords were signed in Paris and I don’t think the people of Paris formally approved that document.”  He added that Ralph Lauren had once marketed a line of bedding named for Great Barrington.  “Though it’s possible,” the Edge noted, “those pillow shams and dust ruffles are named after the village of Great Barrington in Gloucestershire, England, from which the southern Berkshire County town derives its name.”  O’Reilly had first picked on the town in 2007, when the select board imposed an ordinance mandating that Christmas lights be turned off at 10 p.m., to save energy.  Great Barrington weathered those unwelcome moments in the limelight.  Residents are hoping that this one, too, shall pass.  Ed Abrahams, another select-board member, gave an interview to the Berkshire Edge, an online newspaper, in which he pointed out that “the Paris Accords were signed in Paris and I don’t think the people of Paris formally approved that document.”  He added that Ralph Lauren had once marketed a line of bedding named for Great Barrington.  “Though it’s possible,” the Edge noted, “those pillow shams and dust ruffles are named after the village of Great Barrington in Gloucestershire, England, from which the southern Berkshire County town derives its name.”  Leo Marani  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/28/the-great-barrington-declaration-ruffles-locals-feathers  Thank you, Muse reader!  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2303  December 24, 2020

To cope with the scarcity of affordable beef during the Depression, burger flippers in Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee employed the handy practice of “meat extending.”  Rather than toss a mound of pure ground beef or pork on the grill, cooks cut their patties with potato flour.  The result was a surprisingly satisfying burger that was crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Purveyors of the slugburger slung it for five cents, also referred to as a “slug.”  The trick helped the animal-protein supply go further and reduced prices for penny-pinching customers, which was almost everyone.  After the Depression, slugburger fans didn’t abandon the fried sandwich.  Instead, they switched up the recipe.  Rather than use potato flour and animal fat, Southern cooks now rely on soybean meal and vegetable oil to add that crispy, greasy grit.  The slugburger love even extends to an annual festival that’s been thrown in Corinth, Mississippi, since 1987.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/slugburger-mississippi 

Saltville is a town in Smyth and Washington counties in Virginia.  The population was 2,077 at the 2010 census.  Saltville was named for the salt marshes in the area.  Prior to European settlement, these marshes attracted local wildlife.  Excavations at the SV-2 archaeological site in the area have recovered several well preserved skeletons of now extinct species dating back to the last ice age.  Indigenous peoples of varying cultures hunted at the marshes.  The historic Native American people in the area were the Chisca. The Museum of the Middle Appalachians is located in downtown Saltville.  The museum displays exhibits on topics including the geological history of the region, the American Civil War, the company town era of Saltville's history, and the Woodland Indians.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltville,_Virginia 

“Tell me where your grandmother came from and I can tell you how many kinds of pie you serve for Thanksgiving,” the food writer Clementine Paddleford surmised in her 1960 book, How America Eats.  Around Boston, she wrote, “four kinds of pie were traditional for this feast occasion—mince, cranberry, pumpkin, and a kind called Marlborough, a glorification of everyday apple.”  A single-crust pie of stewed apples in a custard fragrant with nutmeg, citrus, and sherry, Marlborough pie originated in England as a custard pudding and crossed the Atlantic with early English settlers.  The practice of putting apples in a custard and baking in a pastry base is at least as old as 1660.  An Eater article cites Amy Traverso’s The Apple Lover’s Cookbook, which traces the first iteration of Marlborough pudding to a recipe in The Accomplisht Cook, an English cookbook published that year.  It called for a whopping 24 egg yolks mixed with cinnamon, sugar, salt, melted butter, “some fine minced pippins” (tart apples used in cooking), and minced as well as sliced citron, all poured into a pastry-lined dish.  The recipe was strikingly similar to the Marlborough pudding recipe in the first known American cookbook, published in 1796: Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery.  So, is it a pie or a pudding?  It’s both, says Sarah Ramsey, lead interpreter at Old Sturbridge Village, a living history museum in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, that recreates rural New England of the 1830s.  “Pie and pudding in the 19th century are very interchangeable, depending on how they’re served,” she says.  “Because this is a custard-based dessert, it would technically be considered a pudding.  But because it has a filling that has to be poured into something else—like a pie crust—in order to have it form and cook, it is also a pie.”  Rohini Chaki  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-marlborough-pie 

Eons ago, an earthquake along the fault line that runs right through Saltville, Virginia caused the upper layer of the earth's crust to "roll over".  This tremendous upheaval caused the salt deposits that normally lie deep within the earth to come to the surface, burying the newer soil beneath it.  For years, Saltville supplied a large portion of the United States with table salt.  Later, during the Civil War, the Confederacy depended on Saltville for its much-needed supply of salt for preserving its soldiers' food.  Two battles took place in Saltville as Union forces attempted to destroy the salt works and eliminate the south's only significant supply of salt.  On December 20, 1864, Maj. General George Stoneman's troops succeeded in doing just that, dealing a devastating blow to the welfare and morale of the Confederate army.  In just a few short months the war would be over.  https://www.rlrouse.com/saltville-welcome-sign.html  See also the ten largest salt mines in the world at https://americanmineservices.com/top-10-largest-salt-mines-in-the-world/ 

When a loved one died in parts of England, Scotland, or Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries, the family grieved, placed bread on the chest of the deceased, and called for a man to sit in front of the body.  The family of the deceased watched as this man, the local professional sin eater, absorbed the sins of the departed’s soul.  The family who hired the sin eater believed that the bread literally soaked up their loved one’s sins; once it had been eaten, all the misdeeds were passed on to the hired hand.  Natalie Zarrelli  https://obscura392.rssing.com/chan-52185737/all_p199.html 

"Phenotype" refers to an observable trait.  "Pheno" simply means "observe" and comes from the same root as the word "phenomenon".  And so it's an observable type of an organism, and it can refer to anything from a common trait, such as height or hair color, to presence or absence of a disease.  So a phenotype can be directly related to a genotype, but not necessarily.  There's usually not a one-to-one correlation between a genotype and a phenotype.  There are almost always environmental influences, such as what one eats, how much one exercises, how much one smokes, etc.  All of those are environmental influences which will affect the phenotype as well.  Christopher P. Austin, M.D.  https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Phenotype 

The term “autofiction” was first used by Serge Doubrovsky to describe his novel Fils (1977).  He wrote that autobiography was reserved for “the important people of this world”; by calling his work “autofiction,” he emphasized that it should be read not for instruction but as one would read fiction.  The term has come into vogue to describe contemporary writing, and with the publication of books like Sheila Heti’s Motherhood, Rachel Cusk’s Kudos, and Karl Knausgaard’s Spring, it’s been popping up frequently—in book reviews and think pieces, at readings and on Twitter.  Sometimes “autofiction” is treated as a stable genre category, but often it is derided as an unnecessary and meaningless term.  http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/how-we-read-autofiction/  See also Auto-fiction:  Is it Fiction or Autobiography and Does it Matter? at https://www.redbudwriting.org/blog/auto-fiction-is-it-fiction-or-autobiography-and-does-it-matter

The Queens Museum is dedicated to presenting the highest quality visual arts and educational programming for people in the New York metropolitan area, and particularly for the residents of Queens, a uniquely diverse, ethnic, cultural, and international community.  Link to location and hours at https://queensmuseum.org/about

An ideal Christmas book will thrill both adults and children--John Masefield’s classic The Box of Delights falls into this category--and the very best example is The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper.  Originally published in 1973, it is one of those books whose reputation grows year on year:  a heady mix of Arthurian myths, time travel and a boy born to save the world.  “Tonight will be bad . . .  and tomorrow will be beyond imagining” is the line that throws young Will Stanton, last of the Old Ones, headlong into a world of snow and danger, fire and floods, in what is still as satisfying a winter’s tale as can be found.  If you fancy a bit of cosy, traditional crime, Hercule Poirot is a good fit at Christmas, being rotund and mysterious.  In Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, by Agatha Christie, he is summoned to quickly solve a festive murder.  Georgette Heyer’s A Christmas Party is also her usual cracking fun, as a variety of pleasingly loathsome characters may or may not have bumped off an old Scrooge.  When I worked in bookselling, I rarely saw a book that made children happier than The Jolly Christmas Postman by Allan and Janet Ahlberg, with its adorable little letters and postcards sent between nursery rhyme characters that bring a child’s world intensely alive.  Jenny Colgan  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/21/the-cosiest-comfort-reads-to-curl-up-with-this-christmas 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2302  December 23, 2020