Palm trees aren’t native to Arizona, but they grow in Phoenix, and in a neighborhood called Mountgrove, regal palms soar like nowhere else in the city.  Thick-trunked, lavish silvery-green fronds floating in the desert breeze, they lean skyward above sleepy roads, green yards, and rooftops in vaguely military formation.  In all, some 300 palms stand.  They are date palms, and not just any date palm.  This small suburban stretch is the nearly exclusive home of the Black Sphinx, a world-class date found only in Phoenix and grown largely by residents, many surprised to learn their yards contain a hidden gem of Arizona agriculture.  “It’s one of those very soft dates that has just a wonderful flavor,” says Jim Montgomery, a date enthusiast who keeps palms and sells fruit just east of the city, including the Black Sphinx, his most popular varietal.  This neighborhood is the only neighborhood that grows Black Sphinx,” Erica Schlather, a home date grower says.  Though date palms can fruit for 150 years, most do for 40 to 50.  The Black Sphinx palms of Arcadia have already outlived these averages.  They won’t be around forever, though their offshoots will produce offshoots, and the bygone orchard’s progeny may survive.  For now, residents enjoy the continued bounty.  “We have a block party every year,” Schlather says.  “A lot of people in the neighborhood like to make date bread and cookies.”  Chris Malloy  Read much more and see pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-most-delicious-date

HUNAN DUMPLINGS  prep:  45 minutes  cook:  5 minutes  Hunan Dumplings are meat filled wontons generously covered in a sweet and spicy peanut butter sauce.  A favorite in Quebec, they'll no doubt win your heart!  posted by Sonia  Find recipe at https://thehealthyfoodie.com/hunan-dumplings/

One of the best-loved toys of all time, the Rubik’s Cube has puzzled and entertained people of all ages around the world.  The device that became popular with the masses in the 1980s was created a decade earlier by Hungarian designer Erno Rubik.  Born in Budapest in 1944, his father was an engineer and glider designer; his mother was a writer and artist.  Rubik pursued sculpture for a time before studying and earning a degree in architecture in 1967.  Shortly thereafter he became a teacher in the interior design department at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.  With his students, Rubik regularly used physical models and materials to teach concepts in construction and design.  His interest in three-dimensional objects played a large part in his creation of the Rubik’s Cube.  He had originally thought of putting a three-column cube together as a challenge to himself to see if he could find a way of moving individual parts without each of them losing their connection to the whole.  The stumper was the interior structure of the cube.  Rubik was reportedly inspired to use rounded elements for the center core of the cube one day in 1974 while he was noticing the smooth, polished, rounded stones by the banks of the Danube River.  Before long Rubik had completed a prototype with cylindrical parts connected to each cube component that gave the desired effect.  (One can see his design today by taking a Rubik’s Cube apart.)  Each of the faces of the cube would be one solid color at the start.  With a few turns the colors would become mismatched.  With 26 square components and 54 outer surfaces, the number of possible alignments is in the multi-millions.  But there is only one “perfect” alignment.  The game was an instant hit with Rubik’s students.  He patented the device in 1975, calling it the “Magic Cube,” and brought it to the Hungarian toy marketplace in 1977.  It should be noted that at least two other inventors had patented similar cube designs around that time unbeknownst to Rubik, though theirs employed different mechanisms for holding the cubes together.  Rubik’s cube was the one noticed in 1978 by Hungarian Tibor Laczi, who brought the device to the Nuremberg toy fair and had soon secured an order for one million of them from a British company, Ideal Toy.  That’s when the name of the toy was changed to the “Rubik’s Cube,” and the West first became familiar with the puzzle.  https://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/erno-rubik 

Ernő Rubik has listed several individuals who, as he has said, "exerted a great influence over me through their work."  These include Leonardo da Vinci, whom Rubik regards as the Renaissance man; Michelangelo, whom he respects as a polymath, painter, and sculptor; and artist M.C. Escher, who drew impossible constructions and grappled with explorations of infinity.  As regards to philosophers and writers, Rubik admires Voltaire, Stendhal, Thomas Mann, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hungarian poet Attila József, Jules Verne, and Isaac Asimov.  In the field of architecture, Rubik is an admirer of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.  Rubik admits to being a lifelong bibliophile and has stated, "Books offered me the possibility of gaining knowledge of the World, Nature and People."  Rubik has stated that he has a special interest in science fiction.  Rubik is fond of outdoor activities such as walking through nature, playing sports, and sailing on Lake Balaton.  Rubik is also an avid gardener and has stated that "collecting succulents is my favourite pastime."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern%C5%91_Rubik 

Salt is easy to overlook today, but before refrigeration, it was essential for preserving food and curing leather, not to mention that a minimum amount of salt is necessary for a healthy diet.  Union officials realized early in the war that salt was the key to feeding soldiers and civilians in the South.  As soon as southerners built their own facilities to make salt, they became military targets.  In the 1800s, most American salt production took place in the North.  Millions of years ago, an inland sea near Syracuse, New York, gradually filled in with sediment, leaving behind massive salt deposits and brine springs.  In 1862 alone, the Onondaga salt works turned these deposits into nine million bushels of salt.  Workers pumped water from the salty springs, and boiled and sun-dried it.  (Even today, a Central New York specialty consists of potatoes boiled in powerfully salty water, a remnant of when salt workers cooked their lunches in the salt brine.)  On the other hand, the South depended on imported salt, much of which was used as ballast when foreign ships came for Southern cotton.  Anne Ewbank  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/civil-war-salt 

What did the tree say to autumn?  Leaf me alone.  What did one autumn leaf say to another?  I'm falling for you.  How do you fix a broken pumpkin?  With a pumpkin patch. Why are trees very forgiving? Because in the Fall they "Let It Go" and in the Spring they "turn over a new leaf".  What's the ratio of a pumpkin's circumference to its diameter?  Pumpkin Pi.  What do you give to a pumpkin who is trying to quit smoking?  A pumpkin patch!  How do leaves get from place to place?  With autumn-mobiles.  What did a tree fighting with autumn say?  That's it, I'm leaving.  What do you call a tree that doubts autumn?  Disbe-leaf.  What is a tree's least favorite month?  Sep-timber!  http://www.jokes4us.com/miscellaneousjokes/weatherjokes/falljokes.html 

House of Horrors by Agnes Peirron  In 1897, the French playwright and chien de commissaire*, Oscar Metenier, bought a theater at the end of the impasse Chaptal, a cul-de-sac in Paris' Pigalle district, in which to produce his controversial naturalist plays.  The smallest theater in Paris, it was also the most atypical.  Two large angels hung above the orchestra and the theater's neogothic wood paneling; and the boxes, with their iron railings, looked like confessionals (the building had, in fact, once been a chapel).  The Theatre du Grand-Guignol--which means literally the "big puppet show"--took its name from the popular French puppet character Guignol, whose original incarnation was as an outspoken social commentator--a spokesperson for the canuts, or silk workers, of Lyon.  Early Guignol puppet shows were frequently censored by Napoleon III's police force.  * "Commissioner's dog":  the French term for a police employee who spends the last moments with prisoners sentenced to death.  Read more, see pictures, and link to resources at http://www.grandguignol.com/history.htm 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2278  October 30, 2020 

“When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.  Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.”  "I went to law school when women were less than 3% of lawyers in the country; today, they are 50%.  I never had a woman teacher in college or in law school.  The changes have been enormous.  And they've just—they've gone much too far (to be) going back."  "I pray that I may be all that (my mother) would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons.”  "Dissents speak to a future age.  It's not simply to say my colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way, but the greatest dissents do become court opinions."  "If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United.  I think the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be."  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/19/ruth-bader-ginsburg-quotes-supreme-court-metoo-equality/5837815002/ 

The Joslyn Art Museum is the principal fine arts museum in Omaha, Nebraska.  It was opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn.  It is the only museum in the state with a comprehensive permanent collection, and although it includes works from Paolo Veronese, El Greco, Titian, among others, its greatest strengths are the outstanding art collections of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries of American and European artists such as Pierre-Auguste Renoir and William-Adolphe Bouguereau.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joslyn_Art_Museum  See also https://www.joslyn.org/ 

Wang Wei (699–759) was a Chinese poet, musician, painter, and politician during the Tang dynasty.  He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time.  Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th-century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Wei_(Tang_dynasty)  See also https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/wei-wang and https://allpoetry.com/Wang-Wei 

Jeweled Rice by Samin Nosrat  Making this rice is a time commitment and a labor of love.  But the ingredients aren't difficult to find, and the finished dish is stunning.  Fruit and nut mixture can be made two days ahead.  https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/jeweled-rice-51169120  six servings 

The Overstory by Richard Powers  Charred nuts are comforting beyond words—sweet, savory, rich as honeyed potato, earthy and mysterious all at once.  *  By the time an ash has made a baseball bat, a chestnut has made a dresser.  *  A school of leaves, swimming and shining in the sky  *  The black walnut poisons the ground beneath it so nothing else can grow.  But wood so fine that thieves poach it.  *  Sitka spruce—pound for pound—is a wood stronger than steel.  *  Beneath fresh drifts, cracked sidewalks ride up over bulging tree roots in the world’s slowest seismic waves.  

The zoopraxiscope (pronounced ZOH-uh-PRACKS-uh-scohp), invented by British photographer Eadweard Muybridge and first shown in 1879, was a primitive version of later motion picture devices which worked by showing a sequence of still photographs in rapid succession.  The zoopraxiscope, along with the zoetrope and the thaumatrope, could be considered forerunners of today's motion display technologies (including the animated GIF and video display technologies such as streaming video ), all of which create an effect of motion by presenting discrete but closely-related images one after the other.  Muybridge is considered to be one of the fathers of cinematography.  He perhaps best known today for his sequence of photographs of a race horse in motion (which proved for the first time that at top speed all feet leave the ground), studied photography in the early 1860s with daguerrotypist Silas Selleck and later achieved recognition for his photographs of the Yosemite Valley and other scenes of the American Far West.  The zoopraxiscope emerged out of his studies of motion as shown in sequences of still photographs.  His 11-volume work, Animal Locomotion , published in 1887, contained over 100,000 photographs.  In 1893, he lectured at "Zoopraxigraphical Hall" at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/zoopraxiscope 

purblind  adjective  nearly or partially blind; dim-sighted.  slow or deficient in understanding, imagination, or vision.  Obsolete.  totally blind.  origin of purblind:  1250–1300; Middle English pur blind completely blind; see pure (in obsolete adv. sense), blind  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/purblind 

This chocolate chip cookie recipe has been carefully crafted to be perfectly soft, perfectly chewy, and just all around perfectly delectable.  You’ll never need another chocolate chip cookie recipe again.  Find recipe, pictures and tips from Samantha at https://www.spendwithpennies.com/perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies/ 

For more than half a century, whenever two full Moons appear in a single month (which happens on average every 2 1/2 to 3 years), the second full Moon is christened a “Blue Moon.”  When you look at the full Moon on Halloween night in 2020, it won’t appear blue in color but you’ll be looking at something pretty uncommon.  A full Moon on Halloween occurs roughly once every 19 years—a pattern known as the Metonic Cycle.  This well-known lunar cycle was discovered in 432 BC by the Greek, Meton, of Athens.  He determined that after 19 years have elapsed, the phase of the Moon will repeat on the same date. Well . . . not always.  Because of slight variations in the Moon’s orbital period, and the number of leap days that intervene over a 19-year time span, the Metonic Cycle can be accurate only to within a day.  There is an alternate definition of a “Blue Moon”—when there are 4 full Moons in a single season, the third is considered a “Blue Moon.”  According to astronomers, we will all see a 100%-illuminated Halloween full Moon (after 2020) in the years  2039, 2058, 2077, and 2096 (note the 19-year pattern).  https://www.farmersalmanac.com/blue-moon-supermoon-2020-104546 

Greasewood is also known as black greasewood or chicowood.  Sacrobatus is from the Greek sarco meaning "flesh" and batos meaning "bramble or thorn," referring to the succulent leaves and spiny branches of the plant.  The family name "Chenopodiaceae" translates to "goose foot," referring to some members of this family's leaf shape, which resembles the foot of a goose.  Greasewood was first collected by John C. Fremont--a famous Civil War veteran, western explorer and one-time presidential candidate--and first named by John Torrey as Fremontia vermiculatus, until it was discovered that the genus Sarcobatus already existed.  Greasewood grows throughout the West, north from California to Canada, east across the northern United States and southern Canada to the Dakotas, and south to Mexico.  It grows at elevations from 2000 to 8500 feet.  Greasewoods are thorny, many branched shrubs which grow three to seven feet tall.  See pictures at https://www.desertusa.com/flora/greasewood.html 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2277  October 28, 2020

Daniel Greene makes a full-time living off his YouTube channel, discussing fantasy authors such as Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, and Jim Butcher.  Talking about your favorite books all day might sound like a dream come true, but Greene says that building a successful channel is harder than people think.  “For a few years I was doing a video every day of the week, seven days a week.  The biggest challenge with YouTube is adapting to the site’s mysterious and ever-shifting algorithm.  Greene is careful to balance less popular content with familiar standbys that he knows will bring in traffic.  Greene launched a new podcast, A Fictional Conversation, with his friend Bobby O’Donald.  He’s looking forward to creating content without the constant pressure of YouTube’s analytics.  https://www.wired.com/2020/09/geeks-guide-daniel-greene/ 

The serrano chili pepper is a quite a bit like the well known jalapeño pepper, similar in color, but smaller, about 1 to 4 inches long on average and 1/2 inch wide.  They generally grow between 1–4 inches long and about 1/2 inch wide though they have been known to grow longer.  They are meaty peppers and are not the best choice for drying, though it can be done.  The serrano pepper originated in the Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo, in the mountainous regions. The name of the pepper, serrano, actually is a reference to the mountains (sierras) of those areas.  https://www.chilipeppermadness.com/chili-pepper-types/medium-hot-chili-peppers/serrano-peppers/ 

The verb “to ballyhoo,” meaning to promote with extravagant praise, appeared around 1911.  The origin of “ballyhoo” in these senses is not known with certainly, but there is no lack of theories.  Part of the problem is that there are actually several “ballyhoos” in English, and the relationships between them, if any, are very murky.  In addition to the “ballyhoo” discussed above, “ballyhoo” is old nautical slang for an inferior ship (probably taken from the Spanish “balahou,” small schooner), a name for a species of fish (more properly the “balao”), and the name of the mythical “ballyhoo bird,” supposedly sporting four wings and two heads.  None of those other “ballyhoos,” with the possible exception of the bird, exhibit any hint of the “loud ruckus” or “public excitement” senses of “ballyhoo” as commonly used today.  Fortunately, there is an explanation for the word that, while not proven, makes a lot of sense.  There is, in County Cork, Ireland, a town named “Ballyhooly” (“Baile Atha hUlla” in Irish), which was apparently, at some point in the past, famous for its street fights and rowdiness.  In the 19th century, “ballyhooly” was used as a euphemism for “hell,” especially in the sense of harsh treatment, chaos or confusion (“What the ballyhooley do you call this?”).  It seems entirely possible that a shortened form of “ballyhooley” came into more general use around the beginning of the 20th century with the “loud ruckus or fuss” meaning it has today.  http://www.word-detective.com/2010/06/ballyhoo/ 

“Heaven must be a place where the library is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  No . . . eight days a week.”  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, book one in the Flavia de Luce novels.  In some places, the series is called The Buckshaw Chronicles.  

Epsom is a town in Surrey, England.  Related to that are:   Epsom railway station, serving Epsom; Epsom College, an independent school in Epsom; Epsom Downs, an area of chalk upland near Epsom; Epsom Downs Racecourse, on Epsom Downs; Epsom Derby, a prestigious horse race run on Epsom Downs Racecourse; Epsom Oaks, another horse race run on Epsom Downs Racecourse; Epsom Downs (play), set on Epsom Derby day; Epsom Downs railway station, serving Epsom Downs; Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), named for a saline spring in Epsom; and Epsom and Ewell, the borough including Epsom  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epsom_(disambiguation)  See also https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/epsom-salt-bath#1 and https://www.healthline.com/health/epsom-salt-bath#side-effects 

Planet Word occupies the historic Franklin School, a 50,000-square-foot, five-story building located on Franklin Square at 13th and K Streets in northwest Washington, D.C. We gratefully acknowledge the Native peoples on whose ancestral homelands we gather, as well as the diverse and vibrant Native Communities who make their home here today.  Designed by renowned architect Adolf Cluss and opened in 1869, the Franklin School was the flagship of the first public schools in Washington, D.C. and served as a model for the modern public school system.  The school offered free universal education to White boys and girls (D.C. schools were segregated at this time).  In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful transmission of a “photophone” message from the Franklin School.  The photophone was an important precursor to today’s wireless and fiber-optic communications, and Bell considered it his most important invention.  The Franklin School was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.  Sign up for email updates at https://planet-word.squarespace.com/about-planet-word 

Don Whitaker, the Cider Maker at Castle Hill, strolls over a grassy knoll in one of Virginia’s oldest historical estates and approaches what looks to be a graveyard.  The lower half of a huge, broken urn stands before the entrance of a roped-off gravel square surrounded by mature linden trees, sprawling fields, whitewashed horse fences, apple orchards, and a horizon of Blue Ridge Mountains.  What appears to be a cemetery is actually a place for burying and fermenting booze.  Known as qvevri, the egg-shaped terracotta vessels are about nine feet tall and hold 300 gallons each.  Cement boxes protruding from the ornamental gravel are chimneys that offer access to stainless-steel tops and rubber ports retrofitted to fit them.  Castle Hill Cider launched outside of Charlottesville in 2010 after importing 12 of the traditional handmade containers from the Republic of Georgia.  There, villagers have been burying qvevri and using them to make wine and other alcoholic beverages for about 8,000 years.  The containers are believed to be one of the world’s oldest large-scale fermentation technologies, and UNESCO has designated qvevri wine-making as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  The containers are believed to be one of the world’s oldest large-scale fermentation technologies, and UNESCO has designated qvevri wine-making as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.  Eric J. Wallace  See pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/most-unusual-cider-virginia 

The Vitruvian Man was created by Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1487.  It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the famed architect, Vitruvius Pollio.  The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square.  The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man.  It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only occasionally.  https://www.leonardodavinci.net/the-vitruvian-man.jsp  See also https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/71390/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-leonardo-da-vincis-vitruvian-man 

A THOUGHT FOR OCTOBER 26  I have a trunk containing continents. - Beryl Markham, adventurer (26 Oct 1902-1986) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2276  October 26, 2020

If you’re ever in a bakeshop on Chicago’s South Side, you’ll probably see a towering confection that stacks three cakes into one glorious treat.  Welcome to the world of Atomic Cake, where layers of banana melt into fluffy custard, tangy reverberations of strawberry are cut short by deep, rich chocolate, and everything is shrouded in a blanket of whipped cream.  To build this gargantuan delight, bakers are tasked with whipping up three different cake bases—banana, yellow, and chocolate—then layering fillings and fruit throughout.  After packing in the likes of Bavarian cream custard, fresh bananas, and glazed strawberries, the pastry chef tops each cake with a layer of fudge and a slathering of whipped cream (or, occasionally, buttercream).  South Side bakeries have been selling the cake since the 1950s.  Generations of South-siders think of milestones and rites of passage, particularly birthdays, as cause for the treat.  You won’t see kids enjoying a slice after school, because bakeries don’t sell the behemoth creation a la carte.  If someone wants an Atomic Cake, they’re buying the whole thing.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/atomic-cake-chicago

The popularity of Quilling/Paper-rolling/Paper-scrolling/Filigree/Mosaic has fluctuated.  Work of high quality was achieved by French and Italian nuns in the 16th and 17th centuries; genteel ladies in the Stuart period; ladies of leisure in the Georgian and Regency periods--and it is currently enjoying a modern revival.  It also spread to North America with the settlers.  Those of us who quill today find we have something in common with Elizabeth, daughter of George III, Joseph Bramah (the famous locksmith), Mrs Delany (pioneer of other paperwork and friend of Jonathan Swift), Jane Austen (who mentions it in her novel 'Sense and Sensibility') and the Bronte sisters:  quite a distinguished gathering of enthusiasts!  Nuns on the continent decorated reliquaries and holy pictures, adding gilding and much ornamentation.  The ecclesiastical connection was maintained when the art spread to England with the development of paper, though vellum and parchment were also used.  Poorer churches produced religious pictures with rolled decoration.  When gilded or silvered, it was difficult to distinguish it from real gold or silver filigree work.  http://quilling-guild.weebly.com/the-history-of-quilling.html 

There's a popular misconception that librarians as a profession are conservative.  Not politically conservative, but literally conservative—wanting to keep old stuff.  Actually, nothing could be further from the truth—we are often on the cutting edge of using new technologies, and always looking for the most efficient, up-to-date way to help our patrons.  Thomas J. Watson Library, for example, paid for the Museum's first T1 line to bring the internet into the building, and our Lita Annenberg Hazen and Joseph H. Hazen Center for Electronic Resources, founded in 1997, was the first dedicated electronic resources center in an art museum.  When I started working in Watson Library in 2003, there were still remnants of the old world.  Dot matrix printers, green-screen interfaces for our ILS (Integrated Library System, the back end of the online catalogue).  We still had a card catalogue as well, although it had not been added to since 1990.  As we continued to modernize, many of the artifacts were being discarded, as they were no longer useful.  Former Watson Librarians Erika Hauser and Dan Lipcan and I decided we should preserve some of this material culture, and the Museum of Obsolete Library Science (MOLISCI) was born.  John Lindaman, Manager of Technical Services, Thomas J. Watson Library  Read more and see pictures at https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/in-circulation/2020/molisci  Thank you, Muse reader!            

The Thomas J. Watson Library of Business & Economics at Columbia University holds a contemporary collection of over 400,000 books and over 1,000 journal titles.  Special focus is placed on the topics of accounting, business economics, business history, management of organizations, management science, operations management, corporate and international finance, international economics, corporate relations, security analysis, marketing, money and financial markets, and labor.  Find location and hours at https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/business/about.html 

Steph Curry’s book club is a partnership with Literati, and it costs $20 a month.  For that price you get a copy of that month’s book (hardcover), and access to an online discussion that Curry moderates.  October in 2020 was the first month of the book club, and Curry chose the book The Other Wes Moore:  One Name, Two Fates, by Wes Moore.  November’s selection will be A Most Beautiful Thing:  The True Story of America’s First All-Black High School Rowing Team, by Arshay Cooper.  On October 19, 2020, The Washington Post published a great interview with Curry about the book club, in which he talked a lot about what he hoped to achieve.   https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2020/10/19/21524026/steph-curry-warriors-book-club-andre-iguodala

With Gregory Maguire’s new novel, A Wild Winter Swan, we’re back in the land of Grimm and Andersen, where boys might turn into swans, leaving brave, resourceful girls with little choice but to save them.  Molly Templeton  https://www.tor.com/2020/10/08/book-reviews-gregory-maguire-a-wild-winter-swan/  The Muser first encountered Maguire’s book Wicked, first in The Wicked Years series, ducking into an Ann Arbor bookstore to escape the rain in 1995. 

On October 19, 2020, Dutton announced that it had acquired “What’s Next:  A Citizen’s Guide to The West Wing,” organized by actors Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, with the participation of Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney and series creator Aaron Sorkin among others.  “What’s Next” will combine memories of the NBC program, which ran from 1999-2006, with “a powerful case for competent and empathetic leadership, and for hope and optimism in what lies ahead,” according to Dutton, which has not set a release date.  Hillel Italie  https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/the-west-wing-cast-reunites-again-this-time-for-a-book/

Wild milkweed adorns the roadsides and fields in Maywood, Nebraska and the surrounding area, but it’s more than a pretty plant, or as some may think, a pesky weed.  Milkweed promises extra income for those who are willing to pick its pods when the time is right.  Local resident, Annette Wood, is spearheading the first Community Conservation wild milkweed collection effort in the area for Sustainable Monarch, a nonprofit in North Platte.  “I was looking for a fundraiser for our daughter’s sophomore class when Debbie approached me about the Community Conservation program through her nonprofit.”  “Instead of pushing cookie dough or other items for people to buy, we have whole families getting out into Nature and picking milkweed pods.  We found two monarch caterpillars yesterday, so we are learning about the environment and the monarch’s migration.”  “Monarch butterflies need milkweed, the caterpillar’s sole food source, along their migration route from Mexico to Canada” said Debbie Dekleva, founder of Sustainable Monarch.  “The loss of habitat across the United States has created a need for local milkweed seed to restore the landscapes.  We help communities work with Nature and make money at the same time.”  https://www.mccookgazette.com/story/2836466.html  See also https://roanoke.com/archive/how-toxic-is-milkweed/article_231b6226-546d-11e4-89ed-001a4bcf6878.html  Thank you, Muse reader!

A missing painting in an epic series by Jacob Lawrence has been located and will be reunited with others in a travelling exhibition that is now on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the institution announced October 21, 2020.  The work in tempera on panel is one of 30 in the original series, Struggle:  From the History of the American People (1954-56), which depicts watershed events dating in the early decades of the republic.  The Met says that five of the 30 had been lost to history, and two of those were recorded only by their titles rather than with images, including the one that was just rediscovered.  A recent visitor to the Met's exhibition who knew that an artwork by Lawrence had been in a neighbour's collection for years suspected that the painting might belong to the Struggle series and urged the owners to contact the museum, the institution says.  The owners wish to remain anonymous, it adds.  The newly discovered painting, titled There are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. —Washington, 26 December 1786, depicts Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising by farmers in Massachusetts that helped to spur the writing of the US Constitution and moves to bolster federal power.  In slashing forms in blue, black, yellow and sienna, it depicts opposing forces with bayonets.  Nancy Kenney

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/missing-for-60-years-a-jacob-lawrence-painting-surfaces-in-response-to-a-met-exhibition  See a picture of The Library (1960), depicting a few black figures reading books that reference African artwork.  Anna Diamond  Read more and see pictures of This is Harlem (1943) and Bar and Grill (1941) at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-works-visionary-artist-jacob-lawrence-still-resonate-century-after-his-birth-180964706/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2275  October 23, 2020

Killer rabbit may refer to:  Rabbit of Caerbannog, a fictional beast from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Jimmy Carter rabbit incident, a 1979 incident involving a swamp rabbit trying to board President Jimmy Carter's fishing boat; creatures from the 1972 horror film Night of the Lepus; The Killer Rabbits, a 20th-century comedy rock band; and White Rabbit (comics), a fictional character who sometimes employs killer rabbits.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_rabbit 

Thomas Lipton took to the grocery business like a duck to water and one store soon became a chain of stores across Glasgow.  One of the products he would sell to his customers was tea and it wasn’t long before he spotted a huge potential in this refreshing brew and bought his first tea farms in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).  He then reorganized it and introduced an innovative cable car system to make transporting leaves more efficient.  But what set Sir Thomas apart was that, in an age when tea was a rare and expensive luxury, he believed that anyone, of any class, should be able to enjoy tea at its best.  He established the Thomas J Lipton Co.® tea packaging company in Hoboken, New Jersey and began to look for ways to make packaging and shipping less expensive.  Instead of arriving in crates, loose tea was packed in multiple weight options.  He also cut out the middleman and was the first to sell loose tea direct to the masses.  At last, you didn’t have to be an aristocrat to enjoy a great cup of tea.  Soon after, tea bags were accidentally discovered by American merchant, Thomas Sullivan (he sent tea samples to customers in silk bags which they then presumed should be placed in water).  Thomas Lipton saw the future, and was the first to start selling tea bags.  He was also the first to print brewing instructions on tea bag tags.  https://www.lipton.com/us/en/our-purpose/the-history-of-lipton-tea.html  Inside Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis Cemetery, you might notice one grave with tea bags beside it.  These tributes are in honor of Sir Thomas Lipton, one of the tea industry’s most important figures.  Lipton was born in Glasgow on May 10, 1850.  At age 16, he emigrated to the United States and worked in various jobs, but soon returned to Scotland to help run his parents’ grocery store.  

Many aspects of Egyptian culture impressed the ancient Greeks, including their mathematics, papyrus-making, art, and egg-hatching.  Aristotle was the first to mention that last innovation, writing that in Egypt, eggs “are hatched spontaneously in the ground, by being buried in dung heaps.”  But 200 years later, the historian Diodorus Siculus cast Egyptian egg-hatching as wondrous. In his forty-book-long historical compendium Library of History, he wrote:  The most astonishing fact is that, by reason of their unusual application to such matters, the men [in Egypt] who have charge of poultry and geese, in addition to producing them in the natural way known to all mankind, raise them by their own hands, by virtue of a skill peculiar to them, in numbers beyond telling.  Aristotle and Diodorus were referring to Egyptian egg incubators, an ingenious system of mud ovens designed to replicate the conditions under a broody hen.  With lots of heat, moisture, and periodical egg-turning, an egg oven could hatch as many as 4,500 fertilized eggs in two to three weeks, a volume that impressed foreigners for centuries.  Western travelers mentioned the wondrous structures constantly in their writings about Egypt.  In 1750, French entomologist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur visited an egg incubator and declared that “Egypt ought to be prouder of them than her pyramids.”  Vittoria Traverso  See many graphics at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/egypt-egg-ovens

Drought-resistant.  Tolerant of pollution.  Adaptable to a variety of soils.  With its reputation as a tough species, the Kentucky coffeetree is an excellent choice for parks, golf courses, and other large areas.  It is also widely used as an ornamental or street tree.  The Kentucky coffeetree is native to the central states of America from Pennsylvania to Nebraska and from Minnesota to Oklahoma.  This tree gets its name because early Kentucky settlers noticed the resemblance of its seeds to coffee beans.  In earlier times, its wood was used in the construction of railway sleeper cars.  Sources disagree on which parts of the seed pods are edible.  The seed pulp is reportedly toxic to cattle.  Link to a tree guide at https://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/TreeDetail.cfm?ItemID=819 

Soft cream is the Japanese answer to soft serve.  Creamier and thicker than its American counterpart, it is popular throughout Hokkaido and Japan, and many towns showcase local identity through unique flavors.    Ishii Miso Brewery in Matsumoto makes soft cream with their miso.  In Kyoto, you can find yuba, ice cream flavored like the skin over boiled soy milk.  And Hakodate, Hokkaido’s southern tentacle, slaps visitors with black squid ink.  “Food especially stands in a rather emotional domain compared to other products like pottery or clothes,” says Ng.  “And since tourism draws on a tourist’s emotions and imaginations, a tourist might more easily remember some soft cream they ate on a trip than the displays in a castle.”  Touting local specialties has deep roots in Japanese culture.  Anyone who has done a jikoshokai—or a self-introduction—will be familiar with boasting hometown pride.  Every town, no matter how small, is famous for something.  For some, those famed products will be extracted and swirled into soft serve.  The concept of omiyage—when people travel, they’re expected to bring back a gift, typically a single-serving, individually wrapped edible novelty that represents the place they visited—also taps into this.  Michael Colbert  See pictures at https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-soft-cream-japan

Thomas Michael Maschler, publisher and managing director of Jonathan Cape and the architect of the Booker prize for fiction, died October 15, 2020 at the age of 87.  He joined the fusty but esteemed publishing house in 1960 as editorial director, his first buy Catch-22, for which he paid £250.  “Authors felt they’d been touched,” suggested Philippa Harrison, who started her career in publishing as a Cape reader.  Her report on First Love, Last Rites (1975) ensured that Maschler read the manuscript for the short story collection that marked Ian McEwan’s debut.  His authors included Philip Roth, Kurt Vonnegut, Doris Lessing, Martin Amis and Bruce Chatwin, plus Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, who put Latin American fiction on the English-speaking map.  Conversely, Maschler’s rejection of An Unsuitable Attachment condemned Barbara Pym to 14 years in the wilderness, following six novels with Cape.  Maschler presided over Cape like a colossus, the list a roll-call of some of the 20th century’s great names in fiction, prize-winning heavyweights whose British and Commonwealth contenders would routinely carry off the Booker prize he had created in 1969 to rival the Prix Goncourt.  But, in addition to literary fiction and nonfiction, Maschler was a dab hand at commerce--for example Desmond Morris’s The Naked Ape (1967), Kit Williams’s Masquerade treasure hunt (1979) and Jonathan Miller’s pop-up The Human Body (1983).  From John Lennon’s “doodles”, brought to him by the journalist Michael Braun, he created two books, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965).  Liz Thomson   https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/16/tom-maschler-obituary 

For a book lover, stepping into a bookstore is always exciting, but a new bookstore in China makes the experience absolutely spellbinding.  Dujiangyan Zhongshuge, located in Chengdu, was designed by Shanghai-based architecture firm X+Living, which has created several locations for Zhongshuge. The two-story space appears cathedral-like, thanks to the mirrored ceilings and gleaming black tile floors which reflect the bookcases, creating a visual effect that feels akin to an M.C. Escher drawing.  “The mirror ceiling in the space is the signature of Zhongshuge bookstore,” says Li Xiang, founder of X+Living.  “It effectively extends the space by reflection.”  Upon entering, shoppers encounter C-shaped bookcases, which create a series of intimate spaces.  In the center of the store, towering arches and columns take advantage of the full height of the space.  These bookcases were inspired by the history and topography of the region.  “We moved the local landscape into the indoor space,” says Li.  “The project is located in Dujiangyan, which is a city with a long history of water conservancy development, so in the main area, you could see the construction of the dam integrated into the bookshelves.”  The firm used film printed with books on the upper shelves so it would appear that books stretched from floor to ceiling.  “If we placed real books on the upper shelves, it’s not only hard for readers to reach them but also difficult for operators to take care of,” says Li.  “The store already has a collection of over 80,000 books, so there’s actually no waste of space.”  Another key part of the design was lighting.  “We designed light belts on each shelf to create a good light effect, which also draws the outline of each layer, making the shelf more stereoscopic and clear to give readers a visual impact and also make it convenient for readers to find books on the shelves,” says Li.  The store’s first floor is home to a café and a playful children’s area, which features bamboo bookcases decorated with pandas.  Stacks of colorful cushions provide comfy reading spots for little readers. The second level’s balcony is filled with seating, where customers can browse through their selections, work, or meet.  Elizabeth Stamp  See pictures at https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/surreal-new-bookstore-opened-china  Thank you, Muse reader! 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2274  October 21, 2020

The squash had traveled a thousand miles to rest quietly on Henrietta Gomez’s arms.  The farmer from Taos Pueblo, a 1,000-year-old Indigenous town in northern New Mexico, held the light-green vegetable like a baby.  Before that bright October morning, it had been several decades since the people of Taos Pueblo had seen a squash like the one in Henrietta’s arms, even though it had been part of the town’s diet since time immemorial.  Along with a seed bundle, the squash had been shipped from Decorah, Iowa, where it had been planted in the gardens of Seed Savers Exchange, the nonprofit that found the variety among the 30,000 kinds of seeds in its seed bank.  Rowen White, an Indigenous seed keeper and the chair of the nonprofit’s board, had personally shipped the giant seed-and-squash-filled box a few days before.  The Taos Pueblo event, held in 2018, was the first of at least 60 rematriations organized by the Indigenous Seed Keepers Network that have returned varieties of ancient seeds to Native American communities that had been lost to colonialism and violence.  Maria Paula Rubiano A.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/native-seed-rematriation

Pickleball is a paddleball sport (similar to a racquet sport) that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and table tennis.  Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, with 26-40 round holes, over a net.  The sport shares features of other racquet sports:  the dimensions and layout of a badminton court, and a net and rules somewhat similar to tennis, with several modifications.  Pickleball was invented in the mid 1960s as a children's backyard game.  The sport is growing internationally too.  Many European and Asian countries have started adding pickleball courts.  The game started during the summer of 1965 on Bainbridge Island, Washington, at the home of Joel Pritchard, who later served in Congress and as lieutenant governor.  He and two of his friends, Bill Bell and Barney McCallum, returned from golf and found their families bored one Saturday afternoon.  They attempted to set up badminton, but no one could find the shuttlecock.  They improvised with a perforated plastic ball, lowered the badminton net, and fabricated paddles of plywood from a nearby shed.  McCallum made the first paddles that were specifically for paddleball on his basement bandsaw.  He tried several alternative paddles, but one he called “M2” became the paddle of choice for most players.  In 1972, McCallum incorporated Pickle-Ball, Inc. and manufactured wooden paddles to help grow the sport.  His son David McCallum now runs the business, which is headquartered in Kent, Washington.  Some sources claim that the name "Pickleball" was derived from that of the Pritchard's family dog, Pickles, or from the term "pickle boat".  According to Joan Pritchard, Joel Pritchard's wife, “The name of the game became Pickle Ball, after I said it reminded me of the Pickle Boat in crew where oarsmen were chosen from the leftovers of other boats.  Somehow the idea the name came from our dog Pickles was attached to the naming of the game, but Pickles wasn’t on the scene for two more years.  The dog was named for the game, but stories about the name’s origin were funnier thinking the game was named for the dog."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickleball 

Moxie means force of character, determination, or nerve.  It’s the perfect name for the cure-all drink that its inventor claimed “cured drunkards by the thousands, effectively too; made more homes happy; cured more nervous, prostrated, overworked people; prevented more crime and suffering in New England than all other agencies combined.”  Moxie is such an excellent name because the descriptive word is actually a product of the drink’s marketing.  Moxie Nerve Food, the original name for the beverage, was invented before moxie was conversationally used at all.  In fact, the first recorded use of the word was in 1930, while the beverage was invented and patented in 1885.  When Dr. Augustin Thompson of Union, Maine, noticed a lack of medicinal elixirs that didn’t use cocaine or alcohol, he set out to to create his own.  He used a medley of herbs, relying on gentian root as the unique ingredient in his proprietary blend.  (He said his friend Lieutenant Moxie sent gentian root from his posting in South America, but the lieutenant was entirely fictional.)  Gentian root is responsible for Moxie’s characteristically bitter, polarizing aftertaste—the same distinctive flavor in Angostura bitters.  He also added sassafras, which was banned in 1960 by the FDA for its carcinogenic properties.  In 1906, when the Pure Food and Drug Act prevented Moxie from being sold as a medicinal product, it was reborn as a soft drink likened to “root beer on steroids.”  Moxie’s marketing team built a 32-foot-tall bottle for the New England Food Fair that same year, and the bottle still stands in Maine today.  Moxie’s new identity as a soda did nothing to derail its popularity, and in 1920, it actually outsold Coca-Cola.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/moxie-soda-maine 

The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, Act No 55 of 1949, was an apartheid law in South Africa that prohibited marriages between "Europeans" and "non-Europeans".  It was among the first pieces of apartheid legislation to be passed following the National Party's rise to power in 1948.  Subsequent legislation, especially the Population Registration and Immorality Acts of 1950, facilitated its implementation by requiring all individuals living in South Africa to register as a member of one of four officially defined racial groups and prohibiting extramarital sexual relationships between those classified as "white" on the one hand and those classified as "non-White" (Blacks, Coloureds, later also Asians) on the other.  The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act was repealed by the Immorality and Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Amendment Act, 1985, which was passed during the presidency of P. W. Botha.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_of_Mixed_Marriages_Act,_1949 

Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host.  He is the host of The Daily Show, an American satirical news program on Comedy Central.  Born in Johannesburg, Noah began his career as a comedian, presenter, and actor in South Africa in 2002.  He has since had several television hosting roles with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and was the runner-up in the fourth season of South Africa's iteration of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008.  From 2010 to 2011, he acted as the creator and host of the late-night talk show Tonight with Trevor Noah, which aired on M-Net and DStv.  After his stand-up comedy career attained international success, Noah began appearing on American late-night talk shows and English panel shows.  In 2014, Noah became the Senior International Correspondent for The Daily Show, and the following year, he succeeded long-time host Jon Stewart, and is set to remain in this position until 2022.  His autobiographical comedy book Born a Crime was published in 2016 and garnered critical acclaim.  Trevor Noah was born on 20 February 1984 in Johannesburg, South Africa.  His father, Robert, is of Swiss ancestry, and his mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, is of Xhosa ancestry.  Noah claimed that (following antisemitism accusations) his mother converted to Judaism when he was 10 or 11 years old, although she did not have him convert.  Under apartheid legislation, Noah's mother was classified as Black, and his father was classified as White.  Noah himself was classified as Coloured.  At the time of his birth, his parents' interracial relationship was illegal under apartheid law, and Noah highlights this in his autobiography.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Noah

American Utopia starts with David Byrne, barefoot in a silver-gray suit, holding a model of the brain and pondering different ideas of connection.  He's gradually joined by his equally barefoot co-stars, also uniformed in silver-gray suits, who sing, dance and play hand-held instruments as they perform nearly 20 Byrne songs, from his Talking Heads classics to his more recent solo work.  Thanks to wireless technology, everyone moves around the stage in seemingly total freedom.  Byrne points out that many of his cast members are immigrants, as is he—a naturalized American born in Scotland.  For Byrne, utopia is about embracing difference.  It's about men and women from a diversity of races and cultures coming together to create something new, alive and beautiful that helps people connect.  While Byrne starts alone on the stage, by the grand finale, he and his co-stars are marching through the aisles singing the cheery song "Road to Nowhere."  Everybody's together on-screen—even the audience.  John Powers  https://www.npr.org/2020/10/13/923258756/david-byrne-and-spike-lee-conjure-up-a-joyous-vision-of-american-utopia  See David Byrne's American Utopia (2020):  Official Trailer | HBO at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg4hcgtjDPc  1:19 

A THOUGHT FOR OCTOBER 19  Life is mostly froth and bubble, / Two things stand like stone, / Kindness in another's trouble, / Courage in your own. - Adam Lindsay Gordon, poet (19 Oct 1833-1870)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2273  October 19, 2020