Keats’s first book of poetry was published when he was 21; Mary Shelley was 18 when she started writing Frankenstein.  But both of their youthful achievements are dwarfed by the newest star in the UK’s poetry firmament:  four-year-old Nadim Shamma-Sourgen, who has just landed a book deal.  Nadim’s poems range from Coming Home (“Take our gloves off / Take our shoes off / Put them where they’re supposed to go. / You take off your brave feeling / Because there’s nothing / to be scared of in the house”), to Love (“Everyone has love / Even baddies”).  In Baddies, the young poet explores the inner life of villains a little further:  “Baddies love their baddie friends / Even very baddie ones // Policemen might arrest them / But they’ll still have their love”.  Nadim was discovered by 2020’s Orwell prize winner, the poet and teacher Kate Clanchy, who met his mother, Yasmine Shamma, a lecturer in literature at the University of Reading through a shared interest in teaching refugees to write poetry.  The deal will make Nadim one of the youngest-ever writers to land a book deal.  According to Guinness World Records, the youngest commercially published female author is Dorothy Straight, who wrote How the World Began in 1962, aged four.  It was published in 1964, when she was six.  The Guinness record for the youngest published male author is held by Sri Lankan Thanuwana Serasinghe, who was four years and 356 days old when he released his book Junk Food on 5 January 2017, after writing it in three days.  Alison Flood  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/22/four-year-old-lands-book-deal-poetry-nadim-shamma-sourgen-kate-clanchy 

The verb bedeck means decorate.  Synonyms are:  bedight; deck.   Example of use:  Deck the halls with holly.  https://www.tititudorancea.com/z/bedeck.htm

Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, Syzygium aromaticum.  They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice.  Cloves are available throughout the year due to different harvest seasons in different countries.  The clove tree is an evergreen that grows up to 8–12 metres (26–39 ft) tall, with large leaves and crimson flowers grouped in terminal clusters.  The flower buds initially have a pale hue, gradually turn green, then transition to a bright red when ready for harvest.  Cloves are used in the cuisine of Asian, African, Mediterranean, and the Near and Middle East countries, lending flavor to meats, curries, and marinades, as well as fruit such as apples, pears, and rhubarb.  Cloves may be used to give aromatic and flavor qualities to hot beverages, often combined with other ingredients such as lemon and sugar.  They are a common element in spice blends like pumpkin pie spice and speculoos spices.  In Mexican cuisine, cloves are best known as clavos de olor, and often accompany cumin and cinnamon.  They are also used in Peruvian cuisine, in a wide variety of dishes such as carapulcra and arroz con leche.  A major component of clove taste is imparted by the chemical eugenol, and the quantity of the spice required is typically small.  It pairs well with cinnamon, allspice, vanilla, red wine, basil, onion, citrus peel, star anise, and peppercorns.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clove 

The Nullifier Party, which was also known as the Independent Democratic Party, was a short-lived political party based in South Carolina in the 1830s.  Started by John C. Calhoun sometime in May-December of 1828, it was a states' rights party that supported the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, holding that States could nullify federal laws within their borders.  The Nullifier Party narrowly missed claiming the unofficial title of being the first ever third party to be created within the U.S.; that title is for the Anti-Masonic Party, which was created in New York in February of 1828.  The Nullifier Party had several members in both houses of the United States Congress between 1831 and 1839.  Calhoun outlined the principles of the party in his South Carolina Exposition and Protest (1828), a reaction to the "Tariff of Abominations" passed by Congress and signed into law by President John Quincy Adams.  http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Nullifier_Party?View=embedded 

Halva is a sweet treat found across the Middle East, Mediterranean, and Central Asia.  Many types of halva are made with sesame or nut butter, but each area has its own version of halva and often flavors it with regional products.  Soft halva can be enjoyed right out of the container with a spoon.  Spread soft halva on your toast.  Because of its intense sweet flavor, it's best to spread it on blander foods like baguettes, crackers, or biscuits.  Sprinkle halva over your cereal.  It's easy to add small slices or strips of halva into your favorite cereal, or add it to your granola.  Read more at https://www.wikihow.com/Eat-Halva 

One branch of the popular Dutch bookstore chain Selexyz can be found right inside of a 13th century Dominican church in Maastricht, Holland.  The project known as Selexyz Dominicanen Maastricht, designed by architecture firm Merkx + Girod, exemplifies a brilliant union between the opposing aesthetics.  The space maintains the church’s architectural structure and definitive design attributes while inviting the contemporary stylings of a modern bookstore.  Built in 1294, the cathedral features large open spaces boasting three-story bookshelves.  Being that the church contains 1,200 square meters of shopping space with only 750 square meters of floor space, the architects decided to design vertically.  They incorporate the modern scheme of the shop without obstructing the religious motifs or structure of the ancient venue.  Within the space, there is also a cafe.  As a nod to the bookstore’s past-life, there is a long table shaped like a cross in the eating area, which is conveniently located where the choir formerly situated themselves.  Pinar Noorata  See gorgeous pictures at https://mymodernmet.com/merkx-girod-selexyz-dominicanen-maastricht-bookstore-church/  Thank you, Muse reader!  

In 1913, a character in Jack London’s The Valley of the Moon bitterly complains, “We’re hornswoggled.  We’re backed to a standstill.  We’re double-crossed to a fare-you-well”.  Seven years later the young P G Wodehouse employed it in Little Warrior:  “Would she have the generosity to realize that a man ought not to be held accountable for what he says in the moment when he discovers that he has been cheated, deceived, robbed—in a word, hornswoggled?”  By then, the word had been in the language with that meaning for more than half a century, and even then it had been around for some decades with an older sense of “embarrass, disconcert or confuse”.  People had long since turned it into an exclamation of surprise or amazement:  “Well, I’ll be hornswoggled!”  Peter Watts argues in A Dictionary of the Old West that it comes from cowpunching.  A steer that has been lassoed around the neck will “hornswoggle”, wag and twist its head around frantically to try to slip free of the rope.  A cowboy who lets the animal get away with this is said to have been “hornswoggled”.  A nice idea, but nobody seems to have heard of hornswoggle in the cattle sense, and it may be a guess based on horn.  Nobody else has much idea either, though it’s often assumed to be one of those highfalutin words like absquatulate and rambunctious that frontier Americans were so fond of creating.  It’s sad to have to tag a word as “origin unknown” yet again, but that’s the long and the short of it.  http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-hor1.htm 

The Dinner Party That Served Up 50,000-Year-Old Bison Stew--when life gives you frozen bison, make dinner by Paula Mejia  One night in 1984, a handful of lucky guests gathered at the Alaska home of paleontologist Dale Guthrie to eat stew crafted from a once-in-a-lifetime delicacy:  the neck meat of an ancient, recently-discovered bison nicknamed Blue Babe.  Since state law bans the buying, bartering, and selling of game meats, you can’t find local favorites such as caribou stew at restaurants.  Those dishes are enjoyed when hunters host a gathering.  But their meat source is usually the moose population—not a preserved piece of biological history.  Blue Babe had been discovered just five years earlier by gold miners, who noticed that a hydraulic mining hose melted part of the gunk that had kept the bison frozen.  They reported their findings to the nearby University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Concerned that it would decompose, Guthrie—then a professor and researcher at the university—opted to dig out Blue Babe immediately.  To make the stew for roughly eight people, Guthrie cut off a small part of the bison’s neck, where the meat had frozen while fresh.  “When it thawed, it gave off an unmistakable beef aroma, not unpleasantly mixed with a faint smell of the earth in which it was found, with a touch of mushroom,” he once wrote.  They then added a generous amount of garlic and onions, along with carrots and potatoes, to the aged meat.  Couple that with wine, and it became a full-fledged dinner.  Thankfully, everyone present lived to tell the tale (and the bison remains on display at the University of Alaska Museum of the North).  The Blue Babe stew wasn’t unpalatable, either, according to Guthrie.  “It tasted a little bit like what I would have expected, with a little bit of wring of mud,” he says.  “But it wasn’t that bad.  Not so bad that we couldn’t each have a bowl.”  He can’t remember if anyone present had seconds, though.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ancient-bison-stew-blue-babe-alaska?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=da0f1c1381-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_04&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-da0f1c1381-71793902&mc_cid=da0f1c1381&mc_eid=aef0869a63 

A THOUGHT FOR JULY 31  Trust is the first step to love. - Premchand, novelist and poet (31 Jul 1880-1936) 

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2236  July 31, 2020 

Sir William Henry Perkin, FRS (1838–1907) was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline.  Though he failed in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, he became successful in the field of dyes after his first discovery at the age of 18.   William Perkin continued active research in organic chemistry for the rest of his life:  he discovered and marketed other synthetic dyes, including Britannia Violet and Perkin's Green; he discovered ways to make coumarin, one of the first synthetic raw materials of perfume, and cinnamic acid.  (The reaction used to make the last became known as the Perkin reaction.)  In 1869, Perkin found a method for the commercial production from anthracene of the brilliant red dye alizarin, which had been isolated and identified from madder root some forty years earlier in 1826 by the French chemist Pierre Robiquet, simultaneously with purpurin, another red dye of lesser industrial interest, but the German chemical company BASF patented the same process one day before he did.  During the next decade, the new German Empire was rapidly eclipsing Britain as the centre of Europe's chemical industry.  By the 1890s, Germany had a near-monopoly on the business and Perkin was compelled to sell off his holdings and retire.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Perkin

July 22, 2020  Cracking the Case of South India’s Missing Vegetables--A food designer used quarantine to track down the mystery produce in his grandmother’s cookbook by Reina Gattuso   Published in 1951, Samaithu Par, translated to English as Cook and See, is a classic text of 20th-century vegetarian Tamil Brahmin cooking.  Authored by Meenakshi Ammal, a widow turned chef-auteur, the book consists of 350 recipes for beloved dishes including sambar, rasam, payasam, and uppuma.  As food designer  Akash Muralidharan cooked, he spotted a mystery in Cook and See’s ingredients lists. Many of the recipes were nostalgic classics, made with common ingredients.  Yet Muralidharan also encountered vegetables that even he, as a native Chennai resident and a food professional, didn’t recognize. These included kaai valli kodi, called air potato in English; siru kizhangu, or coleus potato; and mookuthi avarai, or clove bean.  So Muralidharan undertook a 100-day Samaithu Par cooking challenge.  Beginning March 1, 2020, he cooked a recipe from the book each day, documenting his journey with Instagram in posts illustrated by collaborators Priyadarshini Narayana and Shrishti Dabolkar.  Of the 80 different vegetables called for in the recipes, the team had difficulty finding around 20 varieties.  Read much more and see pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/indian-vegetables?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=0f6379ce15-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_25&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-0f6379ce15-71793902&mc_cid=0f6379ce15&mc_eid=aef0869a63

Built in 1924 for use by the Ford Motor Company, the Benson Ford (I) was original utilized to transport iron ore and related materials across the Great Lakes by the growing auto company.  Measuring 612’ X 62’ with a moulded depth of 32’ and a carrying capacity of 15,000 net tons at mid-summer draft, the ship was built by Great Lakes Engineering, Ecorse, Mich., and was launched April 26, 1924.  The maiden voyage of the Benson Ford began on August 2 with a coal load from Toledo, Ohio, being transported to Duluth, Minn., and returning to the Ford Rouge plant in Dearborn, Mich., with iron ore.  After more than 50 years of tireless service, the Benson Ford was decommissioned in December of 1981 and renamed the John Dykstra II so the original name could be released to another ship in the Ford fleet.  Stripped of the engine and other salvageable parts, the Dykstra was sold to Frank J. Sullivan of Sullivan Marine, Cleveland, Ohio, for intended use as a barge; however, it never sailed again.  On December 21, 1984, Sullivan had the ship towed to the Ontario Stone No. 4 dock on the Cuyahoga River where it sat for almost two years while the new owners pondered what to do with the ship.  After much consideration, Sullivan decided it would not be cost effective to utilize the ship on the Great Lakes and opted for a less conventional use.  On July 3, 1986, the entire forward superstructure of the Dykstra, including the forecastle deck, was removed and transported by the barge Thor 101 to South Bass Island, also called Put-in-Bay.  The 62’ X 59’ foot section would be initially used as a 7,000 square foot, four story summer home for the Sullivans.  The home would include the walnut paneled state rooms, dining room, galley, and passenger lounge designed by Henry Ford for his own pleasure while traversing the Great Lakes on business.  http://shiponthebay.com/history.html  Thank you, Muse reader!  See shiphouse photos at http://shiponthebay.com/gallery.html and https://czarniklife.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/benson-ford/.   See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_freighter

Leftovers are always better the second day.  Or, in the case of Bangkok restaurant Wattana Panich, the next generation.  The giant pot of neua tune, a beef stew popular in the Thai capital, has been simmering since owner Nattapong Kaweenuntawong was a child, more than 45 years ago.  Growing up studying the exact flavor profile of the stew from his father, Kaweenuntawong now balances the flavor himself daily.  He employs an ancient practice called Hunter’s Stew or Perpetual Stew, using some of the previous day’s leftover broth to start the base of the following day’s soup.  “We keep tasting.  There is no recipe,” he told Channel News Asia.  A secret blend of spices and herbs, stewed beef, raw beef slices, meatballs, tripe, and other organs swim about the deeply bubbling vat.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/neua-tune-45-year-soup-wattana-panich?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=67dfa25f3b-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-67dfa25f3b-71793902&mc_cid=67dfa25f3b&mc_eid=aef0869a63

A letter of marque and reprisal (French: lettre de marque; lettre de course) was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer.  Once captured, the privateer could then bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer.  A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to conduct a reprisal (take some action against an attack or injury) and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.  Popular among Europeans from the late Middle Ages up to the 19th century, cruising for enemy prizes with a letter of marque was considered an honorable calling that combined patriotism and profit.  Such privateering contrasted with attacks and captures of random ships, which was unlicensed and known as piracy; piracy was almost universally reviled.  In reality, the differences between privateers and pirates were often at best subtle and at worst a matter of interpretation.  Marque derives from the Old English mearc, which is from the Germanic *mark-, which means boundary, or boundary marker, which is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *merǵ-, meaning boundary, or border.  The French marque is from the Provençal language marca, which is from marcar, also Provençal, meaning, seize as a pledge.  Article 1 of the United States Constitution lists issuing letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of the enumerated powers of Congress, alongside the power to tax and to declare War.  However, since the American Civil War, the United States as a matter of policy has consistently followed the terms of the 1856 Paris Declaration forbidding the practice. The United States has not legally commissioned any privateers since 1815, although the status of submarine-hunting Goodyear airships in the early days of World War II created significant confusion.  Various accounts refer to airships Resolute and Volunteer as operating under a "privateer status", but Congress never authorized a commission, nor did the President sign one.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

WORD OF THE DAY FOR JULY 29  (uncountable) A (usually women's) team sport derived from basketball, with seven players on each side who attempt to score goals by passing a ball and throwing it into the opponent's goal, which is a raised hoop with a net at one end of the playing area.  Unlike basketball, a player in possession of the ball cannot move until the ball is passed to another player.  (countable) The ball used in this sport.  Swedish-born physical education instructor and women’s suffrage advocate Martina Bergman-Österberg died on July 29, 1915.  She played a pivotal role in the development of netball as she introduced a version of basketball to her students at Hampstead College, London, after returning from the United States in 1893 having seen that sport being played.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/netball#English

National Chicken Wing Day is July 29th.  See full results of a survey of over 2,500 Americans asking them about their favorite sauce or seasoning, preference of wing type, and whether they’d rather have ranch or blue cheese and what the favorites are by state.  https://www.grillcookbake.com/outdoor-cooking/chicken-wing-survey/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2235  July 29, 2020

Enslaved laborers brought sesame seeds to South Carolina in the 1700s and planted them for use as cooking oil.  Plantation owners in colonial Charleston explored the potential cash crop as an alternative to olive oil, but sesame-based substitutes remained a limited field throughout the 19th century.  Instead, home bakers put the nutritious plants to use.  They mixed savory, nutty seeds with brown sugar, butter, and small amounts of flour to create a thin, crispy wafer.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/benne-wafers-south-carolina-lowcountry?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=96bbb91852-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-96bbb91852-71793902&mc_cid=96bbb91852&mc_eid=aef0869a63 

Since benne (pronounced “benny”) is simply the Bantu word for sesame, you may think benne and sesame are completely interchangeable terms for the same ingredient.  But there are differences between a traditional benne seed and a modern sesame seed.  Each benne wafer only uses 1/2 tsp. of cookie dough.  Half a teaspoon!  Do you know how many cookies that made in this recipe?  At least 14 dozen.  That’s over a gross of cookies (a gross is a dozen dozen, or 144).  https://www.pinchmeimeating.com/benne-wafers/

"I send you a cipher to be used between us, which will give you some trouble to understand, but, once understood, is the easiest to use." Thomas Jefferson wrote United State Minister to France Robert R. Livingston in 1802.  Jefferson had used ciphers before with official as well as unofficial correspondence; letters to James Madison, John Adams, James Monroe, Robert Livingston, among others include communication in cipher.  It was a way to keep "matters merely personal to ourselves" as well as a way to "have at hand a mask for whatever may need it."  Cognizant of the diplomatically sensitive situation Meriwether Lewis would be in while exploring the northwest, Jefferson prepared a cipher for use during the expedition and sent it to Lewis while he was preparing for the journey in Pennsylvania with astronomer, mathematician, and surveyor Andrew Ellicott.  The cipher, derived from the Vigenere cipher (that was widely used in Europe and was considered unbreakable until the 1830s), was a twenty-eight-column alphanumeric table.  The correspondent would write the first line to be ciphered and then write out a keyword above, repeating it for the length of line (for Jefferson and Lewis the keyword was to be "artichokes").  The correspondent would use the up-and-down letter pairs to determine the coded letters, almost as if plotting points on a graph.  Knowing the keyword the recipient could then translate the seemingly unintelligible message.  Read more and link to information on World Heritage Site Monticello at https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/louisiana-lewis-clark/preparing-for-the-expedition/coded-messages/jefferson-s-cipher-for-meriwether-lewis/  See also https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2018/08/jeffersons-cipher-pic-of-the-week/

What 100 Writers Have Been Reading During Quarantine by Emily Temple  The extensive article includes books listed by Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency:  (Douwe Draaisma, Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older  Abbot Christopher Jamison, Finding Sanctuary:  Monastic Steps for Everyday Life, Evelyn Waugh, the Sword of Honour trilogy, W. H. Auden and Shakespeare’s sonnets (via LA Times).  Marisa Meltzer, author of This Is Big lists Donna Tartt, The Secret History and Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence (via The Strategist).  Jon Mooallem, author of This Is Chance! The Shaking of an All-American City, A Voice That Held It Together mentions  Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees (via The Strategist)  https://lithub.com/what-100-writers-have-been-reading-during-quarantine/

IF I DIE BEFORE I WAKE (1938) by Sherwood King  Later adapted by Orson Welles into The Lady from Shanghai starring Rita Hayworth, this was one of a pair of pre-war mysteries by Raymond Sherwood King.  Set among the wealthy elite of Long Island, it is narrated by Laurence Planter, an ex-sailor working as a chauffeur.  This book is by far the best known title in the rather sparse bibliography of King, a reputed child prodigy and finger print expert.  This seems to have been King’s second novel.  His first, Between Murders, was first published in 1935 as by “Sherry King” and reprinted in the UK in 1941 as Death Carries a Cane.  His postwar works, as far as I can gather, only includes some articles, the odd short story and the novella length A Price for Murder (1957).  posted by Sergio  https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/if-i-die-before-i-wake-1938-by-sherwood-king/

Producer William Castle purchased the rights to Sherwood King's novel "If I Die Before I Wake" for $600.  The novel was later used as the source for the Orson Welles film The Lady from Shanghai (1947).  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0455271/

The origin of the lemon has not yet been determined, although science suggests it may be northwestern India, where they have been cultivated for more than 2,500 years.  Arab traders brought the lemons to the Middle East and Africa sometime after 100 C.E.  It is believed to have been introduced into southern Italy around 200 C.E.; and was being cultivated in Egypt and in Sumer, the southern portion of Mesopotamia a few centuries later.  At first, lemons were not widely cultivated as food.  It was largely an ornamental plant (as were tomatoes), until about the 10th century.  The Arabs introduced the lemon into Spain in the 11th century, and by 1150, the lemon was widely cultivated in the Mediterranean.  Crusaders returning from Palestine brought it to the rest of Europe.  The lemon came into full culinary use in Europe in the 15th century; the first major cultivation in Europe began in Genoa.  Lemons came to the New World in 1493, when Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to Hispaniola.  Spanish conquest spread the lemon throughout the New World, where it was still used mainly used as an ornamental plant, and for medicine.  Lemons were grown in California by 1751; and in the 1800s in Florida, they began to be used in cooking and flavoring.  The name “lemon” first appeared around 1350–1400, from the Middle English word limon.  Limon is an Old French word, indicating that the lemon entered England via France.  The Old French derives from the Italian limone, which dates back to the Arabic laymun or limun, from the Persian word limun.  https://thenibble.com/reviews/main/fruits/lemon-types.asp

Mom’s Spanish Rice  Joan Hallford  https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/mom-s-spanish-rice/

July 26, 2020  Olivia de Havilland, who starred in dozens of movies through the 1930s and '40s, has died at age 104.  She died at her home in Paris of natural causes.  "The life of the love interest is really pretty boring," de Havilland said.  "I longed to play a character who initiated things, who experienced important things."  But Warner Bros. wouldn't give her those roles and it had her under an ironclad seven-year contract.  The decades-old studio system had been challenged in court before, but none of those efforts succeeded until de Havilland sued in 1943—and won.  What's known as the "de Havilland law" was the decision that finally ended Hollywood's studio system and gave writers and actors creative independence.  Selena Simmons-Duffin

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/26/223736571/olivia-de-havilland-one-of-hollywoods-longest-living-legends-dies-at-104

Sir Osbert Lancaster, CBE (4 August 1908–27 July 1986) was an English cartoonist, architectural historian, stage designer and author.  He was known for his cartoons in the British press, and for his lifelong work to inform the general public about good buildings and architectural heritage.  The only child of a prosperous family, Lancaster was educated at Charterhouse School and Lincoln College, Oxford; at both he was an undistinguished scholar.  From an early age he was determined to be a professional artist and designer, and studied at leading art colleges in Oxford and London.  While working as a contributor to The Architectural Review in the mid-1930s, Lancaster published the first of a series of books on architecture, aiming to simultaneously amuse the general reader and demystify the subject.  Several of the terms he coined as labels for architectural styles have gained common usage, including "Pont Street Dutch" and "Stockbrokers' Tudor", and his books have continued to be regarded as important works of reference on the subject.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osbert_Lancaster

THOUGHT FOR JULY 27  In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual liberty is permanent, unresolvable, and necessary. - Kathleen Norris, novelist and columnist (1880-1966)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2234  July 27, 2020 

In May 2016, the Vietnamese noodle store Bún Chả Hương Liên went from relative obscurity to being on television screens all over the world, after two of the world’s most famous men chose it as their dinner spot in Hanoi.  Anthony Bourdain and President Barack Obama came for the slippery noodles or fragrant pork patties—but the world tuned in not for the food, but to see these two icons sit on blue plastic stools and drinking chilled bottles of local beer.  At the time of the meal, Bourdain was filming the CNN series Parts Unknown.  This relative hole-in-the-wall, where the total cost of the meal came in at under $10, fit the bill.  (Bourdain picked up the check.)  Footage from the series shows the men laughing and chatting over their noodles like two old friends.  “Is it appropriate to chuck one of these whole suckers in your mouth?” the president asks, gesturing at a patty with his chopsticks.  “Well, slurping is totally acceptable in this part of the world,” Bourdain replies, with a laugh.  They received no directive from the White House about which topics were and were not up for discussion, Bourdain later told the network.  “We spoke like two dads, and Southeast Asian enthusiasts, and had a good time.”  Today, the restaurant continues to thrive.  It looks much as it did when Bourdain and Obama sat down to eat there, but there are a few key changes.  Guests hoping to relive the experience can now order a “Combo Obama” from the menu:  bun cha, a seafood spring roll, and a bottle of Hanoi beer for a total of 85,000 VND, or about $3.60.  But what they can’t do is sit down at that same table, in those same blue plastic stools.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/anthony-bourdain-and-barack-obama-dinner-table?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=67dfa25f3b-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_07_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-67dfa25f3b-71793902&mc_cid=67dfa25f3b&mc_eid=aef0869a63

The phrase “the real McCoy,” which can be used to describe any genuine version of something, has several possible origin stories.  According to HowStuffWorks, the earliest known recorded instance of the saying was an 1856 reference to whisky in the Scottish National Dictionary—"A drappie [drop] o' the real MacKay”—and by 1870, a pair of whisky distillers by the name of McKay had adopted the slogan “the real McKay” for their products.  As the theory goes, the phrase made its long journey across the pond, where it eventually evolved into the Americanized “McCoy.”  Another theory suggests “the real McCoy” originated in the United States during Prohibition.  In 1920, Florida-based rum runner Bill McCoy was the first enterprising individual to stock a ship with alcohol in the Caribbean, sail to New York, and idle at least three miles offshore, where he could sell his wares legally in what was then considered international waters.  Since McCoy didn’t water down his alcohol with substances like prune juice, wood alcohol, and even turpentine, people believe his customers started calling his top-notch product “the real McCoy.”  There’s no definitive proof that this origin story is true, but The Real McCoy rum distillery was founded on the notion.  There are also a couple other leading theories that have nothing to do with alcohol.  In 1872, inventor Elijah McCoy patented a self-regulating machine that lubricated parts of a steam engine without the need for manual maintenance, allowing trains to run continuously for much longer distances. According to Snopes, the invention’s success spawned a plethora of poor-quality imitations, which led railroad personnel to refer to McCoy’s machines as “the real McCoy.”  Elijah McCoy’s invention modernized the transportation industry, but he wasn’t the only 19th-century McCoy who packed a punch.  The other was welterweight champion Norman Selby, better known as Kid McCoy.  In one story, McCoy decked a drunken bar patron to prove that he really was the famous boxer, prompting others to christen him “the real McCoy.”  In another, his alleged penchant for throwing fights caused the press to start calling him “the real McCoy” to acknowledge when he was actually trying to win.  And yet another simply suggests that the boxer’s popularity birthed so many McCoy-wannabes that Selby started to specify that he was, in fact, the real McCoy.  Ellen Gutoskey  https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/604867/real-mccoy-origin-theories

Gochujang is a red chile paste that also contains glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, salt, and sometimes sweeteners.  It’s a thick, sticky condiment that’s spicy and very concentrated and pungent in flavor.  Heat levels can vary between brands, so check the packaging to see if it’s labeled with any kind of spice-level indicator.  Think of gochujang as similar to miso paste—a little goes a long way.  Gochujang can be used in marinades for meat dishes like Korean bulgogi, stirred into dipping sauces, or used to punch up stews or soups.  The thick texture of gochujang means that it is a bit difficult to use straight up, so it is usually thinned out with a liquid of some sort.  Also remember that if the gochujang contains sugar, searing or grilling meats marinated with it have a tendency to burn easily.  Christine Gallary  Find ways to use leftover paste and link to recipes at https://www.thekitchn.com/gochujang-the-miso-of-korean-cooking-ingredient-intelligence-165083

Kimchi Pancakes (kimchi buchimgae)  posted by Sue  https://mykoreankitchen.com/kimchi-pancakes-kimchi-buchimgae/  See also Korean Seafood and Green Onion Pancakes (haemul pajeon) at  https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-seafood-and-green-onion-pancakes-haemul-pajeon/

The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of 156 miles (251 km) that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop).  Though not especially long, the river is notable because it is one of the reasons for Chicago's geographic importance:  the related Chicago Portage is a link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River Basin, and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico.  The River is also noteworthy for its natural and human-engineered history.  In 1887, the Illinois General Assembly decided to reverse the flow of the Chicago River through civil engineering by taking water from Lake Michigan and discharging it into the Mississippi River watershed, partly in response to concerns created by an extreme weather event in 1885 that threatened the city's water supply.  In 1889, the Illinois General Assembly created the Chicago Sanitary District (now The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District) to replace the Illinois and Michigan Canal with the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, a much larger waterway, because the former had become inadequate to serve the city's increasing sewage and commercial navigation needs.  Completed by 1900, the project reversed the flow of the Main Stem and South Branch of the Chicago River by using a series of canal locks and increasing the flow from Lake Michigan into the river, causing the river to empty into the new Canal instead.  In 1999, the system was named a 'Civil Engineering Monument of the Millennium' by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).  The name Chicago derives from 17th century French rendering of a Native American term for ramps (Allium tricoccum), a type of edible wild leek, which grew abundantly near the river. The river and its region were named after this plant.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River

Jones bar-b-q, a two-table eatery in the town of Marianna, was the first restaurant in Arkansas to ever receive a James Beard Award.  The owners, James and Betty Jones, hadn’t even heard of the awards before winning in the 2012 “America’s Classics” category.  The small diner takes up the ground floor of the couple’s home.  The sign out front reads “since 1964,” but the operation dates back to at least 1910.  James Jones’s family recipes are the same ones that his grandfather used when he sold barbecued meat out of his home and that his father used when he opened up an earlier iteration of the restaurant, known as “the Hole in the Wall” (so-called because his father served everything through a window).  Today, James runs the pit and restaurant, while a man named Sylvester chops wood and operates the attached smokehouse, which is a shed.  Oak and hickory logs burn in a cinderblock barbecue pit, where pork shoulders—the only meat they sell—smoke for 12 hours at a time.   Aside from pork by the pound, the menu also includes sandwiches.  Jones dresses the pork with slightly-sweet vinegar sauce and serves it between white bread.  Beyond slaw, sides are nonexistent.  As for what makes the ’cue so special?  Jones’s sauce and slaw recipes are so top-secret, not even his wife knows what’s in them.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/jones-bar-b-q-diner?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=96bbb91852-GASTRO_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_30&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-96bbb91852-71793902&mc_cid=96bbb91852&mc_eid=aef0869a63

The Second Sunday of Easter used to be called Quasimodo Sunday.  The word quasimodo is a compound of two Latin word, quasi and modo, meaning “almost” and “the standard of measure.”  Thus, the combination means “almost the standard of measure,” which in a new translation is reduced to “like.”  However, when one hears the term quasimodo, I would imagine the first thing to come to mind is not the Second Sunday of Easter, but rather the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo (or some later film variant).  The name Quasimodo is given to the abandoned and deformed baby found by Claude Frollo, the Archdeacon of Notre Dame, on the steps of the Cathedral.  Frollo bestows the name of the child because of the day on which he was found:  the Second Sunday of Easter, none other than Quasimodo Sunday.  Jake Tawney 

https://www.the-american-catholic.com/2017/04/23/quasimodo-sunday/  Thank you, Muse reader!

July 23, 2020  Authorities inspecting a seafood store in Spain have discovered a collection of ancient Roman containers, called amphorae, some of which could have been created in the first century and recovered from shipwrecks off the Mediterranean coast.  A total of 13 Roman amphorae were found, alongside a metal anchor from the 18th century.  They were uncovered by surprised officers during a routine check of the storage and marketing of frozen fish products at the store in Alicante--and the shop's owners now find themselves under investigation for breaking laws on possessing historical artifacts.  "Officers observed several ceramic amphorae at various points in the facility, a metal anchor and a limestone plaque with an inscription that, at first glance, could be of considerable age," the Civil Guard said in a statement.  They brought the finds to the attention of Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, which determined that they were likely from the Roman Empire and could date back to the first century.  "In particular, one of them could be of significant importance, due to its exclusivity," the statement said.  The items were then taken to the nearby Sea Museum in Santa Pola, where experts confirmed the findings.  Most of them were oleic amphorae, which were used to transport oil to Rome, the Guardia Civil said, while others would have been used to carry wine and fish sauces.  Rob Picheta  See pictures at https://www.cnn.com/style/article/roman-amphorae-seafood-store-spain-scli-intl-scn/index.html

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2233  July 24, 2020

Kaleidoscope  noun  1: an instrument containing loose bits of colored material (such as glass or plastic) between two flat plates and two plane mirrors so placed that changes of position of the bits of material are reflected in an endless variety of patterns  2: something resembling a kaleidoscope: such as  a: a variegated changing pattern or scene a: kaleidoscope of colors  b: a succession of changing phases or actionsa kaleidoscope of changing fashions  c: a diverse collection  Greek kalos beautiful + eidos form + English –scope  The first known use of kaleidoscope was in 1817.

  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kaleidoscope

Nutmeg comes from the nutmeg tree, which grows in tropical climates and actually yields two spices.  The crinkled, hard nutmeg nut itself is encased in a lacy scarlet membrane which, when dried and ground, becomes mace.  Use whole nutmeg freshly grated; unlike cinnamon, this spice won’t do much if used whole.  Grate a little into puddings, custards, and sauces.  Add it along with other baking spices to apple crisps, pumpkin pies, spice cakes, cobbler toppings, or spiced butter.  Nutmeg crosses over successfully to the savory arena, too, lifting spinach and cheese dishes, béchamel sauces, Greek lamb casseroles, Italian vegetable stews, and Scandinavian-style mashed potatoes to delicious heights.  Although you can buy nutmeg already ground, I recommend buying whole nuts.  Highly volatile oils make nutmeg taste best when you grate it freshly into a dish.  A microplane grater, one of my favorite tools, makes fast work of grating nutmeg.  Robert Wemischner 

https://www.finecooking.com/article/a-spice-trio-cinnamon-nutmeg-and-cloves

There's a term from screenwriting called a "logline."  It refers to a script or movie summed up in just one sentence.  The term comes from broadcasters' logs, back in the days before DVDs or streaming services, when television stations were the only ones to broadcast movies once they'd left the theater.  TV logs were very concise (think of the one-line descriptions on a TV grid), so no matter how complex the film, its description had to fit in one line.  Screenwriters adopted the practice of summing up their scripts and became adept at boiling their plots down.  Isadora Teich  Take quiz at

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/can-you-guess-these-books-a-single-sentence  Thank you, Muse reader! 

Strawberry Pretzel Pie was a very popular dish in the 1990s in Nebraska—a really popular potluck and summer holiday menu item.  It was always called a “salad” though, which I thought was a little odd, so I made it into a pie.  But, if we’re calling this a salad, I’d like to see more salads just like this!  Angela Garbacz  Find recipe for one nine-inch pie at https://www.splendidtable.org/recipes/strawberry-pretzel-pie

Punctilious is an adjective that describes someone who is scrupulously attentive to detail or someone who engages in the careful observance of the formalities of etiquette.  A person who is punctilious thrives on formality and ritual, and is finicky in manner.  It is rarely a compliment to describe someone as punctilious, the usage of the word usually carries the connotation of prissiness, a sense of superiority, and over-emphasis on things that do not really matter.  The word punctilious is derived from the Italian word puntiglio, which means fine point. 

Punctual is an adjective that describes someone who is known for arriving to meetings or rendezvous promptly, someone who is concerned enough to arrive somewhere at the proper time.  A punctual person does not tolerate lateness in himself or others.  The word punctual is derived from the Latin word punctum, meaning prick or point.  https://grammarist.com/usage/punctilious-vs-punctual/

In the book David Copperfield, written in 1850 by Charles Dickens, the orphaned title character is sent to work in a factory in another town.  Arrangements are made for young David to rent a room in the home of Wilkins Micawber.  Mr. Micawber is fond of offering advice to David and not long after he moves in Mr. Micawber confidently states:  Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness.  Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery. Although impressed with this sound financial advice it soon becomes obvious to David that Mr. Micawber is completely unable to follow it, as he faces one financial crisis after another.   Mr. Micawber’s financial advice, in spite of his inability to live it, has resonated over the years and has come to be known as The Micawber Principle.  There you have it.  In two short, simple sentences Charles Dickens stated the fundamental law of personal finance in an unforgettable way.  Spending less than you earn--consistently, over time--will lead to at least some degree of financial success.  Spending more than you earn will lead to financial misery, which is likely to negatively affect other areas of your life.  It really is that simple.  http://micawberprinciple.com/the-micawber-principle-living-the-fundamental-law-of-personal-finance-45/

W.C. Fields in David Copperfield (1935)Now and Forever as Mr. Micawber  W.C. Fields respected the works of Charles Dickens so much that he did not change or ad lib any words in "The Personal History, Adventures, Experience, & Observation of David Copperfield the Younger."  The film opened on January 13, 1935, "with all the pomp and ceremony of old Hollywood's grand premieres," at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhcvknDy-8  4:41

The adjective refulgent comes from the Latin fulgere, meaning "to shine."  Refulgent is used both literally and figuratively.  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/refulgent

The adjective effulgent comes from the Latin ex meaning "out" and fulgere meaning "to shine".  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/effulgent

For the Dutch, bread is common at breakfast, and it’s often decked out with a beloved Dutch sprinkle.  Called hagelslag, or hailstorm, it’s layered atop untoasted white bread slathered in butter.  The moniker is a reference to the sound that thick, flavorful Dutch sprinkles make when landing on bread, ice cream, or anything else in need of a storm of tasty sprinkles, which the Dutch really, really enjoy, consuming 30 million pounds of them every year.  Many breakfast options are pure sweetness, and Sicily’s brioche con gelato is no exception.  While the combo, which consists of several scoops of gelato inside an eggy bun with a dollop of whipped cream, sounds like dessert, it certainly provides a lot of energy at the start of the day.  See Around the World in 380 Breakfasts at  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/breakfast-around-the-world?utm_source=Gastro+Obscura+Weekly+E-mail&utm_campaign=5d878666c0-AUTOMATION__1&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2418498528-5d878666c0-71793902&mc_cid=5d878666c0&mc_eid=aef0869a63

Du Fu (Tu Fu 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician of the Tang dynasty.  Along with Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.  His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations.  His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.  Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture.  Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages.  He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Du_Fu  See Du Fu English translations of poems at http://www.chinese-poems.com/due.html

WORD OF THE DAY FOR JULY 22  geoglyph  noun   (chiefly archaeology) A large-scale drawing or image made on the ground by arranging lines of stones, scratching the earth, etc., and often only fully visible from a distance or the air.  See graphics at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/geoglyph#English

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2132  July 22, 2020