According to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, there are 35,000 small museums in the U.S.  In perspective, that’s 10,000 more than all Starbucks and McDonald’s in the USA combined.  Look at the list and you’ll only see 28 because three museums are grouped together since they relate to the same subject.  https://www.neverstoptraveling.com/small-museums    

Fluffernutters—two slices of white bread slathered with peanut-butter and marshmallow goop—were a lunchbox staple for some.  For the elementary school set, it’s a pretty optimal snack, one that fully dispenses with the vague pretense of fruit in a PB&J in favor of a maximum sugar rush.  We know it’s not good per se, but it holds a place of perverse regional pride that only comes from nostalgia.  In 2006, when Massachusetts Senator Jarret Barrios proposed legislation that would forbid schools from serving fluffernutters more than once a week, it caused such a public uproar that Democratic Representative Kathi-Anne Reinstein declared, “I’m going to fight to the death for Fluff.”  It’s not a coincidence that Campbell’s condensed soups started cropping up in recipes for everything from cakes to casseroles in the mid-20th century.  The company distributed recipes claiming that harried housewives could make their lives easier by swapping a canned product for a homemade béchamel sauce.  Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup debuted in 1934 and quickly became the default base for tuna noodle casserole, turkey tetrazzini, and even Mormon-style funeral potatoes.  Minnesota’s tater tot-loaded hot dish also incorporated cream of mushroom base, which earned the soup a nickname:  “the Lutheran binder.”  But the one that really takes the cake is green bean casserole, composed of only six ingredients, three of which are canned Campbell’s products.  In 1955, Dorcas Reilly invented the recipe for a “Green Bean Bake” in the company’s test kitchen and the rest is history.  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/american-food-traditions-that-started-as-marketing-ploys.  Thank you, reader.             

Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed are two terms that developed independently of each other.  Bright-eyed supposedly comes from the late 1500s, while bushy-tailed is said to have hailed from 1865-1870, though no direct source is clear for either of them.  They were seen together for the first time in talking about a squirrel, which did, in fact, have bright eyes and bushy tail.  In St. Clair County, Michigan, Its History and Its People, published in 1912 by William Lee Jenks, we can read about the impossible attempt to capture the following in a painting, . . . o see the wild pigeon, chewink, fox sparrow, bobolink, scarlet tanager, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed squirrel, the graceful motions of water birds . . .  https://writingexplained.org/idiom-dictionary/bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed    

Quincy Jones–who, according to his publicist, “passed away peacefully” November 3, 2024 at age 91–was practically everything, everywhere, all at once, and therefore nearly impossible to pin down.  He was a producer, composer, arranger, instrumentalist, impresario, author, mentor, magazine founder, the celebrity father of celebrity children.  Jones released 16 albums under his own name, 10 of which topped the Billboard jazz charts.  As performer/composer/producer, his “Soul Bossa Nova,” from 1962, with its perky flutes and farting brass, was his best-known song:  Jet Age insouciance distilled.  It would go on to become a key track in the lounge-music revival of the 1990s, inextricably associated with the Austin Powers film franchise, which adopted it as a theme song.  Jones was the arranger on the 1964 recording of Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon,” which, five years later, the Apollo 10 astronaut Eugene Cernan played on a cassette while orbiting the Moon.  https://www.vanityfair.com/style/story/music-impresario-quincy-jones-91-is-dead  

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more . . .    

See the rest of the poem at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/to-autumn

http//librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2873  November 4, 2024

Here are some of the types of flash fiction:

Sudden fiction/Short short stories  The terms sudden fiction and short short stories refer to longer pieces of flash fiction, around 750 to 1,000 words.  However, the definition varies and may include pieces up to 2,000 words, such as in the series that helped popularize the form, Sudden Fiction and New Sudden Fiction.

Postcard fiction  Postcard fiction is just what it sounds like—a story that could fit on a postcard.  It's typically around 250 words, but could be as much as 500 or as few as 25.  An image often accompanies the text to create the feeling of looking at a postcard, with the reader turning it over to read the inscription on the back.

Microfiction/Nanofiction  Microfiction and nanofiction describe the shortest forms of flash fiction, including stories that are 300 words or less. Microfiction includes forms such as drabble, dribble, and six-word stories.

Drabble  Drabble is a story of exactly 100 words (not including the title). Just because the form is short doesn't mean you can skimp on the basics of a good story.  It should have a beginning, middle, and end, and include conflict and resolution.  You can read examples of drabbles at 100WordStory.org.

Dribble/Mini-saga  When writing a drabble isn't challenging enough, you can try your hand at writing a dribble, which is a story told in exactly 50 words.

Six-word stories  Ready to boil down a story and squeeze out its essence?  Try writing a six-word story.  It's not easy, but it's possible to write a complete story with conflict and resolution in six words, according to flash fiction enthusiasts.  Most well-know example of a six-word story, often misattributed to Ernest Hemingway, is, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."  The story evokes deep emotion, causing the reader to ponder the circumstances that brought the character to post the advertisement.  You can read more examples of six-word stories on Narrative Magazine's website (with a free account), which are more carefully selected, or you can browse user-submitted stories on Reddit.  Some authors also write flash nonfiction, composing six-word memoirs.  

https://www.authorlearningcenter.com/writing/fiction/w/identifying-your-genre/7125/short-fiction-forms-novella-novelette-short-story-and-flash-fiction-defined 

“I love libraries.  Libraries and record shops, my second homes, my cathedrals of romance.”  Richard Brautigan

Revenge of the Lawn by Richard Brautigan  First published in 1971, Revenge of the Lawn contains no fewer than 62 ultra-short stories. 

“Music feeds math feeds science feeds painting.”  Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble:  A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo   

"The Raven" is a narrative poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe.  First published in January 1845, the poem is often noted for its musicality, stylized language and supernatural atmosphere.  It tells of a distraught lover who is paid a visit by a mysterious raven that speaks a single word.  Sitting on a bust of Pallas, the raven seems to further antagonize the protagonist with its repetition of the word "Nevermore".  The poem makes use of folk, mythological, religious, and classical references.  Poe stated that he composed the poem in a logical and methodical manner, aiming to craft a piece that would resonate with both critical and popular audiences, as he elaborated in his follow-up essay in 1846, "The Philosophy of Composition.   The poem was inspired in part by a talking raven in Charles Dickens's 1841 novel Barnaby Rudge.   Poe based the complex rhythm and meter on Elizabeth Barrett's poem "Lady Geraldine's Courtship" and made use of internal rhyme as well as alliteration throughout.

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

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2872   November 1, 2024