Twister, much like the hula hoop, was one of the many toy fad phenomena that came about in the second half of the 20th century.  Microsoft Encarta labeled Twister as being an "industry phenomenon" that "captures the public's imagination, and sells in the millions".  Being one of the earliest toy fads and a "national craze for a short time", Twister was able to bring all age groups together, whether children or adults.  There are publicly available instructions on how to alter a Twister game to make it accessible to color-blind individuals and to completely blind individuals.  Blindfolded Twister is an accessible variant where there are four different tactile symbols on the mat, and the players are blindfolded and have to find a circle with the named symbol by feeling.  Twister is a game of physical skill produced by Milton Bradley Company and Winning Moves Games USA.  It is played on a large plastic mat that is spread on the floor or ground.  The mat has four rows of six large colored circles on it with a different color in each row:  red, yellow, green and blue.  A spinner tells players where they have to place their hand or foot.  The game promotes itself as "the game that ties you up in knots".  A spinner is attached to a square board and is used to determine where the player has to put their hand or foot.  The spinner is divided into four labeled sections:  left foot, right foot, left hand, and right hand. Each of those four sections are divided into the four colors (red, yellow, green, and blue).  After spinning, the combination is called (for example:  "right hand yellow") and players must move their matching hand or foot to a circle of the correct color.  In a two-player game, no two people can have a hand or foot on the same circle; the rules are different for more players.  Owing to the scarcity of colored circles, players will often be required to put themselves in unlikely or precarious positions, eventually causing someone to fall.  A person is eliminated when they fall or when their elbow or knee touches the mat.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(game)#Accessibility   

If you’ve never found a book you’ve liked, there’s a good chance that you’ve not tried that many books and World Book Night is here to prove to both children and adults that there are plenty of opportunities to get lost in a good book.  Every year, the occasion is coordinated by the Reading Agency, a national charity that aims to help people become confident and enthusiastic readers.  World Book Night celebrates both reading and books every year on April 23rd, when books are distributed throughout the UK to specifically, but not exclusively, reach those who don’t often get the opportunity to read--hospitals, prisons, homeless shelters and care homes are a particular focus.  Those who love a good book are asked to give out their own books to similarly affected people in their own communities or the wider UK.  Now, World Book Night is celebrated in the USA as well as the UK and Ireland, with almost 50,000 people giving away a million books across the three different countries.  https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-book-night-2024/   

The American songwriter Albert Von Tilzer, who composed the music to the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908)—the unofficial anthem of North American baseball—was born March 29, 1878. (The lyricist of the song, Jack Norworth, died 65 years ago on September 1, 1959.)   

Vernor Steffen Vinge (1944–March 20, 2024) was an American science fiction author and professor.  He taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University.  He was the first wide-scale popularizer of the technological singularity concept and among the first authors to present a fictional "cyberspace".  He won the Hugo Award for his novels A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbows End (2006), and novellas Fast Times at Fairmont High (2001) and The Cookie Monster (2004).  Vinge published his first short story, "Apartness", in the June 1965 issue of the British magazine New Worlds.  His second, "Bookworm, Run!", was in the March 1966 issue of Analog Science Fiction.  The story explores the theme of artificially augmented intelligence by connecting the brain directly to computerised data sources.  He became a moderately prolific contributor to SF magazines in the 1960s and early 1970s.  In 1969, he expanded the story "Grimm's Story" (Orbit 4, 1968) into his first novel, Grimm's World.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernor_Vinge   

Kindness is always fashionable, and always welcome. - Amelia Barr, novelist (29 Mar 1831-1919)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2795  March  29, 2024 

 

The Ohio buckeye is a neatly rounded tree with low, sweeping branches and dense foliage that provides deep shade.  It is one of the first trees to leaf out in the spring. Its name comes from the ‘buckeyes,’ a small, dark brown nut with a light patch resembling the eye of a deer, which grows inside a rounded prickly fruit capsule.  See pictures at https://mortonarb.org/plant-and-protect/trees-and-plants/ohio-buckeye/   

Buckeyes are peanut butter fudge balls dipped in chocolate.  Unlike classic peanut butter balls, a circle of peanut butter is left visible.  The finished product resembles the nut that grows on the Ohio buckeye tree.  See simple recipe at https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/9909/buckeyes-i/   

Dec 15, 2023   Luna Luna, heralded as “the world’s first art amusement park” and believed lost since 1987, has been revived in Los Angeles.  The park’s artist-designed rides and installations, long forgotten in 44 shipping containers in Texas, are brought together in a grand, interactive exhibition titled “Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy,” located in a 60,000-square-foot warehouse on the Eastside of Los Angeles.  It offers a rare opportunity for visitors to experience amusement park rides envisioned by 15 internationally celebrated artists, including Sonia Delaunay, Salvador Dalí, and Keith Haring.  See also https://www.designboom.com/art/luna-luna-world-first-amusement-park-haring-basquiat-la-12-04-2023/   

Latest reading lists by notable people:  https://radicalreads.com/  Thank you, Muse reader!   

Kumquats or cumquats in Australian English, are a group of small, angiosperm, fruit-bearing trees in the family Rutaceae.  Their taxonomy is disputed.  They were previously classified as forming the now-historical genus Fortunella or placed within Citrus, sensu lato.  Different classifications have alternatively assigned them to anywhere from a single species, Citrus japonica, to numerous species representing each cultivar.  Recent genomic analysis defines three pure species, Citrus hindsii, C. margarita and C. crassifolia, with C. × japonica being a hybrid of the last two.  The edible fruit closely resembles the orange (Citrus sinensis) in color, texture, and anatomy, but is much smaller, being approximately the size of a large olive.  The kumquat is a fairly cold-hardy citrus.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumquat   

April will feature one of the most hotly anticipated events of 2024—April 8's total solar eclipse.  The month also includes the Lyrid meteor shower, which will peak between April 21 and 22.  Right after that, April's full moon, known as the Pink Moon, will reach peak illumination on April 23.  May's full moon, the Flower Moon, reaches peak illumination on May 23.   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-to-see-penumbral-lunar-eclipse-march-full-worm-moon/   

American artist Richard Serra, whose monumental abstract sculptures transformed museums, public spaces and even entire landscapes, died aged 85 at his home in New York on March 26, 2024.  Across his six-decade career, Serra established himself as one of the most celebrated artists in postwar America.  Serra started attracting high-profile public commissions.  Among the best known was the 120-foot-long “Tilted Arc,” installed at New York’s Federal Plaza in 1981 before being dismantled eight years later following complaints (and a public hearing) over its impact on public space.  Critics disliked the fact that pedestrians had to circumvent the sculpture in order to cross the plaza.  But this epitomized Serra’s approach to art:  His work was intended to engage, not be admired from afar.  Working primarily with steel—often twisted into evocative shapes and oxidized to achieve a distinctive deep orange palette—Serra was known for large-scale sculptures designed not only to be observed but to be explored, experienced and felt. His site-specific creations, whether carved into a grassy field or permanently installed in the Guggenheim Museum’s outpost in Bilbao, also invited viewers to engage with their surroundings in new ways.  See pictures at  https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/26/style/richard-serra-sculptor-death/index.html    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2794  March 27, 2024

The heart has two sides, separated by an inner wall called the septum.  The right side of the heart pumps blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen.  The left side of the heart receives the oxygen-rich blood from the lungs and pumps it to the body.  The heart has four chambers and four valves and is connected to various blood vessels. Veins are blood vessels that carry blood from the body to the heart.  Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to the body.  See illustrations at https://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/CVC/ACSBook/Chapter1.pdf   See also https://www.wikihow.com/Give-Yourself-a-Foot-Massage   

It's best to give while your hand is still warm. - Philip Roth, novelist (19 Mar 1933-2018)    

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers. - Robert Quillen, journalist and cartoonist (25 Mar 1887-1948)

Moussaka is an eggplant- or potato-based dish, often including ground meat, which is common in the Balkans and the Middle East, with many local and regional variations.  Most versions are based primarily on sautéed aubergine (eggplant) and tomato, usually with minced meat, mostly lamb.  The Greek version includes layers of meat and eggplant topped with a béchamel ("white") sauce and baked.  The modern Greek version was created by the French-trained Greek chef Nikolaos Tselementes in the 1920s.  His recipe has three layers that are separately cooked before being combined for the final baking: a bottom layer of sliced eggplant sautéed in olive oil; a middle layer of ground lamb lightly cooked with chopped or puréed tomatoes, onion, garlic, and spices (cinnamon, allspice and black pepper); and a top layer of béchamel sauce or savoury custard.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moussaka   

Shenanigans are secret or dishonest activities that are typically complicated, humorous or interesting.  Shenanigans may refer to:

• Shenanigans (game show), a 1964–65 children's television game show
• Shenanigans (EP), a 1995 EP by the American punk rock band Squirtgun
• Shenanigans (album), a 2002 compilation album by Green Day
• Shenanigans (horse), an American thoroughbred mare
• Practical joke, a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort
• Shenanigan Kids, a 1920 animated series by Bray Productions
• Shamrocks & Shenanigans, 2004 album by the hip hop trio House of Pain and a song on the album

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shenanigans   

By the time Richard T. James filed his utility patent the USPTO had irrefutable proof that the Slinky was novel, unique and commercially viable.  The Slinky^® was successfully patented around 1947–two years after end of World War II.   It has a timeless mechanical quality much like the later invention of the Rubik’s Cube^®.  Both toys are inherently “evergreen” when it comes to long-term commercial value.  https://thepatentprofessor.com/the-slinky-an-iconic-american-invention-with-timeless-patenting-lessons/    

Laurent de Brunhoff, the French artist who nurtured his father’s creation, a beloved, very Gallic and very civilized elephant named Babar, for nearly seven decades—sending him, among other places, into a haunted castle, to New York City and into outer space—died on March 22, 2024 at his home in Key West, Fla.  He was 98.  Penelope Green  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/22/books/laurent-de-brunhoff-dead.html   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2793  March 25, 2024  

Mason bee is a name now commonly used for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae.  Mason bees are named for their habit of using mud or other "masonry" products in constructing their nests, which are made in naturally occurring gaps such as between cracks in stones or other small dark cavities. When available, some species preferentially use hollow stems or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects.  Species of the genus include the orchard mason bee O. lignaria, the blueberry bee O. ribifloris, the hornfaced bee O. cornifrons, and the red mason bee O. bicornis.  The former two are native to the Americas, the third to eastern Asia, and the latter to the European continent, although O. lignaria and O. cornifrons have been moved from their native ranges for commercial purposes. Over 300 species are found across the Northern Hemisphere.  Most occur in temperate habitats within the Palearctic and Nearctic realms, and are active from spring through late summer.  Osmia species are frequently metallic green or blue, although many are blackish and at least one rust-red.  Most have black ventral scopae which are difficult to notice unless laden with pollen.  Historically, the term mason bee has also been used to refer to bees from a number of other genera under Megachilidae such as Chalicodoma, most notably in "The Mason-Bees" by Jean-Henri Fabre and his translator Alexander Teixeira de Mattos in 1914.  Solitary bees produce neither honey nor beeswax.  They are immune from acarine and Varroa mites, but have their own unique parasites, pests, and diseases.  The nesting habits of many Osmia species lend themselves to easy cultivation, and a number of Osmia species are commercially propagated in different parts of the world to improve pollination in fruit and nut production. Mason bees used for orchard and other agricultural applications are all readily attracted to nesting holes--reeds, paper tubes, nesting trays, or drilled blocks of wood; in their dormant season, they can be transported as intact nests (tubes, blocks, etc.) or as loose cocoons.  As is characteristic of solitary bees, Osmia species are very docile and rarely sting when handled (only under distress such as when wet or squeezed); their sting is small and not painful, and their stinger is unbarbed.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_bee    

Literary Hub  March 17-23, 2024  On March 20, 1990, Stephen Carrie Blumberg was arrested at his home in Ottumwa, Iowa, and charged with stealing over 23,600 rare books and manuscripts, mostly Americana, from at least 268 libraries and museums around North America.  At the time of his sentencing, the collection, which included first editions of Uncle Tom's Cabin and Leaves of Grass, was valued at $5.3 million (equivalent to about $12.5M in 2024).  The FBI had to hire a 40-foot tractor to haul all 19 tons of it to Omaha.  It was the product of over two decades of thievery.  Blumberg had been diagnosed with a schizophrenic personality disorder at the age of 15, and during the trial, the defense’s psychiatrist testified that Blumberg believed the government “was trying to prevent the ordinary man from having access to seeing these rare works of beauty.  He would somehow liberate and preserve them and thwart this government plot.”  (This was, according to Nicholas A. Basbanes, who interviewed Blumberg for his 1995 book A Gentle Madness, the first time bibliomania had been used in a court of law as part of a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.)  “I figured I was the mere custodian of those books,” Blumberg told Philip Weiss, who profiled him for Harper’s Magazine in 1994.  “I would keep them, share them, pass them on to somebody else . . . Who really has the right to possess knowledge?”  Blumberg stole books, Weiss wrote, like a “cat burglar.”  “He would avoid alarm systems, or set them off a couple of times and observe the security response.  He'd squirmed through ventilation ducts and the eight-inch gap between the top of a caged enclosure and the ceiling.  At some libraries he had shimmied up the cable of the book dumbwaiter to get from open areas to restricted ones.”  He used fake IDs to pose as faculty.  He knew how to take apart a lock.  He was a master of his craft, such as it was—until the FBI caught up with him.  Blumberg was convicted in July 1991 on four counts of possessing and transporting stolen property.  He served 4 and a half years before being released (and promptly returning to burglary).  But you've got to give him credit—he is currently listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific book thief of all time.  

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Nov. 15, 2023 released a new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), updating this valuable tool for gardeners and researchers for the first time since 2012.  USDA’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location.  The new map—jointly developed by USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Oregon State University's (OSU) PRISM Climate Group—is more accurate and contains greater detail than prior versions.  It is available online at https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/.  In addition to the map updates, the Plant Hardiness Zone Map website was expanded in 2023 to include a “Tips for Growers” section, which provides information about USDA ARS research programs of interest to gardeners and others who grow and breed plants.  The 2023 map is based on 30-year averages of the lowest annual winter temperatures at specific locations, is divided into 10-degree Fahrenheit zones and further divided into 5-degree Fahrenheit half-zones.  Like the 2012 map, the 2023 web version offers a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based interactive format and is specifically designed to be user-friendly.  Notably, the 2023 map delivers to users several new, significant features and advances.  The 2023 map incorporates data from 13,412 weather stations compared to the 7,983 that were used for the 2012 map.  https://www.ars.usda.gov/news-events/news/research-news/2023/usda-unveils-updated-plant-hardiness-zone-map/   

http://librariansmuseblogspot.com  Issue 2792  March 22, 2024

 

Caldo Verde, meaning “green broth” in Portuguese, is a traditional soup in Portugal made with potatoes, kale or collard greens, smoked sausage and olive oil. This delicious Caldo Verde recipe is simple to prepare and made in just one pot.  https://pinchandswirl.com/caldo-verde/

Prepare cake pans using baking spray--or rub butter, a teaspoon of flour and tap the pan to make it stick. 

Ozark Pudding  Takes 50 minutes  Serves 8  Find recipe at https://www.food.com/recipe/ozark-pudding-from-bon-appetite-484441   

"1984" is an American television commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer.  It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas, and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott.  The ad was an allusion to George Orwell's noted 1949 novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother". English athlete Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother.  In the US, it first aired in 10 local outlets, including Twin Falls, Idaho, where Chiat/Day ran the ad on December 31, 1983, at the last possible break before midnight on KMVT, so that the advertisement qualified for the 1984 Clio Awards.  Its second televised airing, and only US national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII by CBS.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(advertisement)    

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives. - Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (14 Mar 1879-1955)

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you. - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, US Supreme Court justice (15 Mar 1933-2020)

 

Literary Hub  March 17 2024

Henry Fielding (mock) tries UK Poet Laureate Colley Cibber in the press for the crime of murdering the English language (March 17, 1740) • Honoré de Balzac shoots himself in the foot with a harebrained publicity scheme (March 19, 1842) •  Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the first book in the United States to be banned on a national scale, is published, selling 3,000 copies on its first day in print (March 20, 1852) •  Halldor Laxness’s Atómstöðin (The Atom Station) sells out of all copies on its release day, for the first time in Icelandic history (March 21, 1948) •  The expression “O.K.” appears in print for the first time, in the Boston Morning Post (March 23, 1839)   

A childhood prodigy who studied under Vladimir Horowitz, Byron Janis emerged in the late 1940s as one of the most celebrated virtuosos of a new generation of talented American pianists.  In 1960, he was selected as the first musician to tour the then-Soviet Union as part of a cultural exchange program organized by the U.S. State Department.  His recitals of Chopin and Mozart awed Russian audiences and were described by the New York Times as helping to break “the musical iron curtain.”  Seven years later, while visiting a friend in France, Janis discovered a pair of long-lost Chopin scores in a trunk of old clothing.  He performed the waltzes frequently over the ensuing years, eventually releasing a widely hailed compilation featuring those performances.  Janis remained active in his later years, composing scores for television shows and musicals, while putting out a series of unreleased live performances.  Janis died March 14, 2024.  JAKE OFFENHARTZ  https://apnews.com/article/byron-janis-dies-classical-pianist-54ff513441a51ca970dbb80118873d29   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2791  March 18, 2024 

Allulose is a naturally occurring sugar found in figs, raisins, wheat, maples syrup, and molasses.  It’s sweet like table sugar (sucrose) but without some of sugar’s well-documented downsides.  You can find allulose for sale online and in some retail stores.  Because it occurs naturally in very small amounts, the allulose you find packaged for sale isn’t its natural form.  It has been created artificially by food scientists from fructose (fruit sugar).  Find pros and cons at https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-is-allulose  

Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–c. 54 BCE) was a Latin poet and a leading figure of the Neoterics.  Catullus and his poetry, comprising 113 poems, have been the subjects of many books and papers in classical studies and other fields, including literary criticism, gender studies, and cultural studies; there are many critical editions, commentaries, translations and student guides of his poetry as well.  Even in 1890, Max Bonnet wrote that Catullus was "inundated" with academic publications concerning his life and works.  In the early 1970s, Kenneth Quinn wrote, "Scarcely an issue appears of any of the major classical periodicals without at least one article on Catullus; new translations come out almost yearly". More than two thousand publications about Catullus appeared between 1959 and 2003.  Denis Feeney has described Catullus 68 alone as having "legions of critics", producing a "labyrinth" of literature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bibliographies_of_works_on_Catullus  

If you can’t laugh at yourself . . . make fun of someone else.   *  Do you know what they call a lazy kangaroo—a pouch potato  *   His mother, a former pro wrestler and rugby star, could bench-press a Buick  *  I never get tired of being right   *  Key Lardo by Bruce Hale   See also https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/174704.Bruce_Hale   

Reader Feedback: 

Your use of "President" is ambiguous, which makes your list incomplete.   You only reference "Presidents" under the U.S. Constitution that went into effect in 1788/89.  Prior to that there were "Presidents" of the Confederation Congress.  See:  https://mytpl.org/project/americas-secret-the-presidents-before-george-washington/  One such notable President was Richard Henry Lee, President of the Confederation Congress (November 30, 1784 – November 4, 1785.)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Henry_Lee  His family being a member of the "First Families of Virginia," he was related to many significant government servants.   (And at least one insurrectionist!)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_family  Richard's son-in-law was:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lee_(Attorney_General)   Among others, the future President Zachary Taylor would be his third cousin--which means he is also related to Biden!!!   Thank you, Muse reader!  P.S.   I am also guessing that your list only covers "legitimate" children of Presidents . . .  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/08/13/warren-harding-and-the-5-other-presidents-who-have-faced-love-child-questions/  Among others, I am wondering if anyone has ever researched all of Sally Hemings descendants for politicians?  See https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/  

ASHTABULA COUNTY, Ohio — An animal that hasn't been seen in Ohio in nearly 200 years is back.  The fisher is a member of the weasel family, and it has been spotted recently in Ashtabula County.  "They've got very long tails, so they can be from two feet long to four feet long but about half of that length is their tail.  As far as weight, they're about the size of a house cat, so they're not as big as they sound when I say two to four feet long," said Katie Dennison, Wildlife Biologist with the Ohio Division of Wildlife.  The animal is a predator who hunts small mammals like mice and squirrels.  It can pose a threat to small dogs, cats, chickens and even some livestock.  "There is also some potential for conflict with livestock.  Fisher tend to want to stay away from areas where people are anyway, so we don't expect that to be a big problem but just making sure your livestock is closed up at night can be a good way to prevent any sort of conflicts with wildlife," said Katie Dennison.   With only 40 confirmed sightings by the Ohio Division of Wildlife since 2013, fishers are known to stay away from people. Tessa DiTirro  See picture at https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/a-once-extinct-animal-is-back-in-northeast-ohio   

Don't ask me who's influenced me.  A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life. -  Giorgos Seferis, writer, diplomat, Nobel laureate (13 Mar 1900-1971)  

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2790  March 13, 2024 

Several U.S. presidential families produced multiple generations of members who devoted at least part of their working lives to public service.

The Adams family:  John Adams, second U.S. president (1797–1801); his son, John Quincy Adams, sixth U.S. president (1825–29).

The Harrison family:  Benjamin Harrison V, governor of Virginia (1781–84) and a signer of the Declaration of Independence; his son, William Henry Harrison, ninth U.S. president (1841).; William's son, John Scott Harrison, member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio (1853–57); John Scott's son, Benjamin Harrison, 23rd U.S. president (1889–1893) (the only grandson of a president to become president). 

The Lincoln family:  Abraham Lincoln, postmaster of New Salem, Illinois (1833), Illinois state House of Representatives (1834–42), U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois (1847–49), 16th U.S. president (1861–65); his cousin-in-law, John Todd Stuart, U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois (1839–43, 1863–65), Illinois state Senate (1848–52). 

The Taft family:  Alphonso Taft, U.S. secretary of War (1876) and U.S. attorney general (1876–77); his sons, Charles Phelps Taft, U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio (1895–97), and William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. president (1909–13) and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice (1921–30). 

The Roosevelt family: 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09) and 32nd U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933–45), fifth cousins by blood (their great-great-great-grandfathers were brothers) and uncle-in-law and nephew-in-law by marriage.

The Kennedy family:  Patrick Joseph Kennedy, Massachusetts state legislator (1884–95); his son, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., chair of the U.S. Maritime Commission (1934–35) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (1937–38), and U.S. ambassador to Great Britain (1938–40. Joseph and Rose Kennedy's children included John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president (1961–63), U.S. House of Representatives (1947–53) and U.S. Senate (1953–61) from Massachusetts–). 

The Bush family:  Prescott Bush, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (1952–63); his son, George H. W. Bush, 41st U.S. president (1989–93), U.S. vice president (1981–89), director of Central Intelligence Agency (1976–77), U.S. ambassador to the United Nations (1971–73), U.S. House of Representatives from Texas (1967–71); George H.W.'s sons, George W. Bush, 43rd U.S. president (2001–09) and governor of Texas (1995–2000. 

The Biden family: Joe Biden, 46th U.S. president (2021–), 47th U.S. vice president (2009–17), U.S. senator from Delaware (1973–2009); his son, Beau Biden, state attorney general of Delaware (2007–15).  President Biden's great-grandfather, Edward Francis Blewitt, served as a Pennsylvania state senator (1907–10).  Two other presidents were related by blood:  James Madison and Zachary Taylor were second cousins.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_family   

The Magdalena River (Spanish: Río Magdalena, less commonly Rio Grande de la Magdalena) is the main river of Colombia, flowing northward about 1,528 kilometres (949 mi) through the western half of the country.  It takes its name from the biblical figure Mary Magdalene.  It is navigable through much of its lower reaches, in spite of the shifting sand bars at the mouth of its delta, as far as Honda, at the downstream base of its rapids.  It flows through the Magdalena River Valley.  Its drainage basin covers a surface of 273,000 square kilometres (105,000 sq mi), which is 24% of the country's area and where 66% of its population lives.  Much of the film Love in the Time of Cholera takes place in the historic, walled city of Cartagena in Colombia. Some screenshots showed the Magdalena River and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range.  The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel García Márquez, is a fictionalized account of the final voyage of Simón Bolívar down the Magdalena River, where he revisits many cities and villages along the river.  In Magdalena: River of Dreams (Knopf, 2020), Canadian writer, anthropologist, and explorer Wade Davis travels the length of the river by boat, on foot, by car, and on horseback combining descriptions of nature with episodes from Colombian history.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magdalena_River    

Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi).  Pi Day is observed on March 14 (the 3rd month) since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant figures of π.  It was founded in 1988 by Larry Shaw, an employee of the San Francisco science museum, the Exploratorium.  Celebrations often involve eating pie or holding pi recitation competitions.  In 2009, the United States House of Representatives supported the designation of Pi Day.  UNESCO's 40th General Conference designated Pi Day as the International Day of Mathematics in November 2019.  Other dates when people celebrate pi include July 22 (22/7 in the day/month format, an approximation of π) and June 28 (6.28, an approximation of 2π or tau).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_Day   

Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (8 Mar 1841-1935)   

Sweden became NATO’s newest member on Thursday (7 March 2024), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the Government of the United States in Washington DC. With Sweden’s accession, NATO now counts 32 countries among its members.  Sweden’s flag will be raised alongside those of the other 31 Allies in a ceremony at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday (11 March 2024), and simultaneously at NATO commands across Europe and North America.  https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_52044.htm    

The 96th Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 delivered an award telecast with Ryan Gosling’s contributions closed with the handing the coveted best-picture prize to “Oppenheimer,” one of seven statuettes amassed by director Christopher Nolan’s historical epic.  Brian Lowry  Link to winners at https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/10/entertainment/review-oscars-hits-misses-performances/index.html   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2789  March 11, 2024