When the Bell brothers published their book of poetry ‘Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell’ in 1846 it seemed to be an act of little significance, reportedly selling just two copies (although one of this duo of readers was so impressed that he wrote to the publisher, Aylott & Jones, for the Bell’s autographs).  Of course, we know now this was an act of incredible significance as it was actually the first book to reach print by the Brontë sisters (and, on a side note, every copy was eventually sold).  The poetry is important of course, but the names are important too.  All of the Brontë sisters were shy, to a lesser or greater degree, possibly as a result of the relative seclusion they were brought up in after the death of their mother Maria, thriving in their own company rather than in that of others.  Emily Brontë above all prized anonymity and secrecy, so it is likely to be she rather than her sisters who pressed for the use of pseudonyms when presenting their work.  Charlotte, in the biographical notices of her sisters she composed after their death, explained why they had used ostensibly male names:  ‘We did not like to declare ourselves women, because we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice’.  This is a sentiment that was echoed by Anne Brontë in her preface to the second edition of The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall:  ‘All novels are or should be written for both men and women to read, and I am at a loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.’  So we know why the sisters chose to hide behind the mask of the Bells, but just why did they choose the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell?  Firstly, it allowed them to retain their initials:  Currer Bell was Charlotte Brontë, Ellis Bell was Emily Brontë, and Acton Bell was Anne Brontë.  The surname Bell could have been chosen simply because of the sound of the bells from their father’s St. Michael’s and All Angels church, a short stroll from the Parsonage in which they lived.  Another option is that they may have borrowed part of the name of their father’s new assistant curate--Arthur Bell Nicholls.  He arrived in Haworth in May 1845, not long before the sisters began to send their poems to prospective publishers.  At the time they could not have guessed the importance that Arthur would have to their lives--he would become dog walker to Flossy and Keeper after the death of Anne and Emily, and he was later to marry Charlotte Brontë.  A third possibility:  Could Bell be a shortened form of the maiden name of their mother, and more pertinently perhaps their brother?  By removing the middle letters of the name they could disguise it so that B(ranw)ell becomes simply B’ell or Bell.  Read other theories at https://www.annebronte.org/2017/03/26/who-were-the-real-currer-ellis-and-acton-bell/  See also The Brontës’ Secret at https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/06/the-brontes-secret/480726/ 

Pizza has been a core food for North Americans for so long that we forget that it is, relatively speaking, a new dish on our shores.  Most people over the age of about 75 can remember the first time they ever saw, heard of, or tasted pizza; the New York Times first introduced the dish to its readers back in 1944.  But Sam Panopoulos, 81, of London, Canada, a small city about halfway between Detroit and Toronto, can take it one step further.  He can remember inventing what’s now one of the most popular pizzas in the world:  the Hawaiian pizza.  The Hawaiian pizza doesn’t come from anywhere near Hawai’i.  It comes from Ontario, and was concocted in 1962 in a restaurant serving typical mid-century food without any particular focus.  Dan Nosowitz   https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hawaiian-pizza-origin 

The Disaster Poet:  On William McGonagall, the worst famous poet in the English language by Matthew Sherrill  Many of McGonagall’s poems, which he churned out at a reliable clip after his poetic conversion, were benign and banal odes to Scottish and English landscapes in the manner of a one-man lyrical tourism bureau.  Despite a penchant for the versified guidebook, however, the principal thematic fixture of McGonagall’s career was cataclysm.  “The Tay Bridge Disaster” was only the inaugurating work in a long series of calamity chronicles.  It seems as if the poet never met a catastrophe that he didn’t contrive to transform into misguided elegy.  Shipwrecks were his forte, but any disaster would do, really.  He memorialized the victims of fires, tornadoes, stampedes, floods, military routs, any mass-casualty event that would have found its way into the Dundee press.  According to Norman Watson, McGonagall’s biographer, out of the 270 poems attributed to McGonagall, twelve are on funerals, six on fires, fifty on battles, and twenty-four on “maritime disasters.”   https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/disaster-poet 

Some may tell you yellow wax beans taste just like green beans—heresy!  Their unique grassy flavor is one of summer's distinct delights.  Plus, these translucent, supersmooth pods need no stringing.  Cheryl   https://www.cookinglight.com/food/in-season/fresh-right-now-yellow-wax-beans

Wax beans are great raw or cooked.  Try them steamed and topped with fresh breadcrumbs or dressed with a vinaigrette.  They can be roasted with a little olive oil, or boiled briefly and tossed with butter.  They're also great raw in salads with cooked tuna or salmon, or served with a creamy herb dip.  Swap green beans for wax in any of the recipes at https://www.marthastewart.com/334122/in-season-wax-beans  For plain yellow wax beans, wash and cut into bit-size pieces.  Boil for 15-20 minutes. 

PARAPHRASES from A Piece of the World, a novel by Christina Baker Kline  *  You don’t put all your goods on one ship.  *  Are shame and pride two sides of the same coin?  *  The greatest kindness is acceptance. 

Put your best foot forward is first recorded in the second edition of Sir Thomas Overbury's poem A Wife, circa 1613:  "Hee is still setting the best foot forward.”  The Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings dates "Always put your best foot forward" to 1495, but provides no supporting evidence for that.  'Put your best foot forward' is rather an odd saying for us to use as it implies three or more feet.  Shakespeare, not usually a stickler for linguistic exactitude, used a 'proper' form of the expression in King John, 1595:  "Nay, but make haste; the better foot before.”  https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/put-your-best-foot-forward.html  Put one’s best foot forward means to make the best impression one can, or to get off to a good start.  The origin of this phrase is murky.  One theory is that to put one’s best foot forward refers to starting a journey with your best or strongest foot.  Another theory is that the left side was considered the sinister, evil or unlucky side.  Therefore, one would start out on the right foot in order to ensure blessings or good luck.  https://grammarist.com/usage/put-ones-best-foot-forward/ 

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 377 challenges to library, school, and university materials and services in 2019.  Of the 566 books challenged or banned in 2019, the following are the top 10 most frequently challenged:  George by Alex Gino  Reasons:  challenged, banned, restricted, and hidden to avoid controversy; for LGBTQIA+ content and a transgender character; because schools and libraries should not “put books in a child’s hand that require discussion”; for sexual references; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint and “traditional family structure”  Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin  Reasons:  challenged for LGBTQIA+ content, for “its effect on any young people who would read it,” and for concerns that it was sexually explicit and biased  A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller  Reasons:  Challenged and vandalized for LGBTQIA+ content and political viewpoints, for concerns that it is “designed to pollute the morals of its readers,” and for not including a content warning  Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth  Reasons: Challenged, banned, and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content; for discussing gender identity and sex education; and for concerns that the title and illustrations were “inappropriate”  Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis  Reasons:  Challenged and restricted for featuring a gay marriage and LGBTQIA+ content; for being “a deliberate attempt to indoctrinate young children” with the potential to cause confusion, curiosity, and gender dysphoria; and for conflicting with a religious viewpoint  I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas  Reasons:  Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content, for a transgender character, and for confronting a topic that is “sensitive, controversial, and politically charged”  The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood  Reasons:  Banned and challenged for profanity and for “vulgarity and sexual overtones”  Drama written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier  Reasons:  Challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and for concerns that it goes against “family values/morals”  Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling  Reasons:  Banned and forbidden from discussion for referring to magic and witchcraft, for containing actual curses and spells, and for characters that use “nefarious means” to attain goals  And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson illustrated by Henry Cole  Reason:  Challenged and relocated for LGBTQIA+ content  https://ncac.org/banned-books-week/banned-books-top-10 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2265 September 30, 2020

The Museum of the American Revolution has an impressive collection of several thousand objects, works of art, manuscripts, and printed works from the period of the American Revolution.  The collection began more than a century ago when a history-minded minister in Valley Forge raised funds from around the nation to purchase the original tent that George Washington used as his command center during the American Revolution.  It was the beginning of a rich and diverse collection that continues to grow.  The collection includes objects that span the scope of the war—from British, French, and American arms used in battles to a soldier's wooden canteen branded "UStates," at a time when the phrase was merely an aspiration.  Find location and link to information on hours, admission and exhibits at https://www.amrevmuseum.org/collections-and-resources

Federal law and many state wiretapping statutes permit recording if one party (including you) to the phone call or conversation consents.  Other states require that all parties to the communication consent.  Unfortunately, it is not always easy to tell which law applies to a communication, especially a phone call.  For example, if you and the person you are recording are in different states, then it is difficult to say in advance whether federal or state law applies, and if state law applies which of the two (or more) relevant state laws will control the situation.  Therefore, if you record a phone call with participants in more than one state, it is best to play it safe and get the consent of all parties.  However, when you and the person you are recording are both located in the same state, then you can rely with greater certainty on the law of that state.  In some states, this will mean that you can record with the consent of one party to the communication.  In others, you will still need to get everyone's consent.  For details on the wiretapping laws in the fifteen most populous U.S. states and the District of Columbia, see the State Law: Recording section.  In any event, it never hurts to play it safe and get the consent of all parties to a phone call or conversation that you intend to record.  https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/recording-phone-calls-and-conversations 

Tilting at windmills means fighting imaginary enemies.  The idiom tilting at windmills is first seen in the English language in the 1640s as “fight with the windmills ”.  The verb tilting was soon substituted for the word fight.  The term is taken from the classic Spanish novel, Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes.  In the novel, the main character becomes enamored with the idea of chivalry, and spends his time fighting with windmills that he imagines to be giants.  Tilting is the medieval sport of jousting with a lance.  https://grammarist.com/idiom/tilting-at-windmills/ 

The pot calling the kettle black is often used to refer to someone who is guilty of the very same thing in which they accuse another of doing.  The roots of the phrase date back to the Medieval period, when both pots and kettles—commonly used kitchen tools from the era—were made from sturdy cast iron and would become black with soot from the open fire.  The earliest appearance of the phrase came in the year 1620 from Thomas Shelton’s translation of the Spanish novel, Don Quixote (1605).  Though this is one of the earliest recorded uses of the phrase, the meaning of the term as we know it today is more closely associated with its use in 1693 when William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania (what was then an American colony), wrote in his Some Fruits of Solitude, “For a Covetous Man to inveigh against Prodigality… is for the Pot to call the Kettle black.”  Find history of other idioms at https://www.invaluable.com/blog/popular-english-idioms/ 

An interesting custom involving fish kettles was described in a book called A Tour in England and Scotland, in 1785, by an English Gentleman.  The book was written by a baron named William Thomson, who was also known as Thomas Newte.  It's available on the Google Books site.  Thomson described a social event customarily held by Scottish gentry.  People gathered beside a river in a group and ate freshly caught and cooked fish.  Tents were erected, creating a party-like atmosphere, and the fish were boiled in kettles over a fire.  Today the event might be called a picnic, but at that time it was known as a "kettle of fish."  The idiom fine or pretty kettle of fish means a troublesome or awkward situation.  A different kettle of fish is also a common idiom in some countries.  It's used to describe a person or thing that differs in a notable way from another person or thing.  The idiom is also used to describe something that is different from the situation that has just been discussed.  In this case, the North American term "a whole new ball game" means the same thing. Linda Crampton  Read more and see pictures at https://owlcation.com/humanities/A-Red-Herring-and-a-Fine-Kettle-of-Fish-Idioms-and-History 

Quixotic  adjective  Possessing or acting with the desire to do noble and romantic deeds, without thought of realism and practicality.  adjective  Impulsive.  adjective  Like Don Quixote; romantic to extravagance; absurdly chivalric; apt to be deluded.  https://www.wordnik.com/words/quixotic

Quixotic Fusion is an ensemble of artists that brings together aerial acrobatics, dance, theater, film, and music.  Watch as they perform three transporting dance pieces at TED2012.  https://www.ted.com/talks/quixotic_fusion_dancing_with_light  12:04 

An interviewer once asked me, “If flash fiction were an animal, which animal would it be?”  I considered a chicken because you can peck at the stories.  Perhaps a badger because short shorts sometimes have to be more tenacious than their larger brethren.  I thought a fish was apt because tiny stories often swim together.  I almost decided upon a cat because a cat can fit perfectly in your lap, and even as you pet it and listen to its purrs, it stares at you with a mysterious menace.  In the end, I decided upon a coyote that strangely appears in your backyard and stares into your kitchen window.  You lock eyes, and the world is suddenly a little dangerous, a little less predictable.  Something wild has briefly entered the safety of your domestic space and changed it forever with its feral threat.  Perhaps my favorite metaphor for flash stories, though, comes from flash master Molly Giles:  they are fireflies, flickering in the darkness of a summer night.  The definition of numinous, otherworldly beauty.  Ephemeral and captivating at once.  Of all of the forms of fiction, “flash fiction,” which is typically defined as being a story less than 1,000 words, is the only one described with a metaphor.  As James Thomas, the editor of several seminal anthologies of flash fiction, tells the story, he was talking with his wife about what to call these short stories of under 1,000 words.  He’d been calling them “blasters,” but that moniker didn’t ring with any poetic allure.  Right at that moment, a bolt of lightning struck, and the dark night lit up with a flash.  “Call them flash,” his wife said.  And the name of a genre was born.  Grant Faulkner  https://lithub.com/13-ways-of-looking-at-flash-fiction/ 

JOIN US ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 3 FOR OUR *FIRST* VIRTUAL EVENT:  A DISCUSSION OF HENRY C. BRINTON'S WORK ON THE CASSINI MISSION TO MARS!  Victoria Wyatt is a NASA mechanical engineering intern and a senior at Olin College of Engineering.  During her internship at NASA, she worked on sounding rockets, the same type of technology Henry C. Brinton started his career working with.  Victoria will provide an overview of the Cassini missions, and discuss Brinton's involvement in the project and his legacy.  EVENT WILL BE HELD VIA ZOOM AND THE COST IS $10.00/PERSON.  Register at https://www.paypal.com/webapps/shoppingcart?flowlogging_id=6058453e4bc53&mfid=1601072746774_6058453e4bc53#/checkout/openButton 

Group terms:  crescendo of pianists, volume of librarians, stack of pancakes, plenitude of pumpkins 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2264  September 29, 2020

Virus-Responsive Design--In the age of COVID-19, architects merge future-facing innovations with present-day needs by Lara Ewen   Traci Engel Lesneski, CEO and principal at Minneapolis-based national architecture firm MSR Design, which has worked with hundreds of libraries across the country, says libraries are ideal spaces for innovative design solutions.  “It’s not a stretch to think about the ways that libraries have modeled what’s next in the world,” she says.  “Libraries can talk to the public about how important these things are and advocate [for them].  They can provide hands-on learning and access to certain technologies that people don’t have access to in their everyday lives.”  Yet libraries have had to find new ways to provide that access.  “[COVID-19] is aggravating the digital divide,” says Susan Nemitz, director of Santa Cruz (Calif.) Public Libraries (SCPL).  “There are a number of people who don’t have access to the internet and computers, because we haven’t opened up yet.”  She says that effective design solutions will have to bridge not just physical and digital distance, but socioeconomic distance as well.  “We find that, more and more, our community is isolated,” she says.  “And we’ve been moving away from being a warehouse of books to being a social connector.”  Nemitz, whose library system passed a $67 million bond issue to replace and remodel all 10 of its buildings before the pandemic hit, says she’s had to reimagine her library’s mission.  “The COVID crisis has thrown a wrench into who we are and what we believe,” she says.  “Do we build our buildings for the situation we’re in now, or the situation in the long run?”  The answer may be both.  “This will not last forever,” says Amanda Markovic, architect and associate principal at GBBN Architects, a multinational architecture and interior design firm that has built multiple libraries and civic spaces around the country.  “But there’s a possibility that it will happen again.  So I think [design] is about ensuring there’s flexibility, making sure there aren’t as many hard walls in these spaces to allow for the expansion and contraction [of our spaces] that will be necessary when these things arise.”  Libraries that were in the process of renovating before COVID- 19 almost immediately pivoted, repurposing certain design features to address the new normal.  “There have been some fortunate coincidences that were not intended to be in reaction to a pandemic but that we can use,” says Markovic.  “For instance, at Baldwin Borough Public Library [in Pittsburgh], we put casters on the stacks to make them easy to move around.  We can now use them to create little pods.  And at Carnegie Library [of Pittsburgh], we’re implementing cleanable surfaces and discussing an HVAC system that allows for increased ventilation.”  Designers say that the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity not just to modify libraries but to improve them for future use.  “This is about so much more than having less seating and different planning,” says Cindy Kaufman, principal associate at Holt Architects, a New York design firm with offices in Syracuse and Ithaca that has worked on several university libraries and learning spaces.  “It’s about human-environmental interactions, and how can we affect human behavior with simple design tools.  In my mind, it’s imagery and spatial reconfiguration that can help people feel more [connected] to each other.  Buildings will need to create more usable spaces for people to spread out more, and users need to trust the staff.”  Lesneski says that a lot of existing built environments have barriers that hinder inclusivity at multiple levels, including racially and socioeconomically.  She cites a discussion moderated by the Canadian Urban Institute.  Ironically, a shift to more equitable spaces will happen because the virus has made decision makers “uncomfortable,” she says.  “We [should] remember to expand our lens so that it’s not just about the pandemic but also a long-term overhaul.”  Read much more at https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/09/01/virus-responsive-library-design/

The Upper West Side’s Hungarian Pastry Shop Is Open for Everything by Rebecca Firkser   Perhaps the constant references to the shop in classic New York movies like Husbands and Wives and TV shows (someone recently reminded Binioris of a scene in Gossip Girl where a character was walking with a Hungarian Pastry Shop coffee cup), also keep the space packed.  It’s popular among the off-screen crowd as well.  Not only do authors based in the neighborhood cite the place as one of their favorites to write—the author Nathan Englander notes in his Grub Street Diet that he used to hang there all day—the shop actually turns up in the work from time to time—Binioris noted that a recent mention in a Norwegian novel has led to a huge uptick in Norwegian visitors.  “We get a lot of reading tourists,” he says.  Though the dimly lit shop makes a romantic setting for a story, for the most part writers seem to be drawn to the space for the camaraderie.  “I’ve always enjoyed the buzz of other people around me doing the thing I’m doing,” the cookbook author Julia Turshen, who regularly worked at the shop while attending Barnard College, told me.  “Surrounded by other writers with their cookies and cakes and endless cups, my time at the Hungarian Pastry Shop made me feel like I might actually be able to call myself a writer.”  The author Ta-Nehisi Coates echoed Turshen’s thoughts, explaining to Vanity Fair that he used to regularly write at the shop during the decade he spent writing his first novel—before people started tweeting about it.  Coates developed a quiet friendship with another author, Julie Otsuka, who often works in a corner of the shop:  the two would enjoy each other’s company from their respective tables.  “This was a place,” he says, “where a writer could just work.”  https://www.ediblemanhattan.com/eat/the-upper-west-sides-hungarian-pastry-shop-is-open-for-everything/

THREE PUBLISHING FAIRS IN THE SAME EVENT IN OCTOBER 2020  Three major Roman literary initiatives:  Literature Festival in October 2020 is reborn under a new artistic direction and with an entirely new project--Libri Come and Più Libri Più Liberi.  The great fair of small and medium publishing from 2021 will then return to the Cloud.  "It will be an unrepeatable event for Rome, Lazio and Italy, after the difficult months due to the health emergency" writes the deputy mayor of Rome Luca Bergamo on his Facebook page.  The event will welcome about 200 publishers with a rich calendar of meetings with Italian and foreign authors, which will take place both in presence and in streaming thanks to the use of digital platforms, giving the opportunity to participate even to those who cannot go to Rome in those days.  The general program will be curated by an editorial committee composed of Silvia Barbagallo, Andrea Cusumano, Michele De Mieri, Lea Iandiorio, Rosa Polacco and Marino Sinibaldi.  Organized by AIE (Italian Publishers Association), Institution of Libraries of Rome and Fondazione Musica per Roma in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum and Zètema Progetto Cultura, Insieme it is promoted by Mibact--Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism.  Giulia Ronchi  https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=https://www.artribune.com/editoria/2020/08/insieme-roma-evento-editoria-2020/&prev=search&pto=aue 

Charles Goodyear was born in in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1800 and after learning the hardware business from his father concentrated on manufacturing and selling farm equipment.  By 1829 he was a wealthy businessman but poor health and some bad investments quickly took that away.  Then in 1931 Goodyear learned about gum elastic and became obsessed with putting it to use.  Raw gum was too sticky to be of much use at the time but he was sure there would be a way to overcome that.  He spent years experimenting with various minerals and chemicals and eventually discovered that the answer was to heat a mixture of gum and sulfur with steam to about 270 degrees Fahrenheit, which became known as vulcanizing.  His obsession to make new rubber products left him broke and destitute when he died in 1860.  Nearly 40 years later, in 1898, a man by the name of Frank Seiberling heard about Goodyear's vulcanizing process and decided to make tires for the new horseless carriage market.  Seiberling decided to honor Goodyear by calling his new business The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.  https://www.antiquecar.com/articles/automobile-tires.php 

On some level, little libraries have always existed.  The idea is simple and timeless: boxes, tables and stoops loaded up with free books.  The philosophy behind them is also simple:  Take a book, leave a book.  Since the 2009 establishment of Little Free Library, the official nonprofit organization that maps and sells these public bookshelves, charters have flourished.  The group lists more than 100,000 registered libraries in 108 countries.  The little library has evolved during the pandemic to take on new functions.  Many now offer hand sanitizer, toilet paper and other necessary items.  Some have even removed books completely to become neighborhood pantries.  But books always have a way of coming back.  Inglewood resident Maygan Orr runs a “blessing box,” containing nonperishable foods and pandemic supplies.  Recently, the contents of the box have been changing.  “I’ve noticed that people have not only been donating food,” Orr wrote in an email, “but also DVDs, books and informational materials from the Inglewood Public Library.   We’re keeping people well-fed and well-read!”  Adriana E. Ramirez  https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-08-20/little-free-libraries-in-the-time-of-covid   

Banned Book Week runs September 27-October 3 in 2020.  Banned Books Week was founded in 1982 by prominent First Amendment and library activist Judith Krug.  Krug said that the Association of American Publishers contacted her with ideas to bring banned books "to the attention of the American public" after a "slew of books" had been banned that year.  Krug relayed the information to the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and "six weeks later we celebrated the first Banned Books Week."  Amnesty International also celebrates Banned Books Week by directing attention to individuals "persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read."   Mitchell Muncy, writing in The Wall Street Journal, has alleged that the censorship being protested in the event does not exist, and that books are not banned in the United States.  Camila Alire, a former president of the ALA, responded that Banned Books Week highlights "the hundreds of documented attempts to suppress access to information that take place each year across the U.S.," and that "when the library is asked to restrict access for others, that does indeed reflect an attempt at censorship."  Read more and link to books banned by governments at   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_Books_Week 

Recognizing the significance of access to information, the 74th UN General Assembly proclaimed 28 September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) at the UN level in October 2019.  The day had been proclaimed by the UNESCO General Conference in 2015, following the adoption of the 38 C/Resolution 57 declaring 28 September of every year as International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI).  IDUAI 2020 will be focus on to the right to information in times of crisis and on the advantages of having constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information to save lives, build trust and help the formulation of sustainable policies through and beyond the COVID-19 crisis.  https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/accesstoinformationday   

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2263  September 28, 2020

Benjamin Franklin Goodrich was born in 1841 in Ripley, New York, became a doctor and then served on the battlefront of the Civil War as a Union Army surgeon.  After the war he invested heavily in the Hudson River Rubber Company, which failed but led to his creation of the B.F. Goodrich Corporation a few years later.  Goodrich's goal was to improve the rubber in fire hoses so they would not freeze and break in the winter and that success led to the introduction of garden hoses.  However it was not until a few years after his death in 1888 that the company started making tires for automobiles.  In 1908 Henry Ford began putting Goodyear tires on his Model T's and that success led to the development of the first airplane tires and eventually the creation of observation balloons and blimps.  By 1926 The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company led the world in rubber production.  Meanwhile, The Goodrich Corporation became one of the biggest tire manufactures in the world before merging with Uniroyal (previously the United States Rubber Company) in 1986.  Goodrich tire production ended in 1988 when they sold the tire division to Michelin.  https://www.antiquecar.com/articles/automobile-tires.php 

Marcus Samuelsson (born Kassahun Tsegie 1971) is an Ethiopian Swedish chef and restaurateur.  He is the head chef of Red Rooster in Harlem, New York.  Kassahun Tsegie was born in Ethiopia.  His father, Tsegie, is an Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church priest.  His mother died in a tuberculosis epidemic when he was three years old.  As detailed in Samuelsson's appearance on Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown  he and his elder sister, Fantaye, were separated from their family during the turmoil of the Ethiopian Civil War, which began in 1974.  Subsequently, the siblings were adopted by Ann Marie and Lennart Samuelsson, a homemaker and a geologist, respectively, who lived in Gothenburg, Sweden. The siblings' names were changed to Marcus and Linda Samuelsson.  They also have an adopted sister, Anna Samuelsson.  His biological father, Tsegie, the father of eight others (the chef's half-siblings) still resides in the Ethiopian village where Samuelsson was born.  After becoming interested in cooking through his maternal grandmother in Sweden, Samuelsson studied at the Culinary Institute in Göteborg (Gothenburg) where he was raised.  He apprenticed in Switzerland and Austria, then came to the United States in 1994 as an apprentice at Restaurant Aquavit. 

In July 2018, Samuelsson premiered a six-part series called No Passport Required on PBS. The series highlights and celebrates immigrant cultures and foods found in the United States. Samuelsson is both the host and executive producer of the series.  In 2019, PBS announced that the series was renewed for a second six-episode season.  Samuelsson has released cookbooks New American Table, The Soul of a New Cuisine, Marcus Off Duty, and The Red Rooster Cookbook.  In 2012, Samuelsson released Yes, Chef, a memoir co-written with journalist Veronica Chambers about Samuelsson's early life and trajectory to becoming a chef.  The book gained favorable reviews and won the James Beard Foundation award for Writing and Literature related to food.  After the success of Yes, Chef, in 2015, Samuelsson published Make it Messy: My Perfectly Imperfect Life, aimed at young adults.  Samuelsson is married to the model Gate (Maya) Haile.  They reside in Harlem, New York, New York, near the site of his restaurant, Red Rooster.  They welcomed their son, Zion Mandela, on 19 July 2016.  Samuelsson has an adult daughter, Zoe.  Samuelsson serves on the board at City Harvest and serves as co-chair of the board of directors for Careers Through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP).  He also has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2000, and is the co-founder, along with his wife Gate, of the Three Goats Organization.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Samuelsson 

Schadenfreude is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.  Schadenfreude is a complex emotion, where rather than feeling sympathy toward someone's misfortune, schadenfreude evokes joyful feelings that take pleasure from watching someone fail.  This emotion is displayed more in children than adults.  However, adults also experience schadenfreude, although generally, they conceal it.  Schadenfreude is borrowed from German.  It is a compound of Schaden, "damage, harm", and Freude, "joy".  The German word was first mentioned in English texts in 1852 and 1867, and first used in English running text in 1895.  In German, it was first attested in the 1740s.  Although common nouns normally are not capitalised in English, schadenfreude sometimes is capitalised following the German convention.  Researchers have found that there are three driving forces behind schadenfreude:  aggression, rivalry, and justice.  Several studies have produced evidence that self-esteem has a negative relationship with the frequency and intensity of schadenfreude experienced by an individual.  This means that the less self-esteem an individual has, the more frequently or more intensely they will experience schadenfreude.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude  See also https://lithub.com/not-just-a-german-word-a-brief-history-of-schadenfreude/  The Japanese have a saying:  “The misfortunes of others taste like honey.”  

Margaret French Cresson, daughter of the sculptor Daniel Chester French and herself a sculptor, died October 2, 1973.  She was 84 years old and lived at Chesterwood, the family estate.  Mrs. Cresson, the widow of William Penn Cresson, a writer, diplomat and architect, who died in 1932, collapsed while addressing a dinner meeting at her home of the Council of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which administers Chesterwood as a museum.  Her father designed the seated figure of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the Minute Man at Concord, Mass., and many other noted works.  Mrs. Cresson, who studied under Abastenia St. Leger‐Eberle and George Demetrius as well as her father, did many marble busts, portrait heads and other pieces. Her works are exhibited in Paris, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and in many other museums and private collections.  Mrs. Cresson also wrote threes books on her father.  https://www.nytimes.com/1973/10/03/archives/margaret-cresson-sculptor-84-dead.html  See also https://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/seeing-chesterwood-through-margaret-french-cresson-eyes,566347 and https://fineartconnoisseur.com/2019/03/margaret-french-cresson/ 

Ruthful, meaning merciful or full of sorrow, can be found back to the 13th century in English.  Ruthless, meaning having no compassion or pity, goes back to the 14th century.  Interestingly, the word "ruth" is related to the very old Germanic verb "rue."  Rue means to affect with sorrow or to grieve.  It's been used in different ways throughout the centuries, but generally when we hear it today, it has to do with looking back on something with regret.  If you take "rue" and tack on the suffix "th," you get ruth.  In this case, the suffix is the same one we see in other verbs that have been transformed into nouns--including growth, health, and truth.  So, that's how we get ruth--a noun meaning mercy or sorrow.  From there, tack on a couple more suffixes, and we get ruthless, meaning without compassion or mercy, and the long forgotten ruthful which means to be filled with compassion or pity.  Rebecca Kruth and Anne Curzan  https://www.michiganradio.org/post/heres-some-ruth-ruthless 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2262  September 25, 2020

The voyage of Columbus in 1492 set in motion exploration and exploitation of new territory.  Pope Alexander VI in 1493 granted Spain dominion over all lands, discovered or undiscovered, in the New World.  On his second voyage in 1493, Columbus returned to the Islands of Hispaniola and Cuba with livestock, including horses, to establish settlements on the islands.  It was decreed that all Spanish ships that followed would carry more livestock.  By 1514, Cuba was under the full control of the Spanish.  Under the expertise of these settlers, Iberian horses bred and flourished on the islands.  Expeditions that sought out new lands and treasures brought horses with them from the islands.  The earliest exploratory expeditions went to Mexico in 1517 (Cordóba) and 1518 (Grijalva), but did not bring horses.  In April of 1519, Cortés set out to discover more about Mexico, mostly in search of gold.  He brought along 16 horses.  By June of that year, he established the settlement of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz.  It took only 2 years for Cortés and his men to conquer the Aztecs.  During this time, Cortés received reinforcements and supplies, including more horses from Cuba.  Over the next few decades, more Spanish settlers came to the Mexican mainland bringing with them livestock from the Islands.  Many of them moved southward and inland to establish new settlements.  From 1535-1542, explorers with Francisco de Coronado reached as far north as areas that are now in Arizona and New Mexico, including the Grand Canyon, and into Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.  The Spanish ranchers ran their livestock much as they did back in Spain, with free ranging livestock that they would round up as needed.  The horses were able to breed freely.  Natural selection rather than artificial selected breeding has resulted in the horses we now know as the Galiceño Horse.  http://galiceno.org/history-of-horses-in-the-americas.html

With its beautifully foreboding art deco exterior, Singapore’s Parkview Square office building has earned the nicknames “Gotham” and “Batman building” among locals.  But one step inside its lobby will reveal a warm, ornate space filled with red carpets, leather booths, and a giant golden tower.  The 26-foot tall tower is actually a gin library containing 1,300 varieties from all over the world.  The library is part of Atlas, a bar that opened inside Parkview in 2017.  Visitors and workers (the building is home various organizations, including the embassies for Mongolia, Austria, and the United Arab Emirates) can sip gins from regions as far-ranging as Bolivia, Belgium, and Japan, and dating back as far as 1910.  Doubling down on its Gilded Age vibe, the bar’s cocktail menu revolves heavily around gin and champagne.  Prior to Atlas, the space served as a wine bar with an unusual twist:  The bartender, dressed as a fairy, would “fly” via a wire mechanism to retrieve bottles in the tower.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/atlas-bar-singapore

Money laundering is not the oldest crime in the book but it’s certainly close.  Historian Sterling Seagrave has written that more than 2000 years ago, the wealthy Chinese merchants laundered their profits because the regional governments banned many forms of commercial trading.  He writes that the government considers merchant activities with a great amount of suspicion as they were considered to be ruthless, greedy and they follow different rules.  Besides this a considerable amount of the income of merchants came from black marketing, extortion and bribe.  The merchants who remained invisible were able to keep their wealth safe from the continuous extortions by bureaucrats.  So they used techniques like converting money into readily movable assets and moving the cash out of the jurisdiction in order to invest the money in the business.  According to legend, the term money laundering was originated in 1920’s during the period of prohibition in the United States.  The organized criminals in the United States got greatly involved in the profitable alcohol smuggling industry and for legalizing their profits they started combining their profits with the profits from legislative business.  Money laundering can be broadly defined as the process of disguising the financial earnings of the crime.  The U.S Custom Service defines “money laundering is the legitimization of proceeds from the illegal activity”.  And the International Monetary Fund (IMF) defines money laundering as a “process in which assets generated or obtained by criminal activities are concealed or moved to create a link between the crime and the assets which is difficult to understand.”  Read much more at https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/commercial-law/the-early-history-of-money-laundering-commercial-law-essay.php 

If you find the prospect of mushroom foraging daunting, Laetiporus sulphureus might be a good place to start.  Considered by some experts to be one of the “foolproof four,” this fungus’s bright-orange, multi-layered appearance makes it easy to identify.  Even better:  Inside its velvety tiers is a meaty flesh that tastes like chicken.  Nicknamed “the chicken of the woods,” the mushroom is a favorite among vegetarians.  Since it cannot be consumed raw, chefs find many creative ways to incorporate the mushroom’s fruiting body into dishes.  Read cautions at https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/chicken-of-the-woods-mushroom 

September 17, 2020   John Mennell was partnering on a project fighting hunger in the mid-1990s when he developed a similar idea for literacy.  Since then, the Ohio Literacy Bank was developed.  For the past year, the nonprofit has distributed magazines via a newsstand at the Food Pantry Network of Licking County, allowing families who are receiving food to also receive literary nourishment.  Mennell said the Ohio Literacy Bank also recently formed a partnership with local Barnes and Noble bookstores, where volunteers can pick up boxed unsold magazines to be used in the program.  According to the founder, they also receive magazines through a partnership with the magazine Highlights, through donations and from publishers.  He hopes the literacy bank located in Johnstown will be the first of a nationwide network of literacy banks.  "Literacy is a root cause of hunger," Mennell said.  "Reading is where it all begins.  Everything about an individual's capabilities, their education, their ability to learn and to be productive is tied to learning how to read.  Michaela Sumner  To volunteer or to make a donation, visit magliteracy.org/literacybank/.  https://www.newarkadvocate.com/story/news/2020/09/17/johnstown-based-literacy-bank-nourishes-minds-magazines/5805829002/

Best City Chicken by Jennifer   I grew up in northeast Ohio and this was my all time favorite dish when I was little . . . now I make it, and my family loves it too!  I like to use all pork for my city chicken; however tradition is to use pork and veal combined.  The grocery stores around me sell a pack of cubed pork with the wood skewers already in the pack specifically for city chicken, so you may want to look for that first.  But, if you can't find that, then cubing your own pork will work fine.  https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/213666/best-city-chicken/

An inglenook (Modern Scots ingleneuk), or chimney corner, is a recess that adjoins a fireplace.  The word comes from ingle, meaning "fireplace" in Old English (from Old Scots or Irish aingeal, "angel" or euphemistically "fire"), and nook.  The inglenook originated as a partially enclosed hearth area, appended to a larger room.  The hearth was used for cooking, and its enclosing alcove became a natural place for people seeking warmth to gather.  With changes in building design, kitchens became separate rooms, while inglenooks were retained in the living space as intimate warming places, subsidiary spaces within larger rooms.  Inglenooks were prominent features of shingle style architecture and characteristic of Arts and Crafts architecture but began to disappear with the advent of central heating.  Prominent American architects who employed the feature included Greene and Greene, Henry Hobson Richardson, and Frank Lloyd Wright.  Find uses in popular culture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglenook

The  book lovers of Appledore, a picturesque fishing village on the north Devon coast, are a resourceful, determined lot.  When their library faced closure 14 years ago, they helped save it by launching a literary festival, which grew and developed year by year into one of the most popular cultural events in the south-west of England.  And when the 2020 Appledore book festival was threatened with cancellation because of the Covid crisis, they came up with the bold idea of holding a coronavirus-secure drive-in event, believed to be the first in the UK.  If they are not distracted by the stunning views of the sea, they will hear the wise words of science writers, novelists and environmentalists relayed into their cars via their vehicles’ radios.  There is even a drive-through Waterstones bookshop for fans to pick up copies of books signed by the authors as they leave.  Steven Morris  See pictures at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/18/talegate-appledore-beats-covid-to-keep-book-festival-alive

Sometimes humans struggle to find the words to convey the sheer depth of their love for one another.  Leave it to Sam McBratney's Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare in Guess How Much I Love You to show us the way.  They love each other as high as they can hop, they love each other across the river and over the hills, and finally, all the way up to the sky.  McBratney died at his home in County Antrim, Ireland surrounded by family on September 18, 2020 according to his publisher, Walker Books.  He was 77.   With illustrations by Anita Jeram, Guess How Much I Love You was published in 1994.  The now-classic story of two bunnies who try to outdo each other with their affections was translated into 57 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide.  Elizabeth Blair  https://www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915633569/guess-how-much-i-love-you-author-sam-mcbratney-dies-at-77 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2261  September 23, 2020

 

In the 1860s, under the threat of colonization by Western powers, the Japanese government undertook an urgent modernization project.  Their efforts affected countless facets of Japanese daily life, from the development of a European-style military to smaller changes such as the installation of street lamps.  With a large readership curious about foreign cultures and the new technologies that their nation was rapidly adopting, Japanese publishers rose to the occasion, churning out a vibrant array of books and woodblock prints for the public.  In one such work, the 1873 A Guide to World Customs, author Nakagane Masahira and his Tokyo publisher included an illustration of Newton’s discovery of gravity after he saw an apple fall from a tree.  But, what was an apple, anyway?  No such fruit was for sale in Tokyo.  The publisher obviously thought it would be easier to replace the unknown foreign fruit with something more familiar, such as a Japanese plum.  As illustrators were carving the woodblocks for this image of Newton, the Japanese were just beginning to cultivate the island’s first apple trees.  Their efforts would result in a booming domestic apple market, and eventually, the creation of one of the most popular apple varieties in the world:  the Fuji.  Read much more and see wonderful pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/japanese-apples 

Ricotta is listed among the worst cheeses to freeze on our guide to freezing cheese.  But just because it's not ideal doesn't mean it's impossible.  You can freeze ricotta cheese, but just know that previously frozen ricotta cheese is only going to work for certain recipes.  Find instructions for freezing ricotta at https://www.allrecipes.com/article/how-to-freeze-pasta-sauce/ 

In the beginning of the 19th century, development of American cities often took a compact, mixed-use form, reminiscent of that found in places like old town Alexandria, Virginia.  With the development of the streetcar and affordable rapid transit, however, cities began to spread out and create streetcar suburbs.  The later invention of the automobile further increased this decentralization from the central city which later led to separated land uses and urban sprawl.  New Urbanism is a reaction to the spreading out of cities.  The ideas then began to spread in the late 1970s and early 1980s, as urban planners and architects started to come up with plans to model cities in the U.S. after those in Europe.  In 1991, New Urbanism developed more strongly when the Local Government Commission, a nonprofit group in Sacramento, California, invited several architects, including Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett, Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk among others, to Yosemite National Park to develop a set of principles for land use planning that focused on the community and its livability.  The principles, named after Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel where the conference was held, are called the Ahwahnee Principles.  Within these, there are 15 community principles, four regional principles and four principles of implementation.  Each one, however, deals with both past and present ideas to make cities as clean, walkable and livable as possible.  These principles were then presented to government officials in late 1991 at the Yosemite Conference for Local Elected Officials.  Shortly thereafter, some of the architects involved in creating the Ahwahnee Principles formed the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) in 1993.  Today, CNU is the leading promoter of New Urbanist ideas and has grown to over 3,000 members.  It also holds conferences yearly in cities across the U.S. to further promote New Urbanism design principles.  Amanda Briney  https://www.thoughtco.com/new-urbanism-urban-planning-design-movement-1435790 

William J. Fallon (1886–1927), christened The Great Mouthpiece by the press, was a prominent defense attorney during the 1920s who defended the gangster Arnold Rothstein and his accomplice Nicky Arnstein during the trial for the fixing of the 1919 World Series.  Fallon died at the early age of 41 on April 29, 1927 from complications of his excessive lifestyle.  Four years after his death a popular biography was written by Gene Fowler was published, which inspired the Warner Brothers films The Mouthpiece (1932), The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940) and Illegal (1955).  He has been cited as one of the inspirations for the celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn in the popular musical Chicago.  He is also portrayed for six episodes by David Aaron Baker in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_J._Fallon_(attorney)#:~:text=Fallon%20(January%2023%2C%201886%20%E2%80%93,of%20the%201919%20World%20Series.  

The 1929 play Mouthpiece by Frank J. Collins was adapted again in 1940 as The Man Who Talked Too Much starring George Brent.  This adaptation has a different ending.  A third adaptation was released in 1955 as Illegal starring Edward G. Robinson.  The Mouthpiece is a 1932 American pre-Code crime drama film starring Warren William and directed by James Flood and Elliott Nugent.  It was produced and distributed by Warner Bros.  The film is currently available on DVD in the Forbidden Hollywood series.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouthpiece  See also http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?isPreview=&id=489423%7C489455&name=The-Mouthpiece

Robert W. Gore, whose invention of what created the breathable-yet-waterproof fabric known as Gore-Tex revolutionized outdoor wear and helped spawn uses in numerous other fields, died September 17, 2020.  He was 83.  Gore was president of W. L. Gore & Associates for almost 25 years and company chairman for 30 years.  Gore discovered a new form of a polymer in 1969 at a company lab in Newark, Delaware.  His father, who began the company, asked Bob Gore to research a new way to manufacturer plumber’s tape at a low cost using PTFE, commonly known as DuPont’s Teflon, The News Journal of Wilmington reported.  The son figured out that by stretching PTFE with a sudden yank, the polymer expanded by 1,000 percent.  The resulting product, known as ePTFE, created a microporous structure.  The introduction of Gore-Tex technology came seven years later.  “It was truly a pivot point in this company’s history,” Greg Hannon, W.L. Gore & Associates’ chief technology officer, said last year.  “Without which we would be much less significant of an organization than we are today.”  The membrane within Gore-Tex fabric has billions of pores that are smaller than water droplets, leading to waterproof but breathable raincoats, shoes and other clothing.  The patents ultimately led to countless other uses with medical devices, guitar strings and in space travel, the company said.   https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/robert-gore-inventor-gore-tex-fabric-dead-83-73117856 

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the demure firebrand who in her 80s became a legal, cultural and feminist icon, died September 18, 2020.  The Supreme Court announced her death, saying the cause was complications from metastatic cancer of the pancreas.  The court, in a statement, said Ginsburg died at her home in Washington surrounded by family.  She was 87.  "Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature," Chief Justice John Roberts said.  "We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague.  Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tired and resolute champion of justice."  Architect of the legal fight for women's rights in the 1970s, Ginsburg subsequently served 27 years on the nation's highest court, becoming its most prominent member.  She learned Swedish so she could work with Anders Berzelius, a Swedish civil procedure scholar.  Through the Columbia Law School Project on International Procedure, Ginsburg and Berzelius co-authored a book.  In 1963, Ginsburg finally landed a teaching job at Rutgers law school, where she at one point hid her second pregnancy by wearing her mother-in-law's clothes.  The ruse worked; her contract was renewed before her new baby was born.  While at Rutgers, she began her work fighting gender discrimination.  In 1971, she would write her first Supreme Court brief in the case of Reed v. Reed.  Ginsburg represented Sally Reed, who thought she should be the executor of her son's estate instead of her ex-husband.  The constitutional issue was whether a state could automatically prefer men over women as executors of estates.  The answer from the all-male supreme court:  no.  It was the first time the court had ever struck down a state law because it discriminated based on gender.  And that was just the beginning.  Read more and see pictures at https://www.npr.org/2020/09/18/100306972/justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg-champion-of-gender-equality-dies-at-87 

Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution establishes the Supreme Court of the United States.  Currently, there are nine Justices on the Court. Before taking office, each Justice must be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.  Justices hold office during good behavior, typically, for life.  The Constitution states that the Supreme Court has both original and appellate jurisdiction.  Original jurisdiction means that the Supreme Court is the first, and only, Court to hear a case.  The Constitution limits original jurisdiction cases to those involving disputes between the states or disputes arising among ambassadors and other high-ranking ministers.  Appellate jurisdiction means that the Court has the authority to review the decisions of lower courts.  Most of the cases the Supreme Court hears are appeals from lower courts.  Parties who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court must petition the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case.  The primary means to petition the court for review is to ask it to grant a writ of certiorari.  This is a request that the Supreme Court order a lower court to send up the record of the case for review.  All opinions of the Court are, typically, handed down by the last day of the Court's term (the day in late June/early July when the Court recesses for the summer).  With the exception of this deadline, there are no rules concerning when decisions must be released.  Typically, decisions that are unanimous are released sooner than those that have concurring and dissenting opinions.  While some unanimous decisions are handed down as early as December, some controversial opinions, even if heard in October, may not be handed down until the last day of the term.  A majority of Justices must agree to all of the contents of the Court's opinion before it is publicly delivered.  When there is a tie vote, the decision of the lower Court stands.  This can happen if, for some reason, any of the nine Justices is not participating in a case (e.g., a seat is vacant or a Justice has had to recuse).  https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/educational-resources/about-educational-outreach/activity-resources/supreme-1  See also https://www.supremecourt.gov/ 

A THOUGHT FOR SEPTEMBER 21  Good books don't give up all their secrets at once. - Stephen King, novelist (b. 21 September 1947) 

WORD OF THE DAY FOR SEPTEMBER 21  Sleep of the just noun  A deep and worry-free sleep.  September 21 is designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Peace, which is dedicated to world peace. 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2260  September 21, 2020