Early naturalists called the Great Horned Owl the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air" because of its ferocity and hunting skills.  This big owl (the second heaviest in North America after the Snowy Owl) is also called the "hoot owl" after its deep, booming call, which sounds like:  “Who's a-wake?  Me too!”  In Native American folklore and Greek myth, owls represent wisdom and helpfulness, and have powers of prophecy.  The “wise old owl” is also a popular motif in children's books and cartoons.  Like the Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl, the Great Horned Owl has a wide distribution, found from the northern boreal forests of Alaska and Canada south through the mountains and deserts of Patagonia—an impressively large portion of the Americas.  This species varies in plumage color and pattern across its broad range, with 15 recognized subspecies.  https://abcbirds.org/bird/great-horned-owl/   

In the mythology of ancient Greece, Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, was so impressed by the great eyes and solemn appearance of the Owl that, having banished the mischievous crow, she honoured the night bird by making him her favourite among feathered creatures.  Athena's bird was a Little Owl, (Athene noctua).  This Owl was protected and inhabited the Acropolis in great numbers.  It was believed that a magical "inner light" gave Owls night vision.  As the symbol of Athena, the Owl was a protector, accompanying Greek armies to war, and providing ornamental inspiration for their daily lives.  If an Owl flew over Greek Soldiers before a battle, they took it as a sign of victory.  The Little Owl also kept a watchful eye on Athenian trade and commerce from the reverse side of their coins.  Among early English folk cures, alcoholism was treated with Owl egg.  The imbiber was prescribed raw eggs and a child given this treatment was thought to gain lifetime protection against drunkenness.  Owls' eggs, cooked until they turned into ashes, were also used as a potion to improve eyesight.  Owl Broth was given to children suffering from Whooping-cough.  Odo of Cheriton, a Kentish preacher the 12th Century has this explanation of why the Owl is nocturnal:  The Owl had stolen the rose, which was a prize awarded for beauty, and the other birds punished it by allowing it to come out only at night.  The Lenape Indians believed that if they dreamt of an Owl it would become their guardian.  The Menominee people believed that day and night were created after a talking contest between a Saw-whet Owl (Totoba) and a rabbit (Wabus).  The rabbit won and selected daylight, but allowed night time as a benefit to the vanquished Owl.  https://www.owlpages.com/owls/articles.php?a=62   

A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century.  Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874 and developed in detail in 1893.  They were patented in Germany in 1895 and in the United States in 1899. After the outstanding success of the Zeppelin design, the word zeppelin came to be commonly used to refer to all forms of rigid airships.  Zeppelins were first flown commercially in 1910 by Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-AG (DELAG), the world's first airline in revenue service.  By mid-1914, DELAG had carried over 10,000 fare-paying passengers on over 1,500 flights.  During World War I, the German military made extensive use of Zeppelins as bombers and as scouts.  Numerous bombing raids on Britain resulted in over 500 deaths.   The defeat of Germany in 1918 temporarily slowed the airship business.  Although DELAG established a scheduled daily service between Berlin, Munich, and Friedrichshafen in 1919, the airships built for that service eventually had to be surrendered under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which also prohibited Germany from building large airships.  An exception was made to allow the construction of one airship for the United States Navy, the order for which saved the company from extinction.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin   

Sugar cream pie (also known as sugar pie or Hoosier pie) is a custard pie made with a simple filling of cream, sugar and cornstarch.  The consensus is that "a true sugar cream pie doesn't include eggs".  The pie has been made in Indiana since the state's founding in 1816.  It is sometimes called a desperation pie because it is one of the easiest pies to make with ingredients that most people already have in their pantries.   Sugar cream pie is unofficially recognized as the state pie of Indiana, where it is believed to have originated with Quaker settlers who came from North Carolina in the early 19th century, and thereafter settled in East Central Indiana, particularly around the cities of New Castle, Portland, Richmond, and Winchester.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_cream_pie   

From sweet prickly pear in the deserts of Arizona to lush maple cream in the forests of Vermont, here's a rundown of the most-popular pie flavors our great Republic has to offer.  https://www.foodnetwork.com/restaurants/photos/50-states-of-pie    

Indian author Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the International Booker Prize for fiction May 20. 2025 for “Heart Lamp,” a collection of 12 short stories written over a period of more than 30 years and which chronicle the everyday lives and struggles of women in southern India.  The award was announced by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter in his role as chair of the five-member voting panel, at a ceremony at London’s Tate Modern.  It is the first time the award has been given to a collection of short stories.  Bhasthi is the first Indian translator—and ninth female translator—to win the prize since it took on its current form in 2016.  Mushtaq is the sixth female author to be awarded the prize since then.  Mushtaq, who is a lawyer and activist as well as writer, told a short list reading event that the stories “are about women--how religion, society and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them, and in doing so, inflict inhumane cruelty upon them, turning them into mere subordinates.”  The 50,000-pound ($66,000) prize money is to be divided equally between author and translator.  Each is presented with a trophy too.  https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/21/style/indian-author-banu-mushtaq-wins-international-booker-prize-intl-hnk 

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2944  May 21, 2025