David Lennox Mills (1938–January 17, 2024) was an American computer engineer and professor emeritus at the University of Delaware.  He was an Internet pioneer who led the Gateway Algorithms and Data Structures (GADS) Task Force.  He was known as the internet's "Father Time" for designing the Network Time Protocol, which is intended to synchronize all participating computers across different computer systems and networks to within a few milliseconds of Coordinated Universal Time.  He also created Internet Protocol version 4, which has remained the dominant version of the Internet Protocol in use.  David Lennox Mills was born in Oakland, California, on June 3, 1938.  His mother, Adele (née Dougherty), was a pianist, and his father, Alfred, was an engineer.  He had glaucoma since birth, but a surgeon saved some of the vision in his left eye when he was a child.  He attended a school in San Mateo, California, for the visually impaired.  Mills earned his PhD in Computer and Communication Sciences from the University of Michigan in 1971.   While at Michigan, he worked on the ARPA-sponsored Conversational Use of Computers (CONCOMP) project and developed DEC PDP-8-based hardware and software to allow terminals to be connected over phone lines to an IBM 360 mainframe.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_L._Mills   

January 30, 2024  N. Scott Momaday, a distinguished author, poet, teacher, and scholar of folklore, who received the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, has died at the age of 89.  His first novel, “House Made of Dawn,” is widely recognized as the catalyst for modern Native American literature.  Throughout the subsequent decades, he imparted knowledge at esteemed institutions such as Stanford, Princeton, and Columbia universities, while also serving as a commentator for NPR and delivering lectures across the globe.  He authored over twelve works, ranging from “Angle of Geese and Other Poems” to the novels “The Way to Rainy Mountain” and “The Ancient Child,” and emerged as a prominent proponent for the aesthetic and liveliness of indigenous traditional existence.   In his article “The Native Voice in American Literature,” he expressed that although the meaning of their words is unclear to us, we are nevertheless connected to their significance.  “They endure over time in the realm of imagination, and there is no doubt that they embody the fundamental nature of language, the language of narrative, mythology, and ancient melodies.”  They are around 2,000 years old and closely resemble the origin of American literature.  In 2007, President George W. Bush awarded Momaday the National Medal of Arts in recognition of his literary contributions and efforts to honor and safeguard Native American art and oral heritage.  In addition to his Pulitzer, he received accolades such as the Academy of American Poets medal and, in 2019, the Dayton Literary Peace medal.  https://indianhausa.com/n-scott-momaday-obituary-pulitzer-prize-winning-storyteller-poet-educator-died-unexpectedly-at-89/   

In 2024, veepstakes refers to a choice for possible running mate for U.S.Vice-President.  A blend word of the words "veep" and "sweepstakes", the neologism has been found in print as far back as 1952.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veepstakes   

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people.  A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough. - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (30 Jan 1882-1945)  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg  

Chita Rivera, the sultry singer, dancer and actress who commanded the Broadway stage for more than a half-century, died.  She was 91.  Rivera died January 30, 2024.  Known for her long, sleek legs, smoldering green eyes and lusty singing voice, the two-time Tony Award winner originated some of musical theater’s most iconic characters.  When West Side Story bowed in 1957, it was Rivera singing about life in America as the fiery Puerto Rican transplant Anita.  As Rose Grant, the long-suffering girlfriend of songwriter Albert Peterson, Rivera received top billing over Dick Van Dyke in 1960’s Bye Bye Birdie.  In 1975, she made the stage sizzle with “All That Jazz” as Velma Kelly in Chicago.  And the 1993 musical adaptation of Kiss of the Spider Woman put her in the spotlight as the sexy Spider Woman.  While she was in West Side Story, the incredibly limber Rivera noticed that she had developed a welt on her forehead, not realizing at first that she had been inadvertently kicking herself during a leaping move, she told Playbill in 2007.  In fact, Rivera could touch the back of her head with her foot going forward.  “When she let those limbs loose she was a one-woman showstopper, and every choreographer wanted her,” West Side Story producer Harold Prince said.  “There is nobody who can dance, sing and act like Chita Rivera.”  Chris Koesluk  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-news/chita-rivera-dead-showstopping-legend-broadway-musicals-1235810582/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2777  January 31, 2024 

Calrose is a medium grain rice variety, notable for being the founding variety of the California rice industry.  Calrose (USDA # C.I. 8988) originated from and was developed at the Rice Experiment Station near Biggs, California, and released to California growers in 1948.  It grew in popularity with growers, marketers, and consumers to become the prominent rice variety in California until the late 1970s.  Specific processing and cooking properties were associated with Calrose.  Over the years, improved new varieties of Calrose grain cooking and processing characteristics were released.  These medium-sized grains were commingled with Calrose in storage, and later replaced the variety in commercial production, due to their superior performance at many levels.  Although that variety of Calrose is no longer grown, Calrose has become a name recognized both in trade and the marketplace for the California-type, medium-grain rice.  The name "rose" indicates its medium-grain shape ("Blue Rose" is an earlier medium-grain developed in Louisiana), and "Cal" pays homage to California, the state of the grain’s origin and production.  Eighty percent of the California rice crop is Calrose rice.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calrose_rice  

“Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.”― Shirley Conran  https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/183883-life-is-too-short-to-stuff-a-mushroom  

Saint Edward Mission  Founded:  1964  Location:  North Washington Ave & 7th Street, Pulaski VA  https://richmonddiocese.org/parishes/saint-edward-mission/  The Muser’s mother lived in this house until it was burned down by a resident when it became a boarding home.   

Pulaski, Virginia sprang up at the coming of the railroad and was first known as Martin's Tank.  Governor John Floyd lived nearby.  The county seat was moved here from Newbern in 1894.  The town, like the county, was named for Count Casimir Pulaski, killed in the siege of Savannah, 1779.  It was incorporated in 1886.  Zinc and iron were early industries.  https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=23914   

10 Sour Cream Substitutes That Work Just Like the Real Thing  https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a34211993/sour-cream-substitute/  See also https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/sour-cream-substitutes  

Collectively, whales, dolphins and porpoises are known as cetaceans.  Cetacean species are divided into two groups.

(1)  Baleen whales – these are the “great whales” and as their name suggests they all have baleen plates that are used to filter their food (which consists of plankton and small species of fish).  

(2)  Toothed whales (otherwise known as odontocetes and including all species of dolphin and porpoise) – which as you would expect, have teeth, and eat larger prey items, including at times, other marine mammals.  The main differences with porpoises are that they are usually smaller than other toothed whales and instead of cone-shaped teeth they have flat, spade-shaped teeth.  As a general rule of thumb, baleen whales are larger and slower (except the fin whale which is known as the “greyhound of the sea”) than toothed whales.   Additionally, ALL baleen whales have two blowholes whereas toothed whales only have one.  

Differences between a dolphin and a porpoise  The biggest difference is size, with all species of porpoise being that much smaller than their dolphin cousins.  Porpoises don't have the pronounced beak that most, but not all dolphins have and they also have different shaped teeth.  Porpoise teeth are spade-shaped whilst dolphins are conical.  A dolphin has a hooked or curved dorsal fin (except for those species that don't have a dorsal fin) whereas a porpoise has a more triangular dorsal fin, and generally speaking, dolphin bodies are leaner, although porpoises’ are a little more chunky.  Dolphins are also more "talkative" than porpoises.  The whistles made by dolphins are produced through their blowholes and although porpoises do not do this, possibly due to structural differences in the porpoise’s blowhole, they can still be pretty noisy as they "puff" the air out when they surface.  Dolphins and porpoises also have many similarities, one of which is their extreme intelligence.  As research evolves, it is likely that more (or perhaps fewer) differences between dolphins and porpoises will be revealed.  https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphins/what-are-the-differences-between-whales-dolphins-and-porpoises/  

beauty sleep noun (countable and uncountable, plural beauty sleeps) (idiomatic)  (uncountable) Originally, sleep taken before midnight, on the belief that early sleep hours conduce to beauty and health; now (chiefly humorous), sleep at any time needed by one to stay beautiful; (countable) an instance of such sleep. [from early 19th c.] quotations ▼  (uncountable, chiefly humorous) Extra sleep; also (generally), any sleep; (countable) an instance of this; an extra nap. synonym ▲quotations ▼  Synonym:  beauty rest  The Walt Disney animated musical film Sleeping Beauty premiered on January 29, in the United States 65 years ago in 1959.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beauty_sleep#English  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2776  January 29, 2024 

Hot Tub Time Machine is a 2010 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Steve Pink and starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Crispin Glover, Lizzy Caplan, and Chevy Chase.  The film was released on March 26, 2010.  It follows four men who travel back in time to 1986 via a hot tub, and must find a way to return to 2010.  A sequel, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, was released on February 20, 2015.  Find plot and cast at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Tub_Time_Machine  

If you have observed water sloshing back and forth in a swimming pool, bathtub, or cup of water, you may have witnessed a small-scale seiche (pronounced saysh). On a much grander scale, the same phenomenon occurs in large bodies of water such as bays and lakes.  A seiche may occur in any semi- or fully-enclosed body of water.  Seiches are typically caused when strong winds and rapid changes in atmospheric pressure push water from one end of a body of water to the other. When the wind stops, the water rebounds to the other side of the enclosed area. The water then continues to oscillate back and forth for hours or even days.  In a similar fashion, earthquakes, tsunamis, or severe storm fronts may also cause seiches along ocean shelves and ocean harbors.  Lake Erie is known for seiches, especially when strong winds blow from southwest to northeast.  In 1844, a 22-foot seiche breached a 14-foot-high sea wall killing 78 people and damming the ice to the extent that Niagara Falls temporarily stopped flowing.  As recently as 2008, strong winds created waves 12 to 16 feet high in Lake Erie, leading to flooding near Buffalo, New York.  Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, is also known to routinely form small seiches after the passage of afternoon squall lines during summer months.  https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/seiche.html  

Carl Andre (1935–January 24, 2024) was an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary artist and third wife, Ana Mendieta.  His sculptures range from large public artworks (such as Stone Field Sculpture, 1977 in Hartford, Connecticut, and Lament for the Children, 1976 in Long Island City, New York), to large interior works exhibited on the floor (such as 144 Magnesium Square, 1969, to small intimate works (such as Satier: Zinc on Steel, 1989, and 7 Alnico Pole, 2011).   Andre married earth-body artist Ana Mendieta.  In 1985, she fell from their apartment window and died after an argument with him.  Police officials guarding the crime scene allowed Andre's lawyer to enter where it is suspected that he removed critical evidence prior to investigation.  He was acquitted of a second-degree murder charge in a 1988 bench trial, and supporters of Mendieta have protested at his subsequent exhibitions.  Andre died in Manhattan on January 24, 2024, at the age of 88.  Andre was born on September 16, 1935, in Quincy, Massachusetts.  He completed primary and secondary schooling in the Quincy public school system and studied art at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, from 1951 to 1953.  While at Phillips Academy, he became friends with Hollis Frampton, who would later influence Andre's radical approach to sculpture through their conversations about art and through introductions to other artists.  Andre served in the U.S. Army in North Carolina from 1955 to 1956, and moved to New York City in 1956. While in New York, Frampton introduced Andre to Constantin Brâncuși, through whom Andre became re-acquainted with a former classmate from Phillips Academy, Frank Stella, in 1958.  Andre shared studio space with Stella from 1958 through 1960.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Andre  

January 25 is  Burns night, which is held in celebration of the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns (born 265 years ago on 25 January 1759), and usually involves Scottish foods and recitals of his poetry.  Wiktionary 

“Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.”  https://www.panmacmillan.com/blogs/literary/robert-burns-poems-scottish-auld-lang-syne  

See 1:03 video of Wolf Moon, the First Full Moon of 2024 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utb2U0Vzdp8  

http://librariansmuse://blogspot.com  Issue 2775  January 26, 2024

 

A weak person fears a lack of control.  And they fear that they themselves will be controlled, since they are weak and don’t have the power to prevent such a situation.  The solution to a weak person’s sense of powerlessness may be to exercise false power in the form of picking on the vulnerable or showing cruelty.  Abigail Martin  https://www.quora.com/Rudeness-is-a-weak-person%E2%80%99s-imitation-of-strength-Do-you-agree-with-this-Why-or-why-not 

Smörgåsbord directly translates to “sandwich-table”) is a buffet-style meal of Swedish origin.  It is served with various hot and cold dishes.  Smörgåsbord became internationally known at the 1939 New York World's Fair when it was offered at the Swedish Pavilion "Three Crowns Restaurant".  It is typically a celebratory meal and guests can help themselves from a range of dishes laid out for their choice.  In a restaurant the term refers to a buffet-style table laid out with many small dishes from which, for a fixed amount of money, one is allowed to choose as many as one wishes.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sm%C3%B6rg%C3%A5sbord  Thank you, Muse reader.   

What is a pied-à-terre?   From the French for “foot on the ground,” the term pied-à-terre traditionally refers to a small, serviceable apartment, generally located in a large city, that’s quite a distance from the user’s primary residence. Today, however, the romantic appellation is also sometimes used to refer to a second home or a vacation home.  The name is derived from the full phrase, mettre pied à terre, which means to dismount.  When the French cavalry dismounted their steeds at day’s end, they were housed in temporary lodging, and by the 1700s, the French had shortened it to pied-à-terre and used it to refer to real estate.  The classic pied-à-terre is used temporarily for part of the year or the workweek, typically by a well-to-do person.  In New York, for example, homeowners in upscale areas like the Hamptons and Westchester—or another area not far from the city—will often keep a pied-à-terre in Manhattan for convenience.  Indeed, so many nonresidents have a pied-à-terre in New York that the city has long contemplated enacting an annual tax on them to make up for the lost revenue from state and local income taxes.  Condos and co-ops don’t always welcome pied-à-terre residents because they are frequently absent, not invested in what’s happening in the building and might be tempted to rent out the space to third parties when they are not there.  It’s particularly difficult for international buyers to purchase such units because the condo and co-op boards often require them to disclose U.S. tax returns.  https://www.mansionglobal.com/library/pied-a-terre  

On August 5th, Jon Mann was walking on the Manhattan Bridge on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, when he was accosted by a deranged homeless man and beaten.  He was taken to Bellevue Hospital, receiving treatment and surgery. Discharged, he was staying with friends at Shelter Island when he experienced difficulty breathing, collapsed and died.  Jonathan (1961-2023) was born in San Francisco.  He graduated from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, studying business ethics.  He lived and worked in Manhattan. He loved it there, rarely venturing outside of its confines.  A loyal client, he kept many Chinese take-out joints afloat.  He relished all the amenities that New York had to offer.  He looked down at people who merely existed and had no ambition to accomplish things.  Being constructive was a badge of honor for him.  He worked at The Rail Splitter, as publisher and co-founder.  He also produced two short documentary films and two short feature documentary films one of which, “Oratorio”, was broadcast on PBS.  He managed to persuade Martin Scorsese to appear in the film and give permission to incorporate clips from some of his films . . .  no small task!  He also was involved with the exhibit of the Dr. John Lattimer Collection at the Metropolitan Book Center, the exhibit at the dedication of the refurbished Grant’s Tomb, the “Lincoln in New York” bicentennial exhibit at Federal Hall and the publication of “That’s the Ticket!  A Century of American Political Ballots.”  None of these projects were profitable in the monetary sense.  The secret of how much money he lost goes with him to the grave.  But that was not the point nor a concern.  Jonathan managed to assemble the finest collection of 1860-1864 campaign ribbons in the country.  He also had an extensive collection of campaign songsters, Lincoln-era photographs and primary source material (letters written by the average person describing political events and issues of the time).  https://railsplitter.com/rail-splinters/in-memoriam-jonathan-h-mann-1962-2023/  

This version of tomato pudding is fluffy, yet dense, punctuating jammy, stick-to-your-teeth sweetness with little bits of blackened bread cubes. Nothing short of candied love apples.  Loosely defined, tomato pudding--along with scalloped tomatoes or stewed tomatoes--makes a meal of bread and canned tomatoes.  References to tomato pudding begin around the early 1820s, said Andrew F. Smith, author of "The Tomato in America" and editor-in-chief of "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America."  Tomato pudding's star rose alongside that of the tomato, which became popular in the 1840s.  Jennifer Day  Find recipe serving six at https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-11-22-0911200260-story.html  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2774  January 24, 2024 

William Bartram was the son of John Bartram, a naturalist, and Ann Mendenhall. His paternal grandfather was one of the earliest settlers along the Cape Fear River in North Carolina.  Traveling with his father on various collecting trips in rural Pennsylvania and New York, Bartram's interest in nature was cultivated from a young age.  Sketching the plants and animals he observed during their travels, young William exhibited notable artistic ability.  In his later journeys, Bartram continued to represent visually the native flora, wildlife, and peoples he encountered.  Whereas his father had been largely self-educated, William was grounded in the classics, history, Latin, and French at the Philadelphia Academy (a precursor of the University of Pennsylvania), where he attended school until 1756. That same year, following his withdrawal from school, Bartram was apprenticed to a Philadelphia merchant but showed little business acumen.  Nevertheless, he moved to North Carolina in 1761 in order to run a trading post on the Cape Fear River that was backed by his uncle, Colonel William Bartram.  This was the first in a series of failed business ventures.  In 1765, Bartram accompanied his father, Royal Botanist to King George III, on an expedition to the St. John's River in Florida and was the illustrator for his father's published journal.  https://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/bartram.html    

Ed refused to take any interest in our very likely prospect of being bombed—and we live right under glass sky-lights and a roof that leaks whenever it rains,” wrote Edward Hopper’s wife, Josephine, in the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Hopper was busy, perhaps avoidantly so, at work on a new canvas, soon to be named Nighthawks.  Hopper’s scenes of city and country life—houses and gas stations, trains and movie theaters, bedrooms, and offices—present the realities of everyday America infused with a voyeuristic, psychological complexity.  During a period where abstraction grew increasingly dominant, Hopper explored the creative potential of the Realist tradition.  Certainly Hopper’s most iconic painting, arguably his masterpiece, Nighthawks is one of the most well-known works of the 20th century—a classic scene out of the “American Imagination,” to borrow from the title of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 1995 Hopper retrospective. The piece was acquired shortly after its completion by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains today.  See picture at https://news.artnet.com/art-world-archives/edward-hopper-nighthawks-facts-2414407    

The Seven Wise Men of Ancient Greece, or the Seven Sages as they are also commonly known, reflect one of the most brilliant aspects of the ancient Greek spirit.  They were namely, Thales of Miletus, Chilon of Sparta, Solon of Athens, Pittacus of Mytilene, Bias of Priene, Cleoboulos of Rhodes and Periander of Corinth.  https://www.celebrategreece.com/the-seven-sages-of-ancient-greece    

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) wrote a book called Principia Mathematica which he called “notion about motion.”  Painter Rosa Bonheuer (1811-1899) was made a member of the Legion of Honor by Empress Eugénie de Montijo of France.  Bonheure’s Horse Fair hangs in the Metropolitan of Museum of Art.  General George W. Goethals (1858-1928) led a force of 29,000 thorough mountains and jungles to build the Panama Canal.  Minute Biographies by Samuel Nisenson and Alfred Parker, 1931. 

January 18, 2024  More than a half a million beds sold at retailers like Walmart and Wayfair are under recall because they can break during use, which has resulted in dozens of injuries.  The recall impacts several different models and sizes of upholstered low profile standard and platform beds from Home Design, Inc.  The Silver Lake, Indiana-based furniture wholesaler says it has received 128 reports of these beds “breaking, sagging or collapsing" when used, including 36 unspecified injuries to date.  Both Home Design and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are urging consumers with the now-recalled beds to stop using them immediately and contact the company for free replacement slats and side rails.  Consumers can identify if their bed is being recalled checking the list of impacted models and corresponding part number, which can be found on both the CPSC's Thursday recall notice and on Home Design's website.  To receive the free repair kit, you'll need to email Home Design photos of the bed or proof of purchase as well as the headboard's “law label."  The recalled beds, which were manufactured in Malaysia, were sold at Wayfair, Walmart.com and Overstock.com between July 2018 and November 2023.  Prices ranged from $100 to $300.  The recall impacts more than 527,000 Home Design beds in the U.S. and nearly 56,000 in Canada.  https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/580000-beds-recall-break-collapse-106492215    

Machiavellianism  (mak-ee-uh-VEL-ee-uh-niz-uhm)  noun  The use of unscrupulous means, cunning, and deceit in pursuit of power, especially in politics. After Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), Florentine statesman and author of The Prince, a political treatise describing the use of craft and deceit to achieve political power.  Earliest documented use:  1607.  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg    

poetic justice (uncountable)  noun  (narratology) Synonym of poetical justice (“the idea that in a literary work such as a poem, virtue should be rewarded and vice punished”) quotations ▼  (by extension, generally)  The fact of someone experiencing what they deserve for their actions, especially when this happens in an ironic manner. synonym ▲quotations ▼  Synonym:  (generally) poetical justice  The British Romantic poet Lord Byron was born on January 22, 1788, and died 200 years ago on 19 April 1824.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/poetic_justice#English    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2773  January 22, 2024 

The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper on the East Side of Manhattan in New York City, at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan.  At 1,046 ft (319 m), it is the tallest brick building in the world with a steel framework, and it was the world's tallest building for 11 months after its completion in 1930.  As of 2019, the Chrysler is the 12th-tallest building in the city, tied with The New York Times Building.  Originally a project of real estate developer and former New York State Senator William H. Reynolds, the building was constructed by Walter Chrysler, the head of the Chrysler Corporation.  The construction of the Chrysler Building, an early skyscraper, was characterized by a competition with 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building to become the world's tallest building.  The Chrysler Building was designed and funded by Walter Chrysler personally as a real estate investment for his children, but it was not intended as the Chrysler Corporation's headquarters.   An annex was completed in 1952, and the building was sold by the Chrysler family the next year, with numerous subsequent owners.  In 2007, it was ranked ninth on the America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.  The facade and interior became New York City designated landmarks in 1978, and the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.  The Chrysler Building is renowned for, and recognized by its terraced crown, which is an extension of the main tower.  Composed of seven radiating terraced arches, Van Alen's design of the crown is a cruciform groin vault of seven concentric members with transitioning setbacks.  The entire crown is clad with Nirosta steel, ribbed and riveted in a radiating sunburst pattern with many triangular vaulted windows, reminiscent of the spokes of a wheel.  The windows are repeated, in smaller form, on the terraced crown's seven narrow setbacks.  Due to the curved shape of the dome, the Nirosta sheets had to be measured on site, so most of the work was carried out in workshops on the building's 67th and 75th floors.  According to Robinson, the terraced crown "continue[s] the wedding-cake layering of the building itself.  The crown and spire are illuminated by a combination of fluorescent lights framing the crown's distinctive triangular windows and colored floodlights that face toward the building, allowing it to be lit in a variety of schemes for special occasions.  The V-shaped fluorescent "tube lighting"--hundreds of 480V 40W bulbs framing 120 window openings--was added in 1981, although it had been part of the original design.  In the mid-1920s, New York's metropolitan area surpassed London's as the world's most populous metropolitan area and its population exceeded ten million by the early 1930s.  The era was characterized by profound social and technological changes.  Consumer goods such as radio, cinema, and the automobile became widespread.  In 1927, Walter Chrysler's automotive company, the Chrysler Corporation, became the third-largest car manufacturer in the United States, behind Ford and General Motors.  The following year, Chrysler was named Time magazine's "Person of the Year".  The 1916 Zoning Resolution restricted the height that street-side exterior walls of New York City buildings could rise before needing to be setback from the street.  This led to the construction of Art Deco structures in New York City with significant setbacks, large volumes, and striking silhouettes that were often elaborately decorated.  Art Deco buildings were constructed for only a short period of time; but because that period was during the city's late-1920s real estate boom, the numerous skyscrapers built in the Art Deco style predominated in the city skyline, giving it the romantic quality seen in films and plays.  The Chrysler Building project was shaped by these circumstances.  Originally, the Chrysler Building was to be the Reynolds Building, a project of real estate developer and former New York state senator William H. Reynolds.  Prior to his involvement in planning the building, Reynolds was best known for developing Coney Island's Dreamland amusement park.  When the amusement park was destroyed by a fire in 1911, Reynolds turned his attention to Manhattan real estate, where he set out to build the tallest building in the world.  In 1921, Reynolds rented a large plot of land at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 42nd Street with the intention of building a tall building on the site.  Reynolds did not develop the property for several years, prompting the Cooper Union to try to increase the assessed value of the property in 1924.  The move, which would force Reynolds to pay more rent, was unusual because property owners usually sought to decrease their property assessments and pay fewer taxes.  Reynolds hired the architect William Van Alen to design a forty-story building there in 1927.   Van Alen's original design featured many Modernist stylistic elements, with glazed, curved windows at the corners.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_Building

From Hugh Jackman:  One of the most famous novels ever written and a triumph of narrative art, Les Misérables speaks deeply to us both despite its daunting length.  Victor Hugo’s complete works inhabit forty-one inches of my bookshelves. In those poems, plays, novels, essays, speeches, letters, and graphic art, he aimed to create beauty but, more importantly, to prompt people to act through love and conscience to build a better world.  In his epic Les Misérables, Hugo asks big questions about social justice and the daily decisions that define character.  But he doesn’t just leave us with questions.  He helps us think them through alongside his iconic characters.  Quite simply, Victor Hugo lived an extraordinary life, a life of broad experience, compassion, and conscience.  “Live and learn” might have been Hugo’s motto, as he evolved from a royalist into a liberal, moved forward after shattering family losses, and grew in spiritual understanding.  His work encourages us to recognize the significance of our experiences and build on them, as he did.  Despite many obstacles and setbacks—and despite his oh-so-human personal shortcomings—Hugo never considered giving up his tenacious fights for democratic ideals and social justice, for women’s rights and children’s education, for a united Europe and world peace.  He spoke out because he cared.  Practically the last words he wrote were “To love is to act” (”Aimer, c’est agir”).  https://www.marvabarnett.com/introduction-to-love-is-to-act-the-beginning/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2772  January 19, 2024