Born March 22, 1936, Edith Grossman grew up in Philadelphia.  During high school, she became interested in Spanish and pursued her interest at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a BA in 1957 and an MA in 1959.  It was during her undergraduate studies that she published her first translation, a poem by Nobel Prize-winning Spanish writer Juan Ramón Jiménez, in the University's literary magazine.  She continued her studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1962 traveled to Spain on a Fulbright scholarship, returning to New York to finish her PhD in Latin American studies at New York University.  Her first professional translation was of a story by the Argentine writer Macedonio Fernández.  In the late 1980s, she published three translations, including Ariel Dorfman’s Last Waltz in Santiago and Other Poems of Exile and Disappearance (Penguin, 1988) and Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera (Knopf, 1988), which The Los Angeles Times acclaimed as 1989 Novel of the Year.  Among the many other authors whose works she has translated are Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, Mayra Montero, Álvaro Mutis, and Antonio Muñoz.  She is also the author of Why Translation Matters (Yale University Press, 2010).  Her translation of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2003) is considered one of the finest translations of the Spanish masterpiece in the English language.  https://poets.org/poet/edith-grossman 

Patience and Fortitude, the world-renowned pair of marble lions that stand proudly before the majestic New York Public Library Beaux-Arts building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan, have captured the imagination and affection of New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world since they were placed on their pedestals days before the building was dedicated on May 23, 1911.  Fun Facts About Our Timeless Cats:  Sculptor Edward Clark Potter obtained the commission for the lions, but the Piccirilli Brothers executed the carving—for $5,000.  When they were first unveiled, some folks didn’t like them, including former President Teddy Roosevelt, who thought the library should have bison (as they are North American animals).  In a similar vein, a small group of people thought beavers should flank the building in honor of Library co-founder John Astor, whose family had made a fortune in beaver pelts.  The lions are larger than life, stretching more than 11 feet (not counting the tail), about three feet longer than their real-life counterparts.  At first, the lions were called many names, including Leo Astor and Leo Lenox for the Library’s co-founders, as well as “Lady” Astor and Lord Lenox (even though they’re both male lions)  https://www.nypl.org/125/lions 

The Forgotten Art of Flower Cookery , by Leona Woodring Smith, happens to have a great little chapter on marigolds.  First published in 1973, just before the 1980s flower garnishing trend took off, the book includes flower mythology, ritual, and Emily Dickinson quotes alongside completely practical cooking tips.  Marigolds are eaten as petals or leaves, raw or blanched, fresh or dry, sweet or savory.  Writer Tejal Rao made pickled cucumbers with marigolds.  https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2010/07/marigolds-theyre-whats-for-dinner/59940/ 

All marigold flowers are edible (including calendula, also known as pot marigold)—but not all marigold flowers are tasty.  For best flavor, grow Tagetes patula (French marigold), Tagetes tenuifolia (Gem marigolds) or Tagetes lucida (Mexican mint marigold).  https://www.diynetwork.com/made-and-remade/learn-it/7-ways-to-use-marigold-flowers 

October 5, 2021  South Korean influence has reached the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).  The "accepted authority on the English language" has added 26 new words of Korean origin to its latest edition.  The success of South Korean exports in the UK has been happening for a while.  Back in 2012, you might remember Gangnam Style by rapper Psy, who became the first South Korean pop star to make it to the top of the UK singles chart.  Oscar-winning film Parasite is currently the highest-grossing non-English language film in the UK.  And pop group BTS became the first Korean act to score a chart-topping album in the UK.  See pictures at https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-58749976  A Korean dish is featured in the October 6, 2021 issue of The Washington Post.  An article on South Korean ‘Squid Game’ Inspiring  Thousands of Halloween Costumes appears in the October 6, 2021 issue of The Wall Street Journal. 

 A 6-year-old walking with his family in a Michigan nature preserve made a rare discovery:  a 12,000-year-old mastodon tooth.  Julian Gagnon was walking with his family in the Dinosaur Hill Nature Preserve on Sept. 6, 2021 when he found an object that he initially identified to his parents as a "dragon's tooth."  The family contacted the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontologists, which identified the discovery as the upper right molar of a juvenile mastodon, a species that lived in Michigan about 12,000 years ago.  The Gagnon family donated the tooth to the museum, which said Julian will be rewarded for his donated with a behind-the-scenes tour this month.  Ben Hooper   https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/10/04/mastodon-tooth-Dinosaur-Hill-Nature-Preserve-Michigan-Julian-Gagnon/3691633369947/ 

The Lincoln Highway is a joyride. Amor Towles' new Great American Road Novel tails four boys—three 18-year-olds who met in a juvenile reformatory, plus a brainy 8-year-old—as they set out from Nebraska in June, 1954, in an old Studebaker in pursuit of a better future.  If this book were set today, their constant detours and U-turns would send GPS into paroxysms of navigational recalculations.  But hitch onto this delightful tour de force and you'll be pulled straight through to the end, helpless against the inventive exuberance of Towles' storytelling.  Like his first two novels, The Lincoln Highway is elegantly constructed and compulsively readable.  Heller McAlpin  https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043187103/amor-towles-the-lincoln-highway-review 

The Lincoln Highway:  Main Street across America, A Tenth Anniversary Edition  In his new introduction to this tenth anniversary edition, Drake Hokanson revisits the Lincoln Highway and finds it changed—much for the better—since the original publication of this book.   Most notably, he calls attention to the reinvigorated Lincoln Highway Association and its efforts to preserve what is left of the old road.  Hokanson finds more and more tourists traveling the road—not only Americans but foreigners as well—by car, bus, and motorcycle on journeys not to any particular destination, but simply to see America.  https://www.uipress.uiowa.edu/books/9780877456766/the-lincoln-highway 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2434  October 6, 2021