Broccolini is the result of crossbreeding broccoli and the leafy vegetable Chinese broccoli (via University of Washington).  According to Bon Appetit, the hybridization gave us what we now know as broccolini.  Broccolini features small broccoli-like florets.  The florets, as well as edible leaves, grow from long stems.  These latter features come from broccolini's Chinese broccoli genes.  How did this broccoli-and-gai lan mashup occur?  Scientists working for Japan's Sakata Seed Company created the hybrid in 1993, giving it the brand name "aspabroc" to convey to customers its subtle asparagus-like flavor.  In 1994, Sakata partnered with Sanbon Inc. to grow the seed variety in Mexico, renaming the variety once again, this time calling it "asparation."   In 1996, asparation was introduced to the United States retail market under the more marketable name, broccolini.  How did this broccoli-and-gai lan mashup occur?  Scientists working for Japan's Sakata Seed Company created the hybrid in 1993, giving it the brand name "aspabroc" to convey to customers its subtle asparagus-like flavor.  In 1994, Sakata partnered with Sanbon Inc. to grow the seed variety in Mexico, renaming the variety once again, this time calling it "asparation."  In 1996, asparation was introduced to the United States retail market under the more marketable name, broccolini.  https://www.mashed.com/455067/broccolini-vs-broccoli-whats-the-difference/   

New York minute (plural New York minutes) noun 

Supposedly from the time between a traffic light turning green and the driver behind sounding the horn.  (informal) An instant; an extremely short time. 

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/New_York_minute   

“He's made me realize and accept that gray areas do exist.  I used to see only black and white.”  Friction, a novel by Sandra Brown   

THE LIFE-CHANGING LOAF OF BREAD by Sara Britton

Some of the ingredients: 

o    1 cup / 135g sunflower seeds

o    ½ cup / 90g flax seeds

o    ½ cup / 65g hazelnuts or almonds

o    1 ½ cups / 145g rolled oats

o    2 Tbsp. chia seeds

Find more at:   https://www.mynewroots.org/2013/02/the-life-changing-loaf-of-bread/   

Stephan Joseph Kornacki Jr. (born 1979) an American political journalist, writer, and television presenter.  Kornacki is a national political correspondent for NBC News.  He has written articles for Salon, The New York Observer, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Boston Globe, and The Daily Beast.  Kornacki is the multimedia anchor and data analyst for much of MSNBC's The Place for Politics campaign coverage, which airs during Election Day in the United States since 2016.  He made an appearance on NBC's coverage of the 2021 Kentucky Derby, where he was the only personality to correctly predict Medina Spirit as the apparent winner of the race (although the race win was later given to Mandaloun after a positive drug test by Medina Spirit), and the 2020 Summer Olympics.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kornacki  Kornacki presented a “dinner data” election-year roast on Saturday night at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 28, 2024.    

If you're a bigwig in the world of competitive chess, you are a well-known and respected player.  A government bigwig is a person with a good deal of power and influence, and a corporate bigwig might own an enormous company.  This word dates from the 18th century, when powerful, distinguished men tended to wear large, impressive wigs.  https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/bigwig   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2807  April 29, 2024

 

posh  adjective/noun/verb/interjection 

Most likely derived from Romani posh (“half”), either because posh-kooroona (“half a crown”) (originally a substantial sum of money) was used metaphorically for anything pricey or upper-class, or because posh-houri (“half-penny”) came to refer to money generally.  A period slang dictionary defines "posh" as a term used by thieves for "money : generic, but specifically, a halfpenny or other small coin".  An example is given from James Payn's The Eavesdropper (1888):  "They used such funny terms: 'brads,' and 'dibbs,' and 'mopusses,' and 'posh' . . .  at last it was borne in upon me that they were talking about money."  Evidence exists for a slang sense from the 1890s meaning dandy, which is quite possibly related.  A popular folk etymology holds that the term is an acronym for "port out, starboard home", describing the cooler, north-facing cabins taken by the most aristocratic or rich passengers travelling from Britain to India and back.  However, there is no evidence for this claim. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/posh#Adjective    

Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was one of the most prominent librarians in American history.  She ran the Morgan Library for forty-three years—initially as the private librarian of J. Pierpont Morgan and then his son, Jack, and later as the inaugural director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum).  Not only did Greene build one of the most important collections of rare books and manuscripts in the United States, but she also transformed an exclusive private collection into a major public resource, originating the robust program of exhibitions, lectures, publications, and research services that continues today.  The daughter of Genevieve Ida Fleet Greener (1849–1941) and Richard T. Greener (1844–1922), Belle Greene (named Belle Marion Greener at birth) grew up in a predominantly African American community in Washington, DC.  Her father was the first Black graduate of Harvard College and a prominent educator, diplomat, and racial justice activist.  Her mother came from a distinguished Black family in Washington and worked as a musician and educator.  After Belle’s parents separated during her adolescence, Genevieve changed her surname and that of her children to Greene.  Belle Greene was employed at the Princeton University Library when Junius Spencer Morgan, a nephew of J. Pierpont Morgan and an ardent bibliophile, recommended her to his uncle, whose new library building was nearing completion.  In 1905, Greene began working as an assistant to Junius and ultimately became J. Pierpont Morgan’s private librarian, with her own assistant, Ada Thurston—managing, documenting, and building Morgan's collection of rare books and manuscripts, organizing public exhibitions at outside venues, and establishing relationships with dealers and scholars.  After Morgan’s death in 1913, Greene continued as private librarian to his son, J.P. Morgan Jr., who established the Pierpont Morgan Library as a public institution in 1924.  Greene was named its first director and served in that capacity until her retirement in 1948, two years before her death.  https://www.themorgan.org/belle-greene   

Citrus unshiu is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as the satsuma mandarin or Japanese mandarin.  During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikans were more popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu without seeds made people prone to infertility.  Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period.  It was introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in 1878.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_unshiu    

To exalt is to raise in rank, to glorify, or to increase the effect or intensity of.  In all its definitions, exalt is transitive, meaning it takes a direct object.  The word’s past participle, exalted, is often used to mean elevated in rank or lofty. 

To exult is to rejoice greatly or to be jubilant or triumphant.  The most common derivative of exult is the adjective exultant, which means marked by great joy or jubilation.  https://grammarist.com/usage/exalt-exult/ 

Robert Goddard is widely known as “the father of the space age.”  When he was a boy, he dreamed of going to the moon.  When he grew up, he was one of the first scientists to explore the potential of rocket power.  On March 16, 1926, in Auburn, Massachusetts, he launched the first rocket propelled by liquid fuel in the world.  https://www.worcesterhistory.org/worcesters-history/worcesters-own/worcester-and-the-national-space-program/    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2806  April 26, 2024

 The pearl onion (also known as button, baby or silverskin onion in the UK) is a close relative of the leek and may be distinguished from common onions by having only a single storage leaf, similar to cloves of garlic.  Pearl onions are cultivated mostly in Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, usually in home gardens, although formerly on a commercial scale.  They are mostly used for pickling.  The majority of onions grown for pickling are common onions.  They are grown to a small size suitable for pickling by planting at a high density.  Known small white varieties include Crystal Wax, or White Bermuda.   Pearl onions are ready to harvest from seed in 90 days.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_onion    

Celia Lovsky (born Cäcilia Josefina Lvovsky, 1897–1979) was an Austrian-American actress.  She was born in Vienna, daughter of Břetislav Lvovsky (1857–1910), a minor Czech opera composer.  She studied theater, dance, and languages at the Austrian Royal Academy of Arts and Music.  She is particularly well-known for two of her television appearances:  the Twilight Zone episode "Queen of the Nile" (1964), in which she played the elderly daughter of a never-aging actress (played by Ann Blyth); and she was the High Priestess T'Pau, the Vulcan diplomat, judge, and philosopher who presides at Mr. Spock's wedding in the Star Trek episode "Amok Time" (1967).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Lovsky   

A Tom Swifty is a play on words taking the form of a quotation ascribed to Tom and followed by an adverb.  Here's a good example:  "The thermostat is set too high," said Tom heatedly.  The term was coined by Willard Espy (1911–99), one of the masters of word play, who compiled two wonderful collections of poems, essays, quizzes, and other writings about language:  An Almanac of Words at Play (1975) and Another Almanac of Words at Play (1980).  https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/tom-swifties-puns-that-turn-adverbs-into-punchlines   

Willard Richardson Espy (1910–1999) was an American editor, philologist, writer, poet, and local historian.  Raised in the seaside village of Oysterville, Washington, Espy later studied at the University of Redlands in California before becoming an editor in New York City, as well as a contributor to Reader's Digest, The New Yorker, Punch, and other publications.  In the 1960s, he began publishing books on philology as well collections of poetry collections, and became the best-known collector of and commentator on word play of his time.  In 1977, he published the national bestseller Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa's Village, a semi-autobiographical novel about his familial heritage in the Oysterville community.  Espy died at New York Hospital in Manhattan in 1999, and was interred at Oysterville Cemetery.  He and his siblings were raised in the coastal village of Oysterville, Washington, which had been founded in 1854 by his grandfather, R. H. Espy, a settler who arrived in Oregon Territory via The Oregon Trail.  Espy graduated from the University of Redlands in 1930 with a B.A. after which he spent a year abroad, enrolling at the Sorbonne in Paris, planning to study philosophy.  He returned to the United States in 1932, working as a newspaper editor in California, later moving to New York City where he was eventually hired by Reader's Digest in 1941.  Espy spent next sixteen years working for Reader's Digest in various positions, including as promotion director.   Espy's writing career took off in the late 1960s; he eventually authored fifteen books on language, and his poetry and articles regularly appeared in Punch, Reader's Digest, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, and Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_R._Espy    

slings and arrows  (plural only) (idiomatic)  noun

Hardships or adverse circumstances. [from late 16th – early 17th c.] 

Synonyms:  misfortunes, setbacks

Harsh criticism or personal attacks.  

Synonyms:  barbs, broadsides 

Coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (baptized 1564; died 1616) in his play Hamlet (written 1599–1601; first published 1604 in the second quarto), referring to fortune attacking a person, as if using slingshots and arrows.  April 23, is traditionally celebrated as the birthdate of the English playwright William Shakespeare who was born in 1564.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2805  April 24, 2024

Trader Joe's is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw wine, popularly known as "Two Buck Chuck" because of its original $1.99 price tag in California (local prices vary).  Of the wine selection at Trader Joe's, Coulombe has said, "We built Trader Joe's on wine first, then food.  Trader Joe's is an American chain of grocery stores headquartered in Monrovia, California.  The chain has 571 stores across the United States.  The first Trader Joe's store was opened in 1967 by founder Joe Coulombe in Pasadena, California.  The chain was sold to Aldi founder Theo Albrecht in 1979, who owned it until his death in 2010, when ownership passed to his heirs.  Trader Joe's is named after its founder, Joe Coulombe.  The company began in 1958 as a Greater Los Angeles area chain known as Pronto Market convenience stores.  Coulombe felt the original Pronto Markets were too similar to 7-Eleven, which he described as the "800-pound gorilla of convenience stores", and was concerned that the competition would be too heavy.  Coulombe developed the idea of the Trader Joe's South Seas motif while on vacation in the Caribbean.  The Tiki culture craze was still widespread in the United States in the 1960s, so in a direct nod to the fad, the Trader Joe's name itself was a spoof on Trader Vic's, the famous tiki-themed restaurant that had opened its first southern California location in the Beverly Hilton in 1955.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe%27s 

Standard bed sizes are based on standard mattress sizes, which vary from country to country.  Bed sizes also vary according to the size and degree of ornamentation of the bed frame.  Dimensions and names vary considerably around the world, with most countries having their own standards and terminology.  In addition, two mattresses with the same nominal size may have slightly different dimensions, due to manufacturing tolerances, amount of padding, and support type.  Mattress sizes may differ from bedding sizes.  Naming standards on different bed sizes and their corresponding actual measurements can vary across national standards.  Examples of such nomenclature are names like "Single", "Double", "Queen" or "King" size. Sometimes the naming standards are further divided by adding adjectives such as "Narrow", "Wide", "Extra Wide", "Long", "Extra Long" and so on, which also can vary across national standards.  Because of the growth of international trade and the above potential cause of confusion, bed sizes are becoming more standardized. In most countries, using the International System of Units, bed dimensions most often appear in centimeters, and often only by width and length.  In the United States, Canada and other regions influenced by the former British Empire, dimensions are often in inches.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_size   

The full moon in April is known as the "pink" moon, named after the herb moss pink, also known as creeping phlox, moss phlox or mountain phlox.  This is a plant native to the eastern USA that is one of the earliest widespread flowers of spring.  NASA said other names for this moon include the sprouting grass moon, the egg moon, and—among coastal tribes of North America—the fish moon, because this was when the shad swam upstream to spawn.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/20/april-2024-full-moon-rises-tuesday-and-is-called-the-pink-moon/73387548007/    

Earth Day April 22, 2024  Today, solar, wind and battery power are dramatically less expensive than they were even 10 years ago.  In 2023, electricity from wind and solar was significantly less expensive than from coal, nuclear and natural gas.  The unsubsidized cost of wind power has dropped 66% since 2009, while the cost of unsubsidized solar has fallen 84%, according to an analysis by Lazard, a financial advisory firm that publishes annual estimates of the total cost of producing electricity.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/04/22/earth-day-2024-celebrate-climate-change-optimism/72863462007/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2804  April 22, 2024 

Wacky Wednesday is a children’s book for young readers, written by Dr. Seuss as Theo LeSieg and illustrated by George Booth.  It has forty-eight pages, and is based around a world of progressively wackier occurrences, where kids can point out that there is a picture frame upside down, a palm tree growing in the toilet, an earthworm chasing a bird, an airplane flying backward, a tiger chauffeur, and a traffic light showing that stop is green and go is red, as some examples.  The main character, an unnamed child who serves as the narrator, wakes up to find a shoe on the wall then looks up to find another one on the ceiling as well.  With each new page, the number of "wacky" things grows, as the child goes through a morning routine and makes it to George Washington School, trying to alert others to the wacky occurrences.  The classmates ignore these warnings, and the teacher, Miss Bass, thinks this is disrupting the class and throws the child out (implying that no one else can see these things).  As the world gets progressively crazier, the child runs around trying to escape it or find help, and eventually runs into Patrolman McGann, who declares that Wacky Wednesday will end as soon as every last wacky thing has been counted--the final page having 20 in total.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Wednesday_(book)    

The highly anticipated special 'The 100th:  Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden–The Greatest Arena Run of All Time' abruptly ended during "Piano Man"   Near the end of the highly-anticipated special The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden – The Greatest Arena Run of All Time on April 15, 2024, the network abruptly cut away to local news as Billy Joel was singing the final chorus of his iconic song "Piano Man."  As for why the special was cut short, the answer is simple:  the concert had a late start time.  CBS aired the 2024 Masters Tournament earlier in the evening, and when it ran over, it pushed the start of Joel's concert back by 30 minutes.  This in turn led CBS to cut away to local news as the broadcast spilled over into the 11:00 EST time slot.  There is some good news:  CBS has apologized for the snafu and will be airing The 100th: Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden in full on April 19th at 9 p.m. ET/PT.  https://people.com/billy-joel-concert-special-cut-short-due-to-masters-local-news-cbs-apologizes-8633587    

Comic strip humor:  “Welcome to Introverts Anonymous”  (Chairs are set up, but none are occupied.)   https://www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2024/04/16   

Every year since 2000, the Library of Congress has picked 25 recordings as "audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time."   Many of the selections are among pop culture's best-known artifacts, including Gene Autry's perennial post-war Christmas classic, 1949's "Rudolph, the Red-Nose Reindeer"— not to mention ABBA's 1976 album Arrival, featuring such catalog staples as "Dancing Queen" and "Money, Money, Money."  Hip-hop's legacy is marked by a 1985 classic by Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick, "La-Di-Da-Di"—a track that went on to be one of the most sampled and referenced sound recordings of all time—and The Notorious B.I.G.'s debut studio album, Ready to Die, from 1994.  Other inductees include Bill Withers' enduring 1971 single "Ain't No Sunshine"; pop-punk princes Green Day and their 1994 album Dookie; jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan's benchmark 1964 album The Sidewinder; and a trio of recordings from 1978—Blondie's era-defining album Parallel Lines, The Cars' self-titled debut album, and a classic of New York salsa, the Rubén Blades-written and Willie Colón-produced song "El Cantante," performed by Héctor Lavoe.  While in past years, the Library of Congress' annual selections have included speeches, news broadcasts, and other spoken audio recordings of documentary value, this year's picks are almost entirely music, with one notable exception:  comedian Lily Tomlin's 1971 album This Is a Recording, which won her a Grammy Award for best comedy recording and hit No. 15 on the Billboard 200 album chart—a record for a female comedian.  Find a list of 25 recordings selected April 16, 2024 for the 2024 National Recording Registry, listed in chronological order at:  https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244804661/abba-green-day-national-recording-registry?ft=nprml&f=1106

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages. - Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (17 Apr 1885-1962)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2803  April 17, 2024 

“Nama means bow; as means I; and te means you,” says yoga teacher Aadil Palkhivala.  “Therefore, namaste literally means ‘bow me you’ or ‘I bow to you.’”  The gesture associated with namaste is called Anjali Mudra—pronounced UHN-jah-lee MOO-dra.  Anjali evolved from the Sanskrit word “anj,” which means to honor or celebrate.  To perform the Anjali Mudra—a physical expression of namaste—press the hands together, fingers touching and pointed up, with the thumbs at the breastbone.  Close your eyes and bow your head or bend at the waist.  Alternately, Palkhivala says, “It can also be done by placing the hands together in front of the third eye, bowing the head, and then bringing the hands down to the heart.”  The gesture doesn’t have to be directed toward another being.  You can express namaste to yourself and use the gesture as a form of personal meditation.  American English speakers tend to attribute a shorter “a” sound to the vowels and put the emphasis on the last syllable: nah-mah-STAY.  But the term is more correctly pronounced nuh-MUH-stheh, according to Rina Deshpande.  When you see those two a’s, train your brain to pronounce them with a short “u” sound.  See pictures at https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/beginners/the-meaning-of-namaste/ 

Everybody loves progress but nobody likes change.  Found in my fortune cookie April 9, 2024   

On its own jackfruit doesn’t at all taste like meat.  Canned unripe jackfruit tastes a lot like artichokes, though its texture is more stringy.  Much like tofu, canned jackfruit actually takes on the flavor of whatever you season it with.  This makes it incredibly versatile and a great vegan meat alternative.  What about fresh, ripe jackfruit?  It’s much sweeter and tastes more like a mild mango.  It’s great in desserts, ice cream, and smoothies.  As the largest tree-born fruit in the world, mature jackfruit are estimated to weigh up to 90 pounds.  Some of the jackfruit pieces will have the firm core attached and that won’t shred; feel free to just leave it as is or give it a quick chop with your kitchen knife.  The core is perfectly edible, and you won’t even notice it once it’s cooked with your other ingredients.  As for how to tell when it’s done cooking, you can actually just eat jackfruit raw out of the can if you’d like, so you won't need to "cook" it.  You can cook up jackfruit with Asian spices or sauces and add them as part of a stir-fry.  Jackfruit also makes a nice addition to a quick weeknight curry.  We’ve added it to fried rice at home, and also folded it into slow cooker chili and stew.  In the spring and summer, it’s great cooked with your favorite sauce or seasoning, and works well when added to salads, grain bowls or used as a filling for simple wraps.  Megan Gordon  https://www.simplyrecipes.com/what_is_jackfruit/ 

 

Artist Faith Ringgold, whose seven-decade career encompassed bestselling children’s books, incisive activism, and work in an astonishing array of mediums, and culminated with the kind of mass international acclaim that was long denied to Black visual artists and women artists like her, died on April 13, 2024 at her home in Englewood, New Jersey.  She was 93.  Just one aspect of Ringgold’s remarkable life would have been enough to secure her place in history, but it was her action-packed, richly detailed painted quilts for which she was best known.  Her most famous was Tar Beach (1988), which tells the story of an 8-year-old girl, Cassie Louise Lightfoot, who flies from the roof of her Manhattan apartment building into the night sky.  In 1991, it was adapted into a children’s book that has become a staple of elementary school classrooms in the United States.  https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/faith-ringgold-artist-dead-1234702902/    

If it wasn’t a primarily literary event at the time, it surely has become one in retrospect; hundreds of books, both fiction and non-, have now been written about the disaster.  But there were also some literal literary casualties among the 1,500 odd victims.  One of them was 37-year-old mystery writer Jacques Futrelle, who created Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, “one of the great rivals of Sherlock Holmes,” a character that possibly inspired both G.K. Chesterton and Agatha Christie. Futrelle drowned, along with William Thomas Stead, one of the fathers of investigative journalism (and, ahem, tabloids), who was once considered “the most famous journalist in the British Empire.”  Also lost in the disaster was high-octane bibliophile and collector Harry Elkins Widener, who had been in London on a “buying spree.”  He sent most of his books back home to the US separately (on the RMS Carpathia, the ship that would finally arrive to rescue the Titanic survivors) but boarded the doomed ship with a miniature first edition of Francis Bacon’s Essaies (1598) in his pocket—along, somewhat ironically, with a last minute purchase of a 1542 pamphlet entitled Heavy News of a Horrible Earthquake which was in the city of Scarbaria in this present year.  Another tragic casualty was a jewel-encrusted copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, which had just been auctioned off at Sotheby’s to an American buyer for £405 (the equivalent of about £58,000 today)—who would, alas, never receive it.  Like the bibliophiles and writers aboard, it was lost to the Atlantic, and never found.  Literary Hub  April 14. 2024    

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (15 Apr 1452-1519)   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2802  April 15, 2024