Ring out false pride in place and blood, / The civic slander and the spite; / Ring in the love of truth and right, / Ring in the common love of good. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet (1809-1892)

Around the start of the New Year, many Japanese households will take part in the annual tradition of mochitsuki (餅つき), the pounding of rice to make mochi.  Mochi, also called a rice cake, is pounded sweet rice that can be eaten in a sweet or savory dish.  In Japan, mochi has been eaten for New Year’s since at least the Heian period (794-1185).  At this point, mochi was actually eaten in hopes that it would bring your teeth and bones strength for the New Year because the mochi that was set out as an offering was tough to eat by the New Year.  Mochi sounds similar to the Japanese word for “to hold” or “to have”, so mochi is eaten in hopes of gaining good fortune over the coming year.  Mochi is so culturally significant in Japan that where Americans will look at the moon and see the face of a man, Japanese see rabbits pounding mochi.  posted by Samantha  https://asahiimports.com/2014/01/04/mochitsuki-a-japanese-new-years-tradition/

Butter Mochi--a classic Hawaiian treat made with coconut milk and mochiko (glutinous rice flour). All you have to do is mix and bake!  https://www.contemplatingsweets.com/hawaiian-butter-mochi/

I grew up with the tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck.  Starting with dried black-eyed peas, place your beans in a large bowl and add enough water to cover by at least 4 inches.  Let them soak overnight.  Drain your beans from the soaking liquid and give them a quick rinse under cold water.  Place beans in a large pot and cover them with 4 inches of chicken stock.  Simmer, covered, for about 1 hour.  Start checking after 45 minutes to see if they are tender and add more broth or water as necessary to keep them covered.  Add in a ham bone if you have one for even better black eyed peas!  Once your black eyed peas are tender you can season them up and add any extras you want.  Add some spinach or other greens during the last 5 minutes or so and season with some salt, pepper, and any other favorite seasonings!  Makinze Gore  https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a25658229/how-to-cook-black-eyed-peas/

The dish that black eyed peas are most famous for is Hoppin' John.  No idea where the name came from.  And depending on where you are from you might not even call it that, but simply black eyed peas and rice.  Hoppin' John is one of those classic Southern dishes that come with as many versions, stories and flavors as there are cooks.  At its core, however, Hoppin' John is rice, black-eyed peas (or field peas), smoked pork, and onions.  Black eyed peas are supposed to bring you luck if you eat them on New Year's Day, and they are traditionally eaten with collard greens.  Elise Bauer  https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/hoppin_john/ 

Syllabub is a sweet dish from Cornish cuisine, made by curdling sweet cream or milk with an acid like wine or cider.  It was popular from the 16th to 19th centuries.  Early recipes for syllabub are for a drink of cider with milk.  By the 17th century it had evolved into a type of dessert made with sweet white wine.  More wine could be added to make a punch, but it could also be made to have a thicker consistency that could be eaten with a spoon, used as a topping for trifle, or to dip fingers of sponge cake.  The holiday punch, sweet and frothy, was oftentimes considered a "ladies drink".  The milk and cream used in those days would have been thicker so modern recipes may need to make some adjustments to achieve the same effect.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllabub  Syllabub recipe--four servings   https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Syllabub/

PADUA, Italy (Reuters) - White-coated bakers are chopping nuts, dipping pastry into liquid chocolate and hanging freshly baked panettone Christmas cake upside down to preserve its domed shape.  Sweet smells have wafted through this building since 2005, when the local Giotto cooperative opened the ‘Pasticceria Giotto’, which they say is Italy’s only bakery inside a jail.  The cooperative says the re-offending rate among prisoners who work on their projects in Padua drops to 1-2 percent from a national average they put at over 70 percent.  Of the roughly 800 detainees in Padua’s Due Palazzi prison, 150 are paid to work on such projects, which also include a call center and workshops making suitcases and bicycles.  The bakery’s signature delicacy is panettone, baked to a traditional recipe that takes 72 hours to make from a precise mixture of flour, butter, eggs and sugar that is enshrined in Italian law.  Isla Binnie  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-prison-bakery/italys-prison-panettone-offers-sweet-way-to-cut-crime-idUSKBN0JN0R920141209  

In 2021, Sotheby’s announced that the manuscripts, first editions, letters and bindings that make up the legendary Honresfield Library--assembled with passion by self-made Victorian industrialists William and Alfred Law at the turn of the 20th century--were to be offered at auction in a series of three sales starting in July 2021.  Working together with the UK charity Friends of the National Libraries (FNL), Sotheby’s then agreed to postpone the commencement of the auctions to allow for negotiations for the entirety of the library to be acquired by a consortium of institutions for the nation.  FNL has successfully raised over £15 million to purchase the library for the nation, and will donate all of the manuscripts and printed books to the relevant national, university and specialist collecting institutions, ensuring that as many people as possible can enjoy this treasure trove of English and Scottish literature. https://www.sothebys.com/en/press/the-honresfield-library-of-british-literature-saved-for-the-nation  

Best crime fiction, mystery and thrillers of 2021:    https://crimereads.com/best-crime-novels-2021/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2476  December 31, 2021 

Favorite books read by the Muser in 2021   Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (novel about an unlikable, flawed woman living in a small town in Maine.  The chapters could be read as separate short stories.  Olive Kitteridge has been adapted into a HBO mini-series.)   The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn  (psychological novel with twists about a recluse in New York City who drinks, pops pills, and spies on her neighbors.)   And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (novel of nine chapters, each told by a different character)   The Islander, a Romance of the Future by Charles Whittlesey (Cultures collide in 2155.  There are two Americas.  The wealthy control most of the land and all the technology, while the poor lead short and squalid lives confined to the remnants of America's collapsed cities, known as Islands.)   The Wedding Dress, Stories from the Dakota Plains by Carrie Young  (Immigrants and others carve out a life in the last of the untamed West.)   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick  (retitled Blade Runner:  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in some later printings) is a dystopian science fiction novel by American writer Philip K. Dick.  The novel is set in a post-apocalyptic San Francisco, where Earth's life has been greatly damaged by a nuclear global war, leaving most animal species endangered or extinct.  The book served as the primary basis for the 1982 film Blade Runner and many elements and themes from it were used in the film's 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049.)

Philip Kindred Dick (1928–1982) was an American science fiction writer.  He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his lifetime.  His fiction explored varied philosophical and social questions such as the nature of reality, perception, human nature, and identity, and commonly featured characters struggling against elements such as alternate realities, illusory environments, monopolistic corporations, drug abuse, authoritarian governments, and altered states of consciousness.  Born in Chicago, Dick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area with his family at a young age.  He began publishing science fiction stories in 1952, at age 23.  He found little commercial successuntil his alternative history novel The Man in the High Castle (1962) earned him acclaim, including a Hugo Award for Best Novel, when he was 33.  He followed with science fiction novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ubik (1969). His 1974 novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. 

In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik (1969) one of the hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923.  In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer included in The Library of America series.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick

A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with flour, butter or oil, sugar, salt, and rolled in cinnamon sugar.  Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough.  Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be either crisp or soft depending on the ingredients used.  Snickerdoodles are often referred to as "sugar cookies".  However, traditional sugar cookies are often rolled in white sugar whereas snickerdoodles are rolled in a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon.  The cookie is common to Mennonite and Amish communities and was a favorite treat of the Indiana poet, James Whitcomb Riley.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snickerdoodle  Find recipe posted by Michelle Malouf at https://www.hummingbirdhigh.com/2020/12/snickerdoodle-recipe-without-cream-of-tartar.html

Pfeffernüsse are small spice cookies, popular as a holiday treat with Germans, and ethnic Mennonites in North America.  Similar cookies are made in Denmark, and The Netherlands, as well.  They are called Pfeffernüsse (plural, singular is Pfeffernuss) in German, pepernoten (sing. pepernoot) in Dutch, päpanät in Plautdietsch, pfeffernusse or peppernuts in English, and pebernødder in Danish.  Johann Fleischmann, a confectioner from Offenbach am Main created the recipe in 1753.  Goethe praised the pastries.  Felix Mendelssohn went to Offenbach am Main especially to buy them.^[7][8][6] The state of Hesse has served it at state receptions.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pfeffern%C3%BCsse  Find recipe by Gemma Stafford at https://www.biggerbolderbaking.com/pfeffernusse-cookies-recipe/#wprm-recipe-container-40915

In December 2021, Habitat for Humanity dedicated its first 3D printed home to a family in the U.S.  The house dedicated last week in Virginia was completed about four weeks faster than a typical construction schedule—it took just 28 hours to print the 1,200 square foot home.  Officials also estimate that it cost 15-20% less than a  typical home.  The 3D printer constructed the outside of the house, the group still needed contractors to do work on the inside.  https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/habitat-for-humanity-dedicates-first-3d-printed-home-to-us-family

Best Reviewed Books of 2021:  Fiction  Link to poetry and horror, science fiction and fantasy at https://bookmarks.reviews/the-best-reviewed-books-of-2021-fiction/

yesternight  (YES-tuhr-nyt) noun  Last night.  adverb  During last night.  From Old English giestran/gierstan (a time one period prior to the present period) + niht (night).  Earliest documented use: c. 450.  A related word is yestreen (yesterday evening). 

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. - Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator, and author (28 Dec 1902-2001)

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2475  December 29, 2021   

81 Writers on the Books They Loved in 2021from contributors to Freeman's https://lithub.com/81-writers-on-the-books-they-loved-in-2021/ 

The metaverse (Meta & Universe) is a hypothesized iteration of the Internet, supporting persistent online 3-D virtual environments through conventional personal computing, as well as virtual and augmented reality headsets.  Metaverses, in some limited form, have already been implemented in video games such as Second Life.  Some iterations of the metaverse involve integration between virtual and physical spaces and virtual economies.  Current metaverse development is centered on addressing the technological limitations with virtual and augmented reality devices.  The term "metaverse" has its origins in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash.  It has since gained notoriety as a buzzword for promotion, and as a way to generate hype for public relations purposes by making vague claims for future projects.  Information privacy and user addiction are concerns within the metaverse, stemming from challenges facing the social media and video game industries as a whole.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse 

From the Pulitzer to the Booker, the Nebula to the Edgar, here are the winners of the biggest book prizes of 2021.  https://lithub.com/the-award-winning-novels-of-2021/ 

“Looking for recipes to serve at your Feast of the Seven Fishes?  We've got you covered with 53 of our best Italian seafood recipes.  You'll find delicious versions of baccalà, clams casino, shrimp pasta, fried squid, bagna cauda, a variety of seafood stews, and more.  They're all perfect for this traditional Italian-American feast that's served on Christmas Eve and features seven (or more) fish dishes.  Hope you're hungry!”   https://www.epicurious.com/holidays-events/italian-seafood-recipes-for-the-feast-of-the-seven-fishes-gallery 

Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology.  "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet.  It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday reality.  In cyberspace people can hide behind fake identities, as in the famous The New Yorker cartoon."  The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security professionals, government, military and industry leaders and entrepreneurs to describe the domain of the global technology environment, commonly defined as standing for the global network of interdependent information technology infrastructures, telecommunications networks and computer processing systems.  Others consider cyberspace to be just a national environment in which communication over computer networks occurs.  The word became popular in the 1990s when the use of the Internet, networking, and digital communication were all growing dramatically; the term cyberspace was able to represent the many new ideas and phenomena that were emerging.  The term "cyberspace" first appeared in the visual arts in the late 1960s, when Danish artist Susanne Ussing (1940-1998) and her partner architect Carsten Hoff (b. 1934) constituted themselves as Atelier Cyberspace.  Under this name the two made a series of installations and images entitled "sensory spaces" that were based on the principle of open systems adaptable to various influences, such as human movement and the behaviour of new materials.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberspace 

Non sequitur means "does not follow."  It is a type of logical fallacy:  a bad argument that makes no sense.  It is defined as a deductive argument that is invalid.  The argument could have true premises, but still have a false conclusion.  A non sequitur argument takes something that people accept is true, and says that because this is true, the conclusion is right.  The problem is that the conclusion has nothing to do with the premise (original statement that people agree on).  People often have difficulty applying the rules of logic.  For example, a person might say this syllogism is valid:  All birds have wings.  That creature has wings.  Therefore, that creature is a bird.  It would only be true if all winged animals were birds (which is not so).  https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur

Sarah Weddington, a Texas lawyer who as a 26-year-old successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court, died December 26, 2021.  She was 76.  Raised as a minister's daughter in the West Texas city of Abilene, Weddington attended law school at the University of Texas.  A couple years after graduating, she and a former classmate, Linda Coffee, brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman challenging a state law that largely banned abortions.  The case of "Jane Roe," whose real name was Norma McCorvey, was brought against Dallas County District Attorney Henry Wade and eventually advanced to the Supreme Court.   Weddington argued the case before the high court twice, in December 1971 and again in October 1972, resulting the next year in the 7-2 ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.  Weddington later wrote a book on Roe v. Wade, gave lectures and taught courses at the University of Texas at Austin and Texas Women's University on leadership, law and gender discrimination. She remained active in the political and legal worlds well into her later years, attending the 2019 signing ceremony for a New York state law meant to safeguard abortion rights should Roe v. Wade be overturned.  https://www.npr.org/2021/12/26/1068168254/sarah-weddington-the-lawyer-who-at-26-successfully-argued-roe-v-wade 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2474  December 27, 2021 

Icelandic Christmas folklore depicts mountain-dwelling characters and monsters who come to town during Christmas.  The stories are directed at children and are used to scare them into good behavior. The folklore includes both mischievous pranksters who leave gifts during the night and monsters who eat disobedient children.  The figures are depicted as living together as a family in a cave.  Grýla is a giantess with an appetite for the flesh of mischievous children, whom she cooks in a large pot.  Her husband Leppalúði is lazy and mostly stays at home in their cave.  The Yule Cat is a huge and vicious cat who lurks about the snowy countryside during Christmas time (Yule) and eats people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve.  The Yule Lads are the sons of Gryla and Leppaludi.  They are a group of 13 mischievous pranksters who steal from or harass the population and all have descriptive names that convey their favourite way of harassing.  They come to town one by one during the last 13 nights before Yule.  They leave small gifts in shoes that children have placed on window sills, but if the child has been disobedient they instead leave a rotten potato in the shoe.  These Christmas-related folk tales first appear around the 17th century and display some variation based on region and age.  In modern times these characters have taken on slightly more benevolent roles.  Find a list of Yule Lads, and their use in popular culture at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Christmas_folklore#Yule_lads   

Louis Armstrong - The Night Before Christmas  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upuUV_TdmtM    5:36   

Corona, Queens, is an unassuming New York City neighborhood.  Nearby is the stainless steel Unisphere from the 1964 World’s Fair, and three miles west is Flushing’s Main Street, with its crowded dim sum parlors.  Corona, though, feels like a suburb wedged into the city, and it’s here, on a quiet residential block, with modest century-old detached homes with small cement porches and aluminum siding, that you’ll find one of the country’s great unheralded design museums:  the jazz trumpeter and bandleader Louis Armstrong’s miraculously preserved house, where he lived from 1943 until his death in 1971, at age 69.  M.H. Miller  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/t-magazine/louis-armstrong-home-queens.html   

Othello - The most famous literary reference to the willow is probably William Shakespeare's Willow Song in Othello.  Desdemona, the heroine of the play, sings the song in her despair.  You can hear an example and see the musical score and words on Digital Tradition.  Many composers have set this song to music, but the version on Digital Tradition is one of the oldest.  The earliest written record of The Willow Song is from 1583 and was written for the lute, a stringed instrument like a guitar but with a softer sound.

Hamlet - Shakespeare uses the mournful symbolism of the willow in Hamlet.  Doomed Ophelia falls into the river when the willow branch on which she is sitting breaks.  She floats for a while, buoyed by her clothing, but she eventually sinks and drowns.

Twelfth Night - Willows are also mentioned in Twelfth Night, where they symbolize unrequited love.  Viola is dwelling on her love for Orsino when she, dressed as Caesario, replies to Countess Olivia's question about falling in love by saying "make me a willow cabin at your gate, and call upon my soul within the house."

The Lord of the Rings - In J. R. R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy series The Lord of the Rings, Old Man Willow is an ancient tree with an evil heart.  The tree actually harbors a thirsty, imprisoned spirit.  Old Man Willow sees men as usurpers because they take wood from the forest, and he tries to capture, then kill the hobbits Merry, Pippin, and Frodo.  In another scene, Treebeard, who befriends the hobbits and is the oldest tree in the forest, sings a song about "the willow-meads of Tasarinan."

Harry Potter Series - If you're a J. K. Rowling fan, you'll remember that the willow is an important character in the Harry Potter book series.  The Whomping Willow is a tree with attitude that lives on the Hogwarts grounds and guards the entrance to a tunnel that leads to the Shrieking Shack where Professor Lupin goes when he turns into a werewolf.  Thomma Lyn Grindstaff  https://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Weeping_Willow_Tree_Facts  See also http://callmetaphy.blogspot.com/2011/07/symbol-of-weeping-willow-in-gravestone.html

December 24, 1818 – The Christmas carol "Silent Night" by Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber was first performed in a chapel in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.

December 24, 1871 – Aida, one of Giuseppe Verdi's most popular operas, made its debut in Cairo, Egypt.

Jenny Eugenia Nyström (1854–1946) was a painter and illustrator who is mainly known as the person who created the Swedish image of the jultomte on numerous Christmas cards and magazine covers, thus linking the Swedish version of Santa Claus to the gnomes and tomtar of Scandinavian folklore.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenny_Nystr%C3%B6m

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2473  December 24, 2021

Food capitals of the World:  Almond, apricot, artichoke, avocado, broccoli, date, garlic, grape, horseradish, pear, raisin, and strawberry capitals are located in California.  Find a list of “crop capitals of the world” at https://agro.biodiver.se/2006/11/world-crop-capitals/  Find a list of nickname-related list articles on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_nicknames#Agricultural_or_Industrial_Capitals 

Michael Chabon (born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist and short story writer.  Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1984.  He subsequently received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine.  Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988), was published when he was 25.  He followed it with Wonder Boys (1995) and two short-story collections.  In 2000, he published The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a novel that John Leonard would later call Chabon's magnum opus.  It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001.  His novel The Yiddish Policemen's Union, an alternate history mystery novel, was published in 2007 and won the Hugo, Sidewise, Nebula and Ignotus awards; his serialized novel Gentlemen of the Road appeared in book form in the fall of the same year.  In 2012 Chabon published Telegraph Avenue, billed as "a twenty-first century Middlemarch," concerning the tangled lives of two families in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004.  He followed Telegraph Avenue in November 2016 with his latest novel, Moonglow, a fictionalized memoir of his maternal grandfather, based on his deathbed confessions under the influence of powerful painkillers in Chabon's mother's California home in 1989.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Chabon 

The most mispronounced words of 2021 list released December 7, 2021 identifies the words that proved most challenging for newsreaders and people on television to pronounce this year.  The list, compiled by the U.S. Captioning Company captions and subtitles real-time events on TV and in courtrooms.  Among the entries are Cheugy (CHOO-gee), Eilish (EYE-lish), and Kelce (KELs).   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mispronounced-words-2021-include-cheugy-omicron-singer-billie-eilishs-rcna7853 

sound-thief   noun  slang, an expert in ‘bugging’ or the installation and operation of concealed microphones  Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989).  © Oxford University Press 1989.  Find many other definitions of sound at  https://www.oed.com/oed2/00231535;jsessionid=3AD66A3972B60E11683853E5BCD50B07 

The Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail commemorates the life and times of a world-renown Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, storyteller and dramatist, primarily when she lived in Fort Pierce, during the final years of her life.  Three large kiosks, eight trail markers and a recently-added exhibit and visitor information center capture Zora memories in Fort Pierce and chronicle her travels through Florida and the Caribbean.  You can take a "virtual" tour of the Dust Tracks Heritage Trail by following the links at https://www.cityoffortpierce.com/386/Zora-Neale-Hurston-Dust-Tracks-Heritage- 

Widow of a musician, a brave and struggling Civil War nurse, creator of new homes in Kansas for Chicago's destitutes, cleaner of New York City slums, champion of women’s rights, a selfless, energetic and understanding individual--that was Mary Ann Sail Bickerdyks.  She had a rough childhood and little or no formal education during her girlhood on a farm in Ohio.  But she knew a lot about nursing and practical medicine.  The beginning of the Civil War found her a widow with two young sons in Galesburg, Illinois.  Almost immediately she rose to Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher's (the brother of Harriet and Henry Ward Beecher) call to do something about the horrible conditions of the wounded Union soldiers in Cairo in southern Illinois.  From then on her life is the story of struggle with and against the army for more nurses, and among the many failures, of one small success after another until she had done an honorable and exciting piece of work for her country.  Nina Brown Baker  https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/nina-brown-baker/cyclone-in-calico-2/ 

The fifth annual gingerbread replica of the Capitol debuted December 20, 2021.  Last year, chef Fred Johnson livestreamed the replica from his basement during the height of the pandemic, complete with masked gingerbread people.  This year, he brought the tradition back to the Hill, with face coverings absent on the candied lawn but still going strong inside the cookie walls.  The sugary structure was installed on the first floor of the Capitol, near the Memorial Door entrance and a bust of Abraham Lincoln.  This year’s design—slightly smaller than years past but still about 5 feet long and 3 feet tall—features a couple of nutcrackers and gingerbread people sledding down the slick hills outside the Capitol decorated with royal icing and dusted with crystallized sugar.  Festive trees and other cheery holiday embellishments round out the scene.  https://www.rollcall.com/2021/12/06/gingerbread-is-back-sweet-replica-returns-to-capitol/ 

Gingerbread House of Congress (Wheel of Fortune TV game show category Before and After) 

No one else sees the world the way you do, so no one else can tell the stories that you have to tell. - Charles de Lint, writer (b. 22 Dec 1951) 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2472  December 22, 2021

Many New York City bagel shops use Kraft-owned brand Philadelphia cream cheese as the base for their own spreads, but unlike the rest of us, bagel makers buy a raw, unprocessed, and unwhipped version of Kraft's cheese to work with.  Even that is hard to come by.  "We continue to see elevated and sustained demand across a number of categories where we compete," a Kraft spokesperson was quoted as saying, adding that shipment were up 35 percent from last year.  "As more people continue to eat breakfast at home and use cream cheese as an ingredient in easy desserts, we expect to see this trend continue."  So in the interim, New York bagel shops—some of which are measuring the amount of cream cheese they have left in days—are resorting to whatever they can do to get the spreadable stuff.  The New York Times reports that another NYC institution is struggling due to supply chain issues:  Bagel shops across the city told the paper that they can't find enough cream cheese to keep their products schmeared.  "I've never been out of cream cheese for 30 years," Joseph Yemma, who owns the Brooklyn-based distributor F&H Dairies, told the paper.  "There's no end in sight."  Mike Pomranz  December 6, 2021  https://www.foodandwine.com/news/cream-cheese-shortage-nyc  Thank you, Muse reader!  

Khaled Hosseini (born 4 March 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist, physician, activist, humanitarian, and UNHCR goodwill ambassador.  His debut novel The Kite Runner (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book, as well as his subsequent novels, have all been at least partially set in Afghanistan and has featured an Afghan as the protagonist.  Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Hosseini's father was a diplomat; after periods living in Iran and France, when Hosseini was 15, his family applied for asylum in the United States, where he later became a naturalised citizen.  Hosseini did not return to Afghanistan until 2000 when he was 36, where he likened the experience to feeling "like a tourist in [his] own country".  After graduating from college, Hosseini worked as a physician in California, a situation he likened to "an arranged marriage".  The success of The Kite Runner meant he was able to retire from medicine in order to write full-time.  His three novels have all reached various levels of critical and commercial success.  The Kite Runner spent 101 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, including three weeks at number one.  His second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007) spent 103 weeks on the chart, including 15 at number one.  And the Mountains Echoed (2013), his third novel, remained on the chart for 33 weeks.  In 2018, Hosseini published an illustrated short story, Sea Prayer, inspired by the death of Alan Kurdi, a three year old refugee who drowned when trying to reach Europe from Syria.  Proceeds from sales went to the UNHCR and the Khaled Hosseini Foundation.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khaled_Hosseini 

Grisaille (French:  grisaille, lit. 'greyed' from gris 'grey') is a painting executed entirely in shades of grey or of another neutral greyish colour.  It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture.  Many grisailles include a slightly wider colour range.  Paintings executed in brown are referred to as brunaille, and paintings executed in green are called verdaille.  See graphics at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisaille 

The origin of the Nutcracker, a classic Christmas Story, is a fairy tale ballet in two acts centered on a family’s Christmas Eve celebration.  Alexandre Dumas Père’s adaptation of the story by E.T.A. Hoffmann was set to music by Tchaikovsky and originally choreographed by Marius Petipa.  It was commissioned by the director of Moscow’s Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, in 1891, and premiered a week before Christmas 1892.  Since premiering in western countries in the 1940s, this ballet has become perhaps the most popular to be performed around Christmas time.  The story centers on a young girl’s Christmas Eve and her awakening to the wider world and romantic love.  The composer made a selection of eight of the more popular pieces before the ballet’s December 1892 premiere, forming what is currently known as the Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a, as is heard in Moscow Ballet productions.  The suite became instantly popular; however the complete ballet did not achieve its great popularity as a Christmas performance event until almost 100 years later.  The Christmas ballet was first performed outside Russia in England in 1934.  Its first United States performance was in 1944 by the San Francisco Ballet, staged by its artistic director and Balanchine student Willam Christensen.  The New York City Ballet first performed George Balanchine’s Nutcracker in 1954 but the holiday ballet did not begin to achieve its great popularity until after the George Balanchine staging became a hit in New York City.  The now well known Christmas story has been published in many book versions including colorful children-friendly ones.  The plot revolves around a German girl named Clara Stahlbaum and her coming-of-age one Christmas holiday.  In Hoffmann’s tale, the girl’s name is Marie or Maria, while Clara–or “Klärchen”–is the name of one of her dolls.  In the Great Russian Nutcracker, she is affectionately called Masha.  https://www.nutcracker.com/about-us/history-of-nutcracker

At the Steubenville Nutcracker Village you will find the world’s largest collection of lifesize nutcrackers.  The nutcrackers are displayed throughout Fort Steuben Park and Market Street.  Each nutcracker is six feet tall and masterfully crafted to represent various themes.  In addition to the Village you can also enjoy time at the Advent Market which is also located at Fort Steuben Park.  New this year is Fort Steuben Gingerbread Village.  The Village is open until January 8, 2022.  The village is free and open to the public.  To learn more about Steubenville’s Nutcracker Village CLICK HERE.   https://myohiofun.com/the-nutcracker-comes-alive-in-ohio/ 

Books, it turns out, were not only among the first commercially produced Christmas gifts; the book business played a central role in turning Christmas into the commercialized holiday that we know today.  “Publishers and booksellers were the shock troops in exploiting—and developing—a Christmas trade,” Stephen Nissenbaum writes in The Battle for Christmas, his social history of the holiday.  “And books were on the cutting edge of a commercial Christmas, making up more than half of the earliest items advertised as Christmas gifts.”  Michael Bourne  https://lithub.com/how-the-book-business-invented-modern-gift-giving/

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2471  December 20, 2021