Light at the end of the tunnel means a solution to a problem. Tunnel at the end of the light might refer to
tax reform bills with sentences hundreds of words long. Solution in search of a problem is a proposal
about solving a non-existent problem.
'Carry coals to
Newcastle' To do something pointless and
superfluous. Newcastle Upon Tyne in
England was the UK's first coal exporting port and has been well-known as a
coal mining centre since the Middle Ages, although much diminished in that
regard in recent years. 'Carrying coal
to Newcastle' was an archetypically pointless activity--there being plenty
there already. Other countries have
similar phrases; in German it's 'taking owls to Athens' (the inhabitants of
Athens already being thought to have sufficient wisdom). 'Selling snow to Eskimos' or 'selling sand to
Arabs', which in many people's understanding also have the same meaning, are a
little different. Those expressions
refer to things that are difficult to achieve, that is, requiring of superb
sales skills, rather than being things that are pointless. Despite the name of the city, Newcastle's
castle keep is almost a thousand years old--having replaced an earlier castle
in 1178. The association of the city
with coal and the phrase itself are also old.
In 1606, Thomas Heywood in 'If you know not me, you know no bodie:
or, the troubles of Queene Elizabeth' wrote: "As common as coales from
Newcastle." The explicit link with
pointlessness came soon afterwards, in Thomas Fuller's The history of
the worthies of England, 1661:
"To carry Coals to Newcastle, that is to do what was done before;
or to busy one's self in a needless imployment." https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/carry-coals-to-newcastle.html Is carry coals to Newcastle a solution in
search of a problem? Or an unneeded action?
USEFUL LATIN PHRASES ad hoc (for this): said of something created or formed for a
special case, ad infinitum (to
infinity): something that keeps going
forever, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware): a reference to the principle that a customer
is responsible for making sure that a product is in good working order, compos mentis (of healthy mind): sane, in situ (in
that place): in its original place, ipso facto (by the very fact): because of that fact, mea culpa (I am responsible): forgive me, modus operandi (method
of operating): way of working (also MO),
non sequitur (it does not follow): said of something that does not logically
relate to what came before, per se (by
itself), prima facie (at first look based on the first
impression, or accepted as correct until proved otherwise, pro forma (for form): for the sake of appearances or form, quid pro quo (this for that): something given in exchange for something
else (hence quid, the nickname for the pound in UK currency), tabula rasa (scraped tablet): blank slate (the concept of the human mind
before it receives impressions from experience), tempus fugit (time flies) https://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-latin-phrases-you-should-know/
The Lincoln Highway by Richard F. Weingroff
On July 1, 1913, a group of
automobile enthusiasts and industry officials established the Lincoln Highway
Association (LHA) "to procure the establishment of a continuous improved
highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description
without toll charges." In its time,
the Lincoln Highway would become the Nation's premier highway, as well known as
U.S. 66 was to be in its day and as well known as I-80 and I-95 are today. The Lincoln Highway also played an important
role in the evolution of highways leading up to the Dwight D. Eisenhower System
of Interstate and Defense Highways. This
role is illustrated by the LHA's twin goals.
One goal was to build a "Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway" from
Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The second goal was to make the Lincoln
Highway an object lesson that would, in the words of its creator, Carl G.
Fisher, "stimulate as nothing else could the building of enduring highways
everywhere that will not only be a credit to the American people but that will
also mean much to American agriculture and American commerce." In 1912, the Nation's highways were just
emerging from the "Dark Ages" of road building in the second half of
the 19th Century. Railroads dominated
interstate transportation of people and goods.
Roads were primarily of local interest.
Outside cities, "market roads" were maintained, for better or
worse, by counties or townships. Many
states were prohibited by their constitution from paying for "internal improvements,"
such as road projects. The federal-aid
highway program would not begin until 1916 and, because of structural problems
and the advent of World War I in 1917, would not accomplish much until 1921. The country had approximately 2,199,600 miles
of rural roads and only 190,476 miles (8.66 percent of the total) had improved
surfaces of gravel, stone, sand-clay, brick, shells, oiled earth, bituminous
or, as a U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) bulletin put it, "etc." Many people thought of interstate roads as
"peacock alleys" intended for the enjoyment of wealthy travelers who
had time to spend weeks riding around the country in their automobiles. Fisher saw the situation differently. He was an early automobile enthusiast who had
been a racer, the manufacturer of Prest-O-Lite compressed carbide-gas
headlights used on most early motorcars, and the builder of the Indianapolis
Speedway. (In the 1920's he would be
known as the promoter and builder of Miami Beach.) He believed that, "The automobile won't
get anywhere until it has good roads to run on." He began actively promoting his dream, a
transcontinental highway, in 1912. On
September 10, he held a dinner meeting with many of his automobile industry
friends in the Deutsches Haus in Indianapolis, his home town. He called for a coast-to-coast rock highway
to be completed by May 1, 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific International
Exposition in San Francisco. The project
would cost about $10 million, he said.
"Let's build it," he told the group, "before we're too
old to enjoy it!" Within a month,
Fisher's auto industry friends had pledged $1 million. Henry Ford, the biggest automaker of his day,
was a notable exception. He refused to
contribute in spite of a personal plea by Fisher over a pigpen at the State
Fair in Detroit. Ford believed the
government, not private individuals or companies, should build the nation's
roads. By July 1913, Fisher and his
associates had chosen a name for the road.
After rejecting the "Fisher Highway," the "Jefferson
Memorial Highway," and the "American Road," among other
possibilities, the group named its highway after one of Fisher's heroes,
Abraham Lincoln. Fisher adopted the name
only after Congress rejected a proposal by another group to build a
"Lincoln Memorial Road" from Washington to Gettysburg; instead,
Congress authorized construction of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in
Washington. Read much more at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/lincoln.cfm
SIMPLE
SHAVED CARROT AND FENNEL SALAD by Lizzie
Streit A stunning shaved carrot fennel
salad made with peeled veggies, pistachios, and a delicate dressing. https://itsavegworldafterall.com/simple-shaved-carrot-fennel-salad/ serves 4
Thank you, Muse reader!
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
discusses whether a hot dog on a bun is a sandwich at 2:40 in a video at
Michel Piccoli, actor, born 27 December 1925; died 12 May 2020
Michel
Piccoli was born in Paris to a French mother and an Italian father--his mother was a pianist; his father a violinist. At 19, he made his screen debut in a walk-on
part in Sortilèges (1945), directed by Christian-Jaque.
After several roles in the cinema and theatre, he met Buñuel. “I wrote to this famous director asking him
to come and see me in a play. Me, an
obscure actor! It was the cheek of a
young man. He came and we became
friends.” Piccoli appeared in six of
Buñuel’s films, usually cast as a silky, authoritarian figure. It was in 1968 that Piccoli met Marco
Ferreri, who starred him in Dillinger È Morto (Dillinger Is Dead), a bleak
study of alienation, in which a man’s life is laid bare. Piccoli is brilliant as an industrial
designer who, while spending an evening at home, making himself a meal,
watching TV and seducing the maid, decides to kill his wife and go to
Tahiti. It was the first of seven films
the actor made for the Italian-born director, the most infamous being La Grande Bouffe (Blow
Out, 1973), an excessive film about excess, where Piccoli as a TV personality,
along with a pilot, a judge and a chef, all bored with life, literally eat
themselves to death. He dominated every moment as a reserved and modest
cardinal who panics when elected pontiff in Nanni Moretti’s semi-satire Habemus
Papam (We Have
a Pope, 2011). The first close-ups of him, when he realises
he has been appointed the new pope, suggest, with subtle expressions, emotions
ranging from surprise, humility, ambivalence, excitement and then horror. Ronald Bergan
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/may/18/michel-piccoli-obituary
Marco Ferreri’s “La Grande
Bouffe” is to gastronomy as “The Exorcist”
is to “Song of Bernadette,” which is to say eat before you go, you won’t be
hungry afterward. It’s the story of four
friends who gather for a weekend of eating and wenching that gradually reveals
itself as a suicide pact. They eat
themselves to death. And not
metaphorically; no, they eat themselves to death literally before our very
eyes, and not a morsel of the feast goes undocumented. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/la-grande-bouffe-1973
review of La Grande Bouffe starring Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli,
Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi
WORD OF THE DAY for May
19 floriography noun Communication through
the use of flowers,
with different types of flowers having particular symbolic meanings. The Royal Horticultural Society’s online Virtual Chelsea Flower Show starts on May 19,
2020--the traditional physical show
having been cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/floriography#English
http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com Issue 2270
May 19, 2020
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