Synonyms of 'powwow' in British English  verb  

confer 

parley 

discuss 

talk 

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english-thesaurus/powwow   

Synonyms of ‘powwow’ in American English  noun   a large gathering organized by Native Americans for socializing, dancing, singing, and celebrating their culture. *  a council or conference of or with Native Americans.  *  (historically, among North American Indians) a ceremony accompanied by spiritual, religious, and ritual practices, along with dancing, performed for the cure of disease, success in a hunt, etc.  *  (among Native Americans) a priest or shaman.  Informal: often offensive. any conference or meeting.  https://www.dictionary.com/browse/powwow   

The Dewey Arch was a triumphal arch in Madison Square, New York City.  It was erected for a parade on September 30, 1899, in honor of Admiral George Dewey, to celebrate his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines the previous year.  Constructed around two months before the parade, the arch was made of the plaster-based material staff, typically used in temporary buildings.  After the parade, the arch began to deteriorate and it was demolished in 1900 after an attempt to raise money to rebuild it in stone was unsuccessful.  The arch's larger sculptures were sent to Charleston, South Carolina, for an exhibit, after which they were either destroyed or lost.  Wikipedia    

Adjective  grimdark  (fandom slang) Of a film, television programme, video game, written work, etc.: having a gloomy, dystopian atmosphere. antonyms ▲quotations ▼

Antonyms:  hopepunk, noblebright

Noun  grimdark (uncountable)  The first edition of the rulebook for the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000, from which the word is derived, was published September, 1987.    

Kris Kristofferson (died September 28, 2024) frequently topped the U.S. country charts and his songwriting led stars including Janis Joplin, Gladys Knight and Johnny Cash to cover his work.  Over a six-decade career, Kristofferson won three Grammy Awards.  In 2014 he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.  Known for his mastery of gritty and heartfelt lyrics, as well as unusual rhythms and phrasing, Kristofferson penned hits including “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night.”  In 1971, Kristofferson began a side career as an actor and would go on to win a Golden Globe for his 1976 performance in “A Star Is Born” opposite Barbra Streisand.  Wall Street Journal  September 30, 2024   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2859  September 30, 2024

Mervyn Edward Griffin Jr. (1925–2007) was an American television show host and media mogul.  He began his career as a radio and big band singer, later appearing in film and on Broadway.  From 1962 to 1986, Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show.  Griffin also created the game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune through his own production companies, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Merv Griffin Entertainment.  As a child, Griffin used to play Hangman games with his sister during family road trips.  It was these games which inspired him to create the game show Wheel of Fortune in 1975.  Griffin started singing in his church choir as a boy, and by his teens was earning extra money as a church organist.  By 1945, Griffin had earned enough money to form his own record label, Panda Records, which produced Songs by Merv Griffin, the first U.S. album ever recorded on magnetic tape.  In 1947, Griffin had a 15-minute weekday singing program on KFRC in San Francisco.  Griffin became increasingly popular with nightclub audiences, and his fame soared among the general public with his 1950 hit "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts".  The song reached the #1 spot on the Hit Parade and sold three million copies.  The show, originally titled What's the Question, premiered on NBC on March 30, 1964, hosted by Art Fleming, and ran for 11 years.  Griffin wrote the 30-second piece of music heard during the show's Final Jeopardy! Round, which became the iconic melody of the theme for the syndicated version of the show hosted by Alex Trebek in 1984.  Griffin produced the show's successor, Wheel of Fortune, which premiered January 6, 1975, with host Chuck Woolery and hostess Susan Stafford and had high ratings throughout its network run.  From December 1975 to January 1976, it was expanded to an hour, in response to the successful 60-minute version of The Price Is Right on CBS.  The show became a phenomenon when, on September 19, 1983, a nighttime version hit the syndication market with Pat Sajak and Vanna White as host and hostess.  Around that time, Griffin composed the show's best-known theme song, "Changing Keys", which was used in several variants of the show until 2000.  The theme returned to the show in 2021 at the start of season 39.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merv_Griffin  Ryan Seacrest joined the show as host in 2024.    

A hurricane's strength is normally described as being in one of five categories.  These categories have been extracted from the SAFFIR-SIMPSON Hurricane Scale and are listed below along with the wind strengths and potential damage to be experienced.  Find descriptions of the categories at https://cnrse.cnic.navy.mil/Installations/NS-Mayport/About/Hurricane-Information/Terms/Hurricane-Categories/https://cnrse.cnic.navy.mil/Installations/NS-Mayport/About/Hurricane-Information/Terms/Hurricane-Categories/

Maggie Smith (1934-September 27, 2024) was born in Ilford, then a middle-class east London suburb.  Shortly before the start of World War II the family moved to Oxford, where her father worked as a pathologist at Oxford University.  On graduating from high school, Smith attended the Oxford Playhouse School from 1951 to 1953, making her stage debut in an Oxford University Dramatic Society production of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.”  She went on to appear on Broadway in “New Faces of 1956,” and then held the lead comedian role in the London revue “Share My Lettuce,” between 1957 and 1958.  She soon began appearing regularly in plays at The Old Vic Theater in London.  The closest Ms. Smith had come to such visibility was with the Harry Potter movies.  She was Minerva McGonagall, the Hogwarts School’s stern but fearless transfiguration teacher, in seven of the eight films, from “Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone” (2001) to “Harry Potter:  The Deathly Hallows Part 2” (2011).  McGonagall, wearing high-necked Victorian-style gowns, a distinctive Scottish brooch, and upswept hair beneath a tall, black witch’s hat, was a striking onscreen presence.  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/27/arts/maggie-smith-dead.html    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2858  September 27, 2024

 

Hasty pudding is a pudding or porridge of grains cooked in milk or water.  In the United States, it often refers specifically to a version made primarily with ground ("Indian") corn, and it is mentioned in the lyrics of "Yankee Doodle", a traditional American song of the 18th century.  Since at least the 16th century, a dish called hasty pudding has been found in British cuisine.  It is made of wheat flour that has been cooked in boiling milk or water until it reaches the consistency of a thick batter or an oatmeal porridge.  It was a staple dish for the English for centuries.  The earliest known recipes for hasty pudding date to the 17th century.  There are three examples in Robert May's The Accomplisht Cook. The first is made with flour, cream, raisins, currants and butter, the second recipe is for a boiled pudding and the third includes grated bread, eggs and sugar.   Hasty pudding was used by Hannah Glasse as a term for batter or oatmeal porridge in The Art of Cookery (1747).  It is also mentioned in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of 1755 as a combination of either milk and flour or oatmeal and water.  The recipe is also found in The Compleat Housewife where it is made with grated penny loaf, cream, egg yolks, sack (or orange blossom water) and sugar.  https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_pudding   

In 1796, Joel Barlow (1754-1812), American poet and diplomat, wrote his famous poem called “The Hasty Pudding.”  The poem was inspired by his homesickness for New England and his favorite cornmeal mush.

And all my bones were made of Indian corn.
Delicious grain! Whatever form it take.
To toast or boil, to smother or to bake,
In every dish ’tis welcome still to me,
but most, my Hasty Pudding, most in thee.   

Hasty Pudding Club:  In 1795, a society called the Hasty Pudding club was organized by twenty-one Harvard College students.   The club’s purpose was to encourage “friendship and patriotism.”  Its constitution stipulated that every Saturday, two “providers” were to carry a pot of hasty pudding to the meeting.  For the majority of the 19th century, prospective members were forced to ingest large quantities of hasty pudding.   According to Harvard University historians, the club was founded by students who sought relief from the food the college provided by cooking their own hasty puddings in fireplace pots.  With this ritual, the Hasty Pudding Club found it namesake.  Today it is the nation’s oldest theater company.  https://whatscookingamerica.net/history/hastypudding_indianpudding.htm 

morganatic marriage, legally valid marriage between a male member of a sovereign, princely, or noble house and a woman of lesser birth or rank, with the provision that she shall not thereby accede to his rank and that the children of the marriage shall not succeed to their father’s hereditary dignities, fiefs, and entailed property.  The name is derived from the medieval Latin matrimonium ad morganaticum, variously interpreted as meaning “marriage on the morning gift” (from German Morgengabe), with the implication that this morning gift, or dowry, was all that the bride could expect; or “restricted marriage” (Gothic maurjan, “restrain”); or simply “morning marriage,” celebrated quietly at an early hour.  https://www.britannica.com/topic/henogamy   

In The Great Automatic Grammatizator, Roald Dahl, tells a sinister story about the darker side of human nature.  Here, a powerful computer designed to help people starts to supplant them.  This story is taken from the short story collection Someone Like You, which includes seventeen other devious and shocking stories, featuring the wife who serves a dish that baffles the police; a curious machine that reveals the horrifying truth about plants; the man waiting to be bitten by the venomous snake asleep on his stomach; and others.  Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, also wrote scores of short stories for adults.   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20067088-the-great-automatic-grammatizator    

The American Library Association documented 4,240 unique book titles targeted for censorship in 2023—a 65% surge over 2022 numbers—as well as 1,247 demands to censor library books, materials, and resources.  Pressure groups focused on public libraries in addition to targeting school libraries.  The number of titles targeted for censorship at public libraries increased by 92% over the previous year, accounting for about 46% of all book challenges in 2023.  Of the record 4,240 unique titles targeted for censorship, the most challenged and reasons cited for censoring the books are listed at https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2857  September 25, 2024 

 

Vowels and consonants, the dynamic duo of language.  Vowels -- A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y -- are the social butterflies at the party, bringing melody, flow, and rhythm to the conversation.  While we can't get all consonants into a single word without the party getting too wild, we can do that with vowels.  We've picked five words, each of which has all the vowels present.  A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg    

elocutionary (el-uh-KYOO-shuhn-uhr-ee) adjective  Relating to public speaking, especially in clear, expressive, and often emphatic manner.  From Latin eloqui (to speak out), from ex- (out) + loqui (to speak).  Earliest documented use:  1846.    

commensurability   (kuh-men-suh/shuh-ruh-BIH-lih-tee) noun 
1.  The quality of being in proportion or suitable in relation to something else.
2.  The quality of being measurable by a common standard; comparability.  From Latin com- (together) + mensurare (to measure).  Earliest documented use:  1570.   

vituperatory (vy-TOO/TYOO-pruh-tor-ee) adjective  Criticizing bitterly, scathing, abusive.  From Latin vituperare (to blame), from vitium (fault) + parare (to make  or prepare).  Earliest documented use: 1586.   

equivocacy (i-KWIV-uh-kuh-see) noun  The quality of being deliberately ambiguous or vague.  From Latin aequi-/equi- (equal) + vocare (to call), from vox (voice).  Earliest documented use:  1646.    

perfunctionary (puhr-FUNK-shuh-ner-ee) adjective   Done without any interest, care, or effort.  Alteration of perfunctory, from Latin perfunctorius (careless)  Earliest documented use:  1838.   

Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897– disappeared 1937) was an American aviation pioneer and author.  Earhart was the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  She received the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross for this record.  She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots.  Earhart joined the faculty of the Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation.  She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.  During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.  

Courage is the price that Life exacts
for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not
Knows no release from little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter
joy can hear
The sound of wings.

Read rest of the poem at https://www.poemhunter.com/amelia-earhart/    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2856  September 23, 2024 

"Lock, stock, and barrel" is a merism used predominantly in the United Kingdom and North America, meaning "all", "total" or "everything".  It derives from the effective portions of a gun: the lock, the stock, and the barrel.  The term was first recorded in the letters of Sir Walter Scott in 1817, in the line "Like the High-landman's gun, she wants stock, lock, and barrel, to put her into repair.”  It is, however, thought that this term evolved into a popular saying some years before in England.  Politician Mike Pence, Vice President of the United States under Donald Trump, has heavily favored the phrase since at least 2010 when urging for the repeal of Obamacare, and used the phrase extensively during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.  The phrase is also referenced in the title of the British crime film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), as well as in the TV film Lock, Stock and Barrel (1971).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock,_stock,_and_barrel    

In 1957, a recipe for "German's Chocolate Cake" appeared as the "Recipe of the Day" in The Dallas Morning News.  It was created by Mrs. George Clay, a homemaker from Dallas, Texas, and used the "German's Sweet Chocolate" baking chocolate introduced in 1853 by American baker Samuel German for the Baker's Chocolate Company.  A similar recipe by food conservationist Jackie Huffines had previously been featured on television. General Foods, which owned the Baker's brand at the time, took notice and distributed the cake recipe to other newspapers in the country.  Sales of Baker's Chocolate are said to have increased by as much as 73% and the cake would become a national staple.  The possessive form German's was dropped in subsequent publications, forming the "German Chocolate Cake" identity and giving the false impression of a German origin.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_chocolate_cake    

Agnes Bulmer (1775–1836) was an English poet.  Her work Messiah's Kingdom is thought to be the longest epic poem ever written by a woman, and took over nine years to complete, with over 14,000 lines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Bulmer   

Tom Taylor (1817–1880) was an English dramatist, public servant and writer.  After a brief academic career in English literature and language at University College London in the 1840s, Taylor practised law and became a civil servant.  At the same time he became a journalist, most prominently as a contributor to and eventually the editor of the magazine Punch.  He also began a theatre career and is now best known as a playwright.  With up to one hundred plays staged during his career, both original work and adaptations of French plays, Taylor's output covers a range of genres from farce to melodrama.  Most fell into neglect after Taylor's death, but Our American Cousin (1858), which achieved great success in the 19th century, remains famous as the piece that was being performed in the presence of Abraham Lincoln when he was assassinated in 1865.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Taylor 

The tiny N.Y. town where bookstores rule   Nestled in the Northern Catskills, the tiny village of Hobart, New York, is home to around 400 residents, and millions of fascinating characters, all stacked high on shelves.  Hobart is a book village.  Within one brief block of Main Street, there are seven different bookstores.  There's a shop that specializes in mysteries (Quarry Books).  Behind the children's library (The Book Nook), another shop stocks niche travel books (More Good Books).  The village was inspired by Hay-on-Wye, a thriving Welsh book town that's become a world-renowned destination for bibliophiles.  Don Dales thinks there's still room to grow:  "People like a book.  They like to see 'em on the shelves.  They like to see the spine of the book and say, 'Oh, I remember that book, that was a wonderful book!'  And besides, a home without books, that's a boring home . . .  unless it has a cat!"  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-village-hobart-new-york/    

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2855  September 18, 2024

The Bolita bean is an heirloom variety of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) endemic to New Mexico and southern Colorado.  It is a small, round, and sweet bean that is traditional to New Mexican and southwestern cuisine.  The name Bolita bean comes from New Mexican Spanish where they are called frijol bolita, literally "little ball bean", due to their shape and size.   The origins of the common bean have long been a topic of scholarly debate, with Mesoamerica being proposed as a possible origin of domestication.  This notion is, however, clouded by a lack of consensus among experts, who remain divided over whether the common bean arose from single or multiple domestication events.  It has been noted that two distinct gene pools emerged over time, namely the Andean gene pool, which spanned Southern Peru to Northwest Argentina, and the Mesoamerican gene pool, which extended between Mexico and Colombia.  Thank you, reader.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolita_bean   

A randoseru (ランドセル) is a firm-sided backpack made of stitched firm leather or leather-like synthetic material, most commonly used in Japan by elementary schoolchildren.  Traditionally it is given to a child upon beginning their first year of school, whereupon the child uses the same bag until grade 6.  The term is borrowed from the Dutch ransel or German Ranzen meaning "backpack".  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randoseru   

broadbrow (BRAHD-brow)  noun  A person with a broad range of interests.  adjective:  Appealing to people with a broad range of interests.  [Coined by J.B. Priestley (1894-1984), from broad + brow, on the pattern  of highbrow and lowbrow.  Earliest documented use:  1924.  Also see middlebrow.  https://wordsmith.org/words/middlebrow.html    

A ketch is a two-masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post.  The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch from a yawl, which has its mizzen mast stepped aft of its rudder post.  In the 19th and 20th centuries, ketch rigs were often employed on larger yachts and working watercraft, but ketches are also used as smaller working watercraft as short as 15 feet, or as small cruising boats, such as Bill Hanna's Tahiti ketches or L. Francis Herreshoff's Rozinante and H-28.  The name ketch is derived from catch.  The ketch's main mast is usually stepped further forward than the position found on a sloop.  The sail plan of a ketch is similar to that of a yawl, on which the mizzen mast is smaller and set further back.  There are versions of the ketch rig that only have a mainsail and a mizzen, in which case they are referred to as cat ketch.  More commonly ketches have headsails (Jibs).  When a ketch is rigged so that it can fly multiple jibs at the same time, the rig is sometimes referred to as a multi-headsail ketch.  While sometimes seen in print, it is incorrect to refer to this rig by the modern malaprop of a cutter ketch.  In New England in the 1600s, the ketch was a small coastal working watercraft.  In the 1700s, it disappeared from contemporary records, apparently replaced by the schooner.  The ketch rig remained popular in America throughout the 19th and early 20th century working watercraft, with well-known examples being the Chesapeake Bay bugeyes, New Haven sharpies, and the Kingston Lobster boats.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketch    

Goof in the 1941 film Ball of Fire starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck:  A cop on the Washington Bridge checkpoint says that a professor's driving license was issued in 1903.  Driving licenses have existed in the USA only since 1910.   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2854  September 12, 2024

 

Kinokuniya New York

The New York store located in the heart of midtown Manhattan, directly across the street from Bryant Park is the flagship store for Kinokuniya Bookstores of America.  The store opened in 1981 at the Rockefeller Center and then moved to the current location in 2007.  We expanded our collection after we moved to the Bryant park location to include a wide range and a finer selection of books in English to get a wider range of customers such as Locals, Tourists, Anime/Comic fans, people who are interested in Japanese culture, seekers of fine gifts etc.  We have a wide range of English books including literature, Art, Children's books, business books, etc.  Our New York store’s main floor is dedicated to books in English.  We also feature a large stationery section in basement that includes authentic Japanese products.  On the 2nd floor, we have a fine selection of manga in both English and the original Japanese, graphic novels, anime goods and toys as well as a cafe.  The store also periodically hosts signing events by writers, notable artists and creators.  https://usa.kinokuniya.com/stores-kinokuniya-new-york     

Micropolitan  Blend of micro- (prefix meaning ‘very small’) +‎ metropolitan.  

Adjective  micropolitan (not comparable)  (US)  Of or pertaining to a city or twin cities having at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 inhabitants; of a city:  less populated than a metropolitan area but more than a rural one.  coordinate terms 

Noun  micropolitan (plural micropolitans)  (US)  A city or twin cities having at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 inhabitants; a city which is less populated than a metropolitan area but more than a rural one.   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/micropolitan#English    

P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a full-time writer (September 9, 1902.)       

Francis Scott Key, American lawyer and amateur poet, writes a poem called ““The Defence of Fort M'Henry”—which you now know as “The Star-Spangled Banner” (September 14, 1814). 

You can’t think of James Earl Jones without hearing his voice.  That booming basso profundo, conveying instant dignity or menace, was Jones’ signature instrument.  It brought power to all his stage and movie roles, most indelibly as Darth Vader in “Star Wars,” Mufasa in “The Lion King and as the voice of CNN.  That remarkable voice is just one of many things the world will miss about the beloved actor, who died September 9, 2024.  He was 93.  Jones had a distinguished career that spanned some 60 years and took him from a small-town theater in northern Michigan to the highest reaches of Hollywood, where he appeared in dozens of movies and TV series.   In the mid-1970s “Star Wars” creator George Lucas cast towering British actor David Prowse as the guy inside Darth Vader’s black suit, but decided he wanted someone else to voice the character.  “George thought he wanted a – pardon the expression – darker voice,” Jones once told the American Film Institute.  “I lucked out.”  Back then nobody imagined “Star Wars” would become a blockbuster, let alone an enduring franchise and cultural phenomenon.  Jones recorded all his lines in a few hours and was not listed in the film’s credits.  He said he was paid just $7,000 for the movie, “and I thought that was good money.”  Darth Vader’s climactic duel with Luke Skywalker in 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back” became a dramatic high point in the “Star Wars” series – punctuated by Jones’ delivery of one of the most famous lines in movie history: “No, I am your father!”  Jones’ family moved from Mississippi to Michigan when he was 5, a traumatic upheaval that caused him to develop a stutter.  His fear of speaking rendered him almost mute until he got to high school, where a poetry teacher helped him overcome his disability by encouraging him to read his poems aloud.  Jones studied drama at the University of Michigan, served as an Army Ranger and then moved to New York, where he soon landed lead roles in Shakespearean stage productions.  He made his film debut in 1964 as a bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.”  Over his long and prolific career Jones won three Tonys, two Emmys, a Grammy, a Golden Globe and numerous other awards.  https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/entertainment/james-earl-jones-death/index.html   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2853  September 9, 2024