Syracuse is a town in Turkey Creek Township, Kosciusko County, in  Indiana.  The population was 3,079 at the 2020 census.  Syracuse is the location of Lake Syracuse and the nearby, larger Lake Wawasee, in addition to several other lakes in the region.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Indianahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Indiana

Syracuse is a city in, and the county seat of, Onondaga County, New York.  It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester.  At the 2020 census, the city's population was 148,620 and its metropolitan area had a population of 662,057.  It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over one million inhabitants.  Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex.  Syracuse was named after the classical Greek city Syracuse (Siracusa in Italian), a city on the eastern coast of the Italian island of Sicily.  Historically, the city has functioned as a major crossroad over the last two centuries, first between the Erie Canal and its branch canals, then of the railway network.  Today, Syracuse is at the intersection of Interstates 81 and 90.  Its airport is the largest in the Central New York region.  Syracuse is home to Syracuse University, SUNY Upstate Medical University, SUNY ESF, and Le Moyne College.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_New_York  

Syracuse is a historic city on the Italian island of Sicily, the capital of the Italian province of Syracuse.  The city is notable for its rich Greek and Roman history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace and home of the pre-eminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes.  This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world.  Syracuse is located in the southeast corner of the island of Sicily, next to the Gulf of Syracuse beside the Ionian Sea.  It is situated in a drastic rise of land with 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) depths being close to the city offshore although the city itself is generally not so hilly in comparison.  The city was founded by Ancient Greek Corinthians and Teneans and became a very powerful city-state. Syracuse was allied with Sparta and Corinth and exerted influence over the entirety of Magna Graecia, of which it was the most important city.  Described by Cicero as "the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all", it equaled Athens in size during the fifth century BC.  It later became part of the Roman Republic and the Byzantine Empire.  Under Emperor Constans II, it served as the capital of the Byzantine Empire (663–669).  Palermo later overtook it in importance, as the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily.  Eventually the kingdom would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860.  In the modern day, the city is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site along with the Necropolis of Pantalica.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_Sicily  

loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), also known as Japanese medlar, subtropical tree of the rose family (Rosaceae) is grown for its evergreen foliage and edible fruit.  The loquat is native to central eastern China.  It was introduced to Japan more than 1,000 years ago, where it was developed horticulturally and is still highly valued.  Some superior Japanese varieties reached Europe, the Mediterranean, and a few other regions.  The plant is grown commercially (usually on a rather small scale) in many subtropical regions.  Ornamental in appearance, it is frequently planted in parks and gardens.  The fruits are high in fibre, vitamin A, and antioxidants and are commonly eaten fresh.  https://www.britannica.com/plant/loquat  

Find savory, sweet, relishes, drinks and sauce recipes for loquats at https://smartslowcooker.com/blog/loquat-recipes  

“The beauty of friendship is that it is by nature retrospective.”  At one point, feeling close to her friend and wanting to provide comfort, Totenberg recalls taking Ruth Ginsburg’s hand and holding it.  “Not all friendships have to be chatty confessionals,” she writes.  “There is great power in the unsaid, in the simple knowing that comes after so many years.”  Dinners with Ruth:  A Memoir on the Power of Friendships by Nina Totenberg  

The River Dee a river in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.  It rises in the Cairngorms and flows through southern Aberdeenshire to reach the North Sea at Aberdeen.  The area it passes through is known as Deeside, or Royal Deeside in the region between Braemar and Banchory because Queen Victoria came for a visit there in 1848 and greatly enjoyed herself.  She and her husband, Prince Albert, built Balmoral Castle there which replaced an older castle.  Deeside is a popular area for tourists, due to the combination of scenic beauty and historic and royal associations.  It is part of the Cairngorms National Park, and the Deeside and Lochnagar National Scenic Area.  The Dee is popular with anglers and is one of the most famous salmon fishing rivers in the world.  In 1995 it was estimated that salmon fishing on the river contributed between £5 and £6 million a year to the Grampian Region economy.   In 2020 it was estimated that salmon fishing contributed £15 million a year to the local economy and the River Dee reporting 10% of Scottish salmon catches.  The River Dee operates a catch and release practise and all salmon which are caught must be released back to the river. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Dee,_Aberdeenshire#  

Marmalade is a fruit preserve made from the juice and peel of citrus fruits boiled with sugar and water.  The well-known version is made from bitter orange.  It is also made from lemons, limes, grapefruits, mandarins, sweet oranges, bergamots, and other citrus fruits, or a combination.  Citrus is the most typical choice of fruit for marmalade, though historically the term has often been used for non-citrus preserves.  The word "marmalade" is borrowed from the Portuguese marmelada, from marmelo 'quince'.  James Keiller and his mother, Janet, ran a small sweet and preserves shop in the Seagate area of Dundee, Scotland.  In 1797, they opened a factory to produce "Dundee Marmalade", a preserve distinguished by thick chunks of bitter Seville orange rind.  The business prospered, and remains a signature marmalade producer today.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marmalade#Legal_definitions   

Trust is the first step to love. - Dhanpat Rai Srivastava (31 July 1880–1936), better known by his pen name Premchand was an Indian novelist and poet

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2703  July 31, 2023 

 Victor-Marie Hugo (1802–1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician.  During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms.  He is considered to be one of the greatest French writers of all time.  His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).  In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as Les Contemplations (The Contemplations) and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages).  Hugo was at the forefront of the Romantic literary movement with his play Cromwell and drama Hernani.  Many of his works have inspired music, both during his lifetime and after his death, including the opera Rigoletto and the musicals Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris.  He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment.  Though he was a committed royalist when young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed, and he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, serving in politics as both deputy and senator.  His work touched upon most of the political and social issues and the artistic trends of his time.  Victor Hugo died on 22 May 1885, aged 83.  He was given a state funeral in the Panthéon of Paris, which was attended by over 2 million people, the largest in French history.  Although Hugo's many talents did not include exceptional musical ability, he nevertheless had a great impact on the music world through the inspiration that his works provided for composers of the 19th and 20th centuries.  Hugo himself particularly enjoyed the music of Gluck, Mozart, Weber and Meyerbeer.  In Les Misérables, he calls the huntsman's chorus in Weber's Euryanthe, "perhaps the most beautiful piece of music ever composed".  He also greatly admired Beethoven, and rather unusually for his time, he also appreciated works by composers from earlier centuries such as Palestrina and Monteverdi.  Two famous musicians of the 19th century were friends of Hugo:  Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt.  The latter played Beethoven in Hugo's home, and Hugo joked in a letter to a friend that, thanks to Liszt's piano lessons, he learned how to play a favourite song on the piano–with only one finger.  Hugo also worked with composer Louise Bertin, writing the libretto for her 1836 opera La Esmeralda, which was based on the character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  Although for various reasons the opera closed soon after its fifth performance and is little known today, it has enjoyed a modern revival, both in a piano/song concert version by Liszt at the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2007 and in a full orchestral version presented in July 2008 at Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo   

QUOTES BY Victor Hugo (1802-1885) 

"To love beauty is to see light."

"The future has several names.  For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal." 

"Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come."

"The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real.  It is by the real that we exist.  It is by the ideal that we love." 

"To learn to read is to light a fire.  Every syllable that is spelled out is a spark."

"Initiative is doing the right thing without being told."

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."

"Not being heard is no reason for silence."   Bill Lamb  https://www.thoughtco.com/victor-hugo-quotes-4783758   

Records show that Syracuse, N.Y. has heavy snowfall, with an all-time high of 192 inches in a single season.  Statistics like these cement Syracuse’s status as the snowiest metropolitan area in the United States.  Find the 16 snowiest cities in the U.S. at https://www.tripsavvy.com/the-worlds-top-snowiest-cities-4582630  

The jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus), also known as the jack tree or langka (in Philippine English), is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae).  The jackfruit tree is well-suited to tropical lowlands and is widely cultivated throughout tropical regions of the world, including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the rainforests of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Australia.  It bears the largest fruit of all trees, reaching as much as 55 kg (120 pounds) in weight, 90 cm (35 inches) in length, and 50 cm (20 inches) in diameter.  A mature jackfruit tree produces some 200 fruits per year, with older trees bearing up to 500 fruits in a year.  The jackfruit is a multiple fruit composed of hundreds to thousands of individual flowers, and the fleshy petals of the unripe fruit are eaten.  The ripe fruit is sweet (depending on variety) and is commonly used in desserts.  Canned green jackfruit has a mild taste and meat-like texture that lends itself to being called "vegetable meat".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit    

Pleasantville is a village in the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York.  It is located 30 miles north of Manhattan.  The village population was 7,513 at the 2020 census.  Pleasantville is home to the secondary campus of Pace University and to the Jacob Burns Film Center.  The settlement of Pleasantville dates back to the Rechgawawank and Sinsink tribes, belonging to the Munsee dialect of the Lenni Lenape.  This region of the Hudson Valley has been inhabited since just after the last ice age.   Lenape communities practiced ecosystem management, small-scale agriculture, hunting and gathering, democratic politics, and matrilineal governance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleasantville,_New_York   

Usonia, a cooperative utopian community near Pleasantville, NY, was founded in the 1940's, based on the Broadacre City proposals of Frank Lloyd Wright.  Here Sol Friedman, a successful retailer in book stores--sometimes also selling toys--asked Wright to design a “happy house”.  Wright came up with two overlapping cylinders, connected with a mushroom-shaped carport, and named the house “Toyhill”.  The two cylinders are connected by the typical Usonian core:  a generous space, centred around the fireplace, for living, dining and working with an extensive view to the landscape.  A cantilevered balcony/play space on the upper floor of the two-storey cylinder is projected over the living space, while the rest of the upper part has a wedge-shaped division.  The house is placed on a rather steep, heavily wooded slope and is mainly built of concrete and local stone.  From the outside the heavy stone masonry and the tilt of the retaining walls give the house a fortress-like appearance, in contrast to the open and fluent interior.  As the overhanging roofs are sloping up as they go out, more light comes in.  http://sebastiaankaal.nl/architecture/roundhouse-friedman/index.php   

http://librariansmuse.blogspotcom  Issue 2702   July 28, 2023

The name pomegranate derives from medieval Latin pōmum "apple" and grānātum "seeded".  Possibly stemming from the old French word for the fruit, pomme-grenade, the pomegranate was known in early English as "apple of Grenada"—a term which today survives only in heraldic blazons.  This is a folk etymology, confusing the Latin granatus with the name of the Spanish city of Granada, which derives from an unrelated Arabic word.  Garnet derives from Old French grenat by metathesis, from Medieval Latin granatum as used in a different meaning "of a dark red color".  This derivation may have originated from pomum granatum, describing the color of pomegranate pulp, or from granum, referring to "red dye, cochineal".  The modern French term for pomegranate, grenade, has given its name to the military grenade.  Pomegranates were colloquially called 'wineapples' or 'wine-apples' in Ireland, although this term has somewhat fallen out of use lately.  It still persists however amongst the fruit & vegetable stalls at the famous Moore Street open-air market, in central Dublin.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomegranate   

A box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits and a biscuit mixer is a tricky tongue twister due to its many consonant clusters.  https://www.waywordradio.org/biscuit-tongue-twister/   

Muskeg is a nutrient-poor peatland characterized by acidic, saturated peat, and scattered or clumped, stunted conifer trees set in a matrix of sphagnum mosses and ericaceous shrubs.  Black spruce and tamarack are typically the most prevalent tree species.  The community primarily occurs in large depressions on glacial outwash and sandy glacial lakeplains.  Fire occurs naturally during periods of drought and can alter the hydrology, mat surface, and floristic composition of muskegs.  https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/communities/description/10678/muskeg   

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) describes the happy life intended for man by nature as one lived in accordance with virtue, and, in his Politics, he describes the role that politics and the political community must play in bringing about the virtuous life in the citizenry.  Aristotle’s life was primarily that of a scholar.  However, like the other ancient philosophers, it was not the stereotypical ivory tower existence.  His father was court physician to Amyntas III of Macedon, so Aristotle grew up in a royal household.  Aristotle also knew Philip of Macedon (son of Amyntas III) and there is a tradition that says Aristotle tutored Philip’s son Alexander, who would later be called “the Great” after expanding the Macedonian Empire all the way to what is now India.  Aristotle studied under Plato at Plato’s Academy in Athens, and eventually opened a school of his own (the Lyceum) there.  As a scholar, Aristotle had a wide range of interests.  He wrote about meteorology, biology, physics, poetry, logic, rhetoric, and politics and ethics, among other subjects.  His writings on many of these interests remained definitive for almost two millennia.  For example, in order to understand political phenomena, he had his students collect information on the political organization and history of 158 different cities.  https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle-politics/    

ARISTOTLE QUOTES 

“Those who know, do.  Those that understand, teach.”  “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”   “What is a friend?  A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”  “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”  “Anybody can become angry—that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way—that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”   https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2192.Aristotle   

My Breathing Earth by Paul Many, illus. by Tisha Lee.  Yeehoo, $18.99 (36p) ISBN 978-1-953458-62-9  Paul Many (Dinomorphosis) sustains interest in air’s movement with vibrant free verse that follows a child narrator over a 24-hour period.  On the first morning, “Full of the smell of rain/ that tapped on our roof all night,/ Earth’s breath/ balloons our curtains.”  In quiltlike scenes, digitally finished gouache paintings by Tisha Lee (Love Grows Everywhere) show the curtains in the spacious bedroom of two siblings portrayed with light brown skin; brick city buildings are visible through the windows.  The interracial family’s doll-like forms are next seen sitting down to breakfast (“The air turns/ the corners of Daddy’s newspaper”), then driving to Nana’s for caretaking (the wind “plays with people in the street, twirling their clothes into ice-cream swirls”).  At Nana’s, alliterative and assonant phrasings (“Earth’s breath bounces our bubbles like little boats bobbing”) lead to breezy drama in the form of a slammed door and tipped-over plants before the day winds down (“I feel Earth’s breath rise and fall under me”).  Active verbs animate the largely invisible phenomenon of the earth’s moving air, bringing its sudden changes and subtle power into readers’ awareness via thoughtful observations.  Ages 4–8  August, 2023  https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781953458629   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2701  July 26, 2023 

The greatest gift is a passion for reading.  It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind.  It is a moral illumination.  Elizabeth Hardwick   

Elizabeth Bruce Hardwick (1916–2007) was an American literary critic, novelist, and short story writer.   She graduated from the University of Kentucky with a BA in 1938 and with an MA in 1939.  She then entered the PhD program at Columbia University, though withdrew from graduate study in 1941 to concentrate on writing.  She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947.  In 1959, Hardwick published in Harper's, "The Decline of Book Reviewing", a generally harsh and even scathing critique of book reviews published in American periodicals of the time.  She published four books of criticism:  A View of My Own (1962), Seduction and Betrayal (1974), Bartleby in Manhattan (1983), and Sight-Readings (1998).  In 1961, she edited The Selected Letters of William James.  The 1962 New York City newspaper strike helped inspire Hardwick, Robert Lowell, Jason Epstein, Barbara Epstein, and Robert B. Silvers to found The New York Review of Books, a publication that became as much a habit for many readers as The New York Times Book Review, which Hardwick had eviscerated in her 1959 essay.  In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hardwick taught writing seminars at Barnard College and Columbia University's School of the Arts, Writing Division.  She gave forthright critiques of student writing and was a mentor to students she considered promising.  She was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996.  In 2000, she published a short biography, Herman Melville, in Viking Press's Penguin Lives series.  In 2008, the Library of America selected Hardwick's account of Caryl Chessman's crimes for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime writing.  A collection of her short fiction, The New York Stories of Elizabeth Hardwick, was published posthumously in 2010, as was The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick in 2017.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Hardwick_(writer)  

Anaïs Nin was born in Neuilly, France in 1903.  Her mother moved her and her brothers to Barcelona. When Nin was eleven, they moved again, this time to New York City.  It was on this trip, the day before leaving Barcelona for the United States, on July 25, 1914, that Nin made the first entry in the diary that she would keep for the rest of her life—except for one unexplained gap between August 31 and December 1, 1917—and which would cement her legacy as one of the best diarists of all time. 

Mussolini’s government officially bans the use of foreign words (July 23, 1929) • O. Henry is released from prison for good behavior after serving three years for embezzlement (July 24, 1901) •  J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring is published (July 29, 1954).

"The Best Is Yet to Come" is a 1959 song composed by Cy Coleman to lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.  It is associated with Frank Sinatra, who recorded it on his 1964 album It Might as Well Be Swing accompanied by Count Basie under the direction of Quincy Jones.  It was the last song Sinatra sang in public, on February 25, 1995, and the words "The Best is Yet to Come" are etched on Sinatra's tombstone.  Although Sinatra made it popular, the song was written for and introduced by Tony Bennett.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Is_Yet_to_Come  

Tony Bennett, one of the most beloved and recognizable voices in the history of American popular music, died July 21, 2023 at 96, less than two weeks shy of his birthday.  The life and career of Bennett, a World War II veteran and a civil rights activist, could provide fodder for a number of biopics, but his most enduring legacy is likely to be his unique vocal style, which made him a superstar in the 1950s and helped him enjoy a remarkable second act over the last 25 years of his life.  Born Anthony Dominick Benedetto on Aug. 3, 1926, in Astoria in the Queens borough of New York City, he got his start in music after having studied singing at the American Theatre Wing.  He was reported to have been discovered by the legendary African American singer Pearl Bailey, who hired him to open for her in 1949.  A year later, Bennett began to make his own mark, signing with Columbia Records and crooning hits such as “Rags to Riches” and “Because of You.”  His signature hit, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” arrived in 1962 as a B-side that launched him to the A-list.  Between the recording sessions and concerts, Bennett proved that he had a talent for the visual arts, as well.  His paintings, brushed under his birth name, have been exhibited in the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  He and his wife also founded the nonprofit group, Exploring the Arts, to support and fund arts education in public high schools.  In that endeavor, the New York City public high school, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, was founded in Astoria.  Ethan Sacks and Marlene Lenthang  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tony-bennett-iconic-standards-singer-dies-96-rcna42450

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2700  July 24, 2023